One product, and 30 days to send it back

Tessa Larkin · Writer, pet wellbeing and pet gear

Tessa lives with a Labrador and two cats on the Texas Gulf Coast, one of the hottest and most humid corners of the country in summer. For several seasons she has been testing, in real conditions, what actually helps animals through the heat and what only looks like it does.

What happens if it does not work

It is the question that actually matters when you buy from a small store, so we put it before everything else: money back within 30 days, with free return postage. No shipping to pay up front, no percentage withheld, no form to chase.

Thirty days is not a number picked at random. On this product the verdict does not arrive on the first afternoon: some dogs get on it straight away, others take a week to adopt a new spot. In the United States there is no statutory window at all, so the one a seller offers is the whole of it. Ours is long enough for something to actually happen.

And before you send it back, write to us. Very often it is simply the wrong place in the house: on a thick rug it does less than on tile, because the heat has to be able to leave downward too.

What is written down before you pay

The composition, before you buy. We read it off the label of an actual unit: 75% polyamide, 25% polyester on top, 100% cotton as the filling, 100% polyester underneath. It is on every product page, not in small print at the bottom. Not "polyester" as a word: the percentages, because the same word covers fabrics that behave completely differently.

A measurement with the starting figure attached. 89 °F on the bare floor, 78 °F on the mat, same room, infrared thermometer. Listings often say "3 to 4 degrees cooler" without saying what the reading was taken against, and without that reference a number of degrees is not information.

Numbers that were measured, with their reference point. A cooling figure given against "the surrounding area" can mean the floor, the air, or nothing in particular. Ours was measured against the bare floor in the same room, and both readings are printed. What no passive mat can do, ours included, is go below the temperature of the room: that would take a power supply, and there is none.

Quality, in concrete terms. Three layers of fabric stitched together: ice silk on top, cotton inside, breathable mesh underneath. Nothing to recharge, nothing to put in the freezer, nothing that can puncture or leak. For a deep clean it goes in the machine on a cold gentle cycle, and day to day a damp cloth is enough.

Two things you will not find on this site

That the product is recommended by vets. Your animal's health is a conversation with a professional, not a line on a product page.

A "best tested" badge with no body, no edition and no date. A title like that is worth exactly as much as the source attached to it. In its place there are measured figures with their starting point, and 30 days to check them in your own home. What such a badge is really worth is explained on the page about how to choose the best one.

Delivery and shipping

Delivery takes 6-10 business days, free and tracked. Order once the season has started and the mat arrives well before the peak in August, which is when it actually earns its keep: a heat wave is not one bad afternoon, it is several weeks in a row.

We ship to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Ireland, Austria, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, and that is the zone where we can stand behind the delivery times and the free return we promise. The price you see is the price you pay: shipping and import duties are included, and nothing is added at the door.

How to reach us

There is one address, and a person answers it: [email protected], seven days a week, usually within 24 hours. No ticket system, no queue.

For a question about size, tell us the species, the breed and the weight: you get a straight answer rather than a link to a table.

Operated by Animouf LLC, 30 N Gould St, STE R, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA. Responsible for content: Amine ATTOU. Full details in the legal notice. How we check things is on the page about how we test.