Lloyds pharmacy has always been a great place to shop for medical products. They give lots of help and advice and all for free. They sell a wide range of products and so when we wanted a tens machine it was the obvious place to go.

Tens machines are great. They are a drug free form of pain relief and can be used on almost all parts of the body. Tens works by sending small electronic waves throughout the body from the gel pads that are attached by the user to the area where they are most in pain. The electronic signals work by confusing pain signals sent to the brain, thus blocking some or all of the pain. Some tens machines also have a massage function which means they can actually massage painful or swollen muscles.

The first tens machine I brought was from Boots by a company called tenscare. I was suffering from very bad back pain at the time and could hardly walk some days. I brought the tens machine and tried it out straight away. It was amazing. Within about 30 minutes my pain had eased significantly and I was able to move around easier. After wearing it for a couple hours I was feeling much better, so continued to use it almost everyday to help with my back pain.

After about a 1.5 years of use my poor little tens machine died on me and I was lost without it. At the time Lloyds pharmacy had a promotion on for half priced tens machines and they had a similar one on sale for £15. This was less than half of what I had paid for my first one so I thought I'd give it a try as I needed a new one anyway.

I really wish I hadn't bothered. It is dreadful. It is advertised as having lot's of different mode settings and intensities. It doesn't, It has 8 modes and 8 intensity levels. My old one had 15 intensity settings and about 10 different modes. Although this one has 8 modes it is really only 3 different modes at different speeds. It wouldn't be fair to compare the 2 machines if they were differently priced but at full price they are almost the same, yet my other tens was much better and had more functions.

This tens machine is a very basic model. Whichever mode I tried, it switched itself off after 15 minutes which is a problem if you are in a lot of pain. Also there is no lock so if you catch the unit on something you can alter the mode and have to go all the way the other modes to find it again. The screen display is dreadful, you can hardly see the screen properly and my mum who wears glasses has to count, rather than watch the modes as she just can't see it.

When the machine is on it does help with the pain and helps me to be more active in my life. The trouble is the pads are not very sticky and come off all the time. This was not a problem with my other tens unit pads and they were very sticky and easily lasted for over 3 months, even with daily use. These did not stick to my skin from the very first time I put them on. When I brought the unit the sales assistant told me they should last for around 100 uses. At the time they had replacement pads at half price, so I brought a pack for the future. I have even tried using a new set in case the first ones were just faulty but the new set are just as bad.

I really would not recommend this to anyone unless you are literally sitting down all day, doing nothing and can re-programme it every 15 minutes and put the pads back on every time they slip or move on the skin.

Please, please if you have tried this tens machine as your first one, do not base your opinion on this product. It is very basic and in my view poor quality. If you suffer from pain, you will know that when you are in constant pain the last thing you need is something should help, not working in the way it should. If this was my first tens machine I would have been put off. There are very good units out there and they are not that much more expensive. But believe me when I say they are defiantly worth the extra money.