Category: Why Game Ready

You can hire a Game Ready anywhere in New Zealand. The machine is couriered to the address you give us, whether that is Kaitaia, Invercargill or the house you are staying at to recover after surgery. If you are in Auckland and would rather collect it, you can pick it up from our warehouse in Rosedale on the North Shore.

This page sets out what you get, what it costs, how the machine reaches you and what happens at the end of the hire, so you can sort it out before your operation rather than after it.

Where you can rent it from

Sports Health Limited is the only official Game Ready distributor in New Zealand. We are the only company authorised by the Game Ready manufacturers to sell and hire out Game Ready products.

At Sports Health Limited we follow strict guidelines in functional testing and hygienic turn-around between rental periods. Each rental patient receives a new sleeve, a hygienically cleaned machine and clean supporting equipment. The wrap, power supply, hose, control unit and bag are all made of low-allergy materials.

What you get

A rental includes:

• The Game Ready GRPro 2.1 control unit, hose and power supply
• One wrap of your choice, sized and fitted to the part of the body you are recovering
• Instructions for making ice, setting it up, running a treatment and looking after yourself
• A return courier label if required
• Information on your rental period including start and finish dates

Additional wraps can be added to the same hire if you need to treat more than one area.

What it costs

Item	Price (incl GST)
Initial two-week hire: control unit and one wrap	$368
Each additional wrap, per two weeks (optional)	$92
Weekly extensions after the initial two-week hire (optional)	$184

Hire starts as a 2 week period. Most people start with the initial period and extend on a weekly basis if they need to keep going. Payment is taken prior to delivery, pickup or extension period. Freight is additional and charged at what it costs us, anywhere in the country.

How hiring works

1. Fill in the rental booking request form on our website. The form is not a commitment and you can cancel it.
2. A Game Ready representative from Sports Health will contact you to confirm your details and ask anything else we need to know, including what your surgery is and which wrap suits.
3. We will send you an invoice to pay, which can be done online or transferred to our bank account. Once the payment is received a rental unit is reserved for you.
4. The machine is couriered to your address, or you can collect it from our Albany warehouse. In Auckland Metro and most suburbs we can deliver the same day. Allow 2 to 3 days for nationwide delivery.
5. The rental period starts the day after you pick it up or the day it is due for delivery. The rental period finishes on the day it is due for return.
6. Near the end of your rental period we contact you to either extend it or arrange the return.

If your surgery date moves, tell us as soon as you know and we will move the hire with it.

Choosing a wrap

The wrap is the part that matters most for fit, so tell us which operation you are having and we will match it. These are the wraps we hire most often:

Wrap	Commonly used after
Straight knee	ACL and other ligament surgery, meniscus repair, knee replacement
Shoulder (left or right, medium or large)	Rotator cuff repair, stabilisation, shoulder replacement
Ankle, or half-leg boot	Ankle repair, Achilles repair, foot and lower leg fractures
Hip and groin (left or right)	Hip replacement, hip resurfacing
Elbow, or flexed elbow for an elbow that will not straighten	Elbow surgery, tennis elbow release
Hand and wrist	Wrist fracture, carpal tunnel release, tendon repair
Back	Spinal fusion, kyphoplasty, back strains

Full sizing for every wrap is on the Game Ready wraps page.

Using it at home

The GRPro 2.1 runs on ice and water, so you need a freezer. You fill the reservoir with ice and water, and top the ice up between treatments. The unit is portable, runs quietly and plugs into an ordinary wall socket.

How long and how often you treat is up to you and varies from patient to patient. A guide based on your surgeon and type of surgery is provided in the information pack. Also in the information pack is how to fit the wrap, set a program and start (power -> program -> play).

The rule of thumb is use it so it is not uncomfortable. The moment it becomes uncomfortable then adjustment is needed. Raise the temperature, choose a different program, or simply re-adjust the wrap between cycles. The GRPro 2.1 is designed to provide relief and ensure a fast recovery.

If you are not in Auckland

Most of our hires leave the warehouse by courier. You do not need to live near us, and you do not need to travel to collect the machine. Give us the address you will actually be recovering at, which is sometimes a hotel or relative’s house.

Extending or returning

We contact you before the current rental period is up. If you need longer, we extend the hire for another week. If you are finished, just return it. All bookings that require a return by courier will have been pre-paid. If you are outside of Auckland simply pop it back in the box provided, slip the return courier label (provided) into the box window, and drop it off to a Post Shop. If you are within range of a door-to-door courier in Auckland we will arrange pickup, or you can drop it off.

About Sports Health

Sports Health is a family-owned business based in Rosedale on Auckland’s North Shore, hiring Game Ready systems to patients around New Zealand since 2017 with exceptional feedback (check our google reviews). We also hire continuous passive motion machines and Melmak bone-healing devices, and we work with surgeons, physiotherapists, patients and sports teams.

Questions we get asked

How soon should I book? Once you have a surgery date. That way the machine is with you when you get home, which is when you need it most. Sometimes we are heavily booked with a waiting list. Please arrange a Game Ready as soon as you have your surgery date.

Do I need anything else? Ice, water and a power point. You will be sent a guide on how to make ice and how much you will need.

What if something goes wrong with the machine? Ring us as soon as you see an error. We will do our best to ensure the continued use of the machine, whether we need to provide some remote assistance, or a replacement. There is also a user manual with a fault finding guide included in the information pack.

Avoid post-surgery regret – hire a Game Ready. Game Ready Rentals

What active compression adds to cold therapy, and what the research shows.

If your surgeon or physio has suggested Game Ready after knee surgery, you may have wondered whether it does anything a bag of frozen peas can’t. It’s a fair question. Cold therapy is the foundation of both, and ice packs have a real place in recovery.

The difference is what Game Ready adds on top of the cold: controlled, intermittent compression. This article explains what that compression is meant to do and what clinical trials have found.

What cold does

Cooling the skin around a joint lowers the temperature inside it. Cooling is thought to slow nerve conduction, which may reduce pain signals. It also narrows blood vessels, which helps limit inflammation and local swelling. This is why ice is used so widely after orthopaedic surgery, and why both an ice pack and a cold compression machine can help.

What compression adds

Swelling after surgery is fluid collecting in the tissues. Compression helps move it along. External compression is thought to help blood return from the leg through the veins and to support the small lymphatic vessels that clear fluid from tissue.

There are two kinds of compression. Static compression, like a bandage or a firm sleeve, applies steady pressure. Intermittent compression inflates and releases in cycles, a bit like a gentle pumping action. Researchers who studied intermittent compression after knee ligament surgery suggest it improves microcirculation and the movement of fluid between tissues more than constant pressure does.

How Game Ready combines the two

Game Ready circulates ice-cold water through a wrap fitted around the joint. The wrap also has air chambers that inflate and deflate, giving intermittent compression that can be set between 5 and 75 mmHg. Cold and compression are delivered together, all the way around the joint, at a setting you can adjust.

What the research shows

Three studies have compared Game Ready with simpler cold therapy after surgery.

Knee replacement, France (2024). Forty knee replacement patients in a rehabilitation hospital were randomly assigned to Game Ready or to cold packs during 21 days of rehab. The ice pack group used two cold packs held on with an elastic bandage for 30 minutes, three times a day. After 21 days, the Game Ready group had less fluid in the joint, less pain during activity (1 out of 10 compared with 3), and walked further in a six-minute walk test (439 metres compared with 340). They also scored better on a questionnaire about everyday function.

The Game Ready group also reached some recovery milestones sooner. By day 8, 70% had reached 90 degrees of knee bend, which is roughly what you need to sit and walk comfortably, compared with 40% in the ice pack group. By the same day, 70% had a measurable drop in swelling above the knee, compared with 10%. The researchers received no funding and declared no competing interests.

ACL reconstruction, France (2014). This study compared 39 patients at one clinic. Twenty used Game Ready with intermittent compression and 19 used a cold therapy device with static compression, and both groups followed the same pain medication plan. The Game Ready group used less than half as much tramadol (57.5 mg compared with 128.6 mg on average), none of them needed morphine, and they had more knee bend when they went home the next day (90.5 degrees compared with 84.5).

ACL reconstruction, United States (2012). Patients were randomised to a cold compression device or a standard ice pack, both used three times a day. By six weeks, 83% of the cold compression group had stopped taking narcotic pain relief, compared with 28% of the ice pack group.

So, is it just an expensive ice pack?

No. Game Ready does something an ice pack can’t: it combines cold with intermittent compression, delivered evenly around the joint. In trials, that combination has been linked with faster early progress, less pain during activity, less swelling in the joint and lower use of strong pain medication.

Sports Health has rented Game Ready units to people recovering from surgery since 2017, with courier delivery anywhere in New Zealand. Find out more Game Ready Rentals

If you are unsure about using Game Ready for your recovery then call or message us. Contact

References

1. Quesnot A, et al. Randomized controlled trial of compressive cryotherapy versus standard cryotherapy after total knee arthroplasty. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2024;25:182. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12891-024-07310-7
2. Murgier J, Cassard X. Cryotherapy with dynamic intermittent compression for analgesia after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Orthopaedics & Traumatology: Surgery & Research. 2014;100:309–312. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877056814000413
3. Waterman B, et al. The efficacy of combined cryotherapy and compression compared with cryotherapy alone following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Journal of Knee Surgery. 2012;25:155–160. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22928433/

After knee, hip or shoulder surgery, you may be offered several cold compression machines for hire. Some use ice, some use a built-in fridge unit, and many are described as “just like Game Ready”. This guide covers the three things that set them apart: how they make cold, what’s inside the wrap, and whether the machine has been tested.

Has the machine been tested?

Research only tells you about the machine that was used in it.

Game Ready has been studied in published clinical trials across Europe, North America and Australia. A 2024 randomised trial of knee replacement patients used the Game Ready GRPro 2.1. Compared with ice packs and an elastic bandage, the Game Ready group had less joint swelling, less pain during activity, and walked further by day 21. A 2024 Canadian trial of 200 shoulder surgery patients also used the GRPro 2.1, and median opioid use in the Game Ready group was about half that of the usual-care group. Unlike competitors quoting research they haven’t done with their machines, these trials are of Game Ready itself.

We also looked for published trials of the iceless and budget machines marketed in New Zealand as alternatives:

Cryon-x: we found no published trials.

Cryopush: the only published study we found used a portable cold-pack version of the machine. The participants were 15 healthy male recreational athletes recovering from jumping exercise, and the machine was compared with lying still. The manufacturer supplied the device and the funding for the study.

We found no published study testing either machine on surgery patients, or against Game Ready.

Why Game Ready runs on ice

A surgical joint gives off a lot of heat, and a cold compression machine’s job is to carry that heat away. There are two ways to supply the cold.

Ice. When ice melts, it soaks up about 334 kilojoules of heat per kilogram and stays at 0 °C the whole time. The ice you tip into a Game Ready took your freezer hours to make, and all that stored cold is released as fast as the circulating water brings heat back from the joint. With the reservoir full of ice, Game Ready’s cold therapy runs between 2–10 °C.

A micro-fridge. Iceless units have a small refrigeration unit built in, so they have to make all their cold on the spot. However hot the joint is after surgery, the unit can only remove heat as fast as its motor and power supply allow. Typical specifications:

• – A cold range of 5–14.5 °C, accurate to within 3 °C
• – About 15 minutes to cool down before it’s ready to use

That battery holds about 260 watt-hours. Spread over 3 hours, that’s under 90 watts on average for the whole machine, including the water pump, compression, fan and electronics.

Iceless units are sold as the lighter option, but the difference is smaller than you might expect:

• – Game Ready: 3.3 kg empty and about 7.5 kg filled with ice and water
• – Cryon-X: 6.4 kg including its battery

The one clear convenience of an iceless unit is that you never refill ice. But in the only independent laboratory comparison of knee cryocompression devices we know of (Belsey et al. 2024, UK), both machines that cooled the skin into the 10–15 °C target range ran on ice water. That study didn’t include any iceless machines.

Game Ready’s iceless machine

Strong cooling without ice takes size and power. Game Ready’s own iceless system, the Med4 Elite, is built for clinics around a refrigeration unit, bigger than that of a household freezer. The Med4 Elite measures 83 cm L x 63 cm W x 109 cm H and weighs 78Kg without any water. The water transfers directly over the refrigeration unit without an air gap. The power requirement to run the refrigeration unit alone is around 450W. Game Ready require this to adequately cool for cold therapy and rehabilitation without ice.

Inside the wrap

The wrap is where the cold meets your body, and it’s where Game Ready excels and differs the most.

Game Ready’s patented ATX wraps have two separate chambers, one for air and one for ice water, so they deliver adjustable compression and circulating cold at the same time. Inside the water chamber, a grid of small welded “dots” joins the two walls and spreads the water evenly through the whole wrap, so cold reaches every part of the joint rather than running along a few channels. The wraps are shaped for specific body parts and go all the way around the joint. When the air chamber inflates, it presses the cold layer evenly against the skin, front and back.

Surrounding the inner heat exchange, described above, is an outer sleeve like a contoured, well fitted garment. The size and comfort of the wrap is exceptional and a new sleeve is provided with every rental. The result is a clean, comfortable feeling to aid in your recovery.

Most suppliers of other machines don’t publish how big their wraps are, but we do:

• – Knee wrap: 43cm long, with a maximum 81cm circumference at the top and a 61cm circumference at the bottom.
• – Shoulder wrap: Surrounds the entire shoulder joint, upper chest strap area, and upper arm/bicep region. A comfortable sling is provided.
• – Hip/Groin wrap: Covers the targeted hip joint, surrounding pelvic region, and upper quad/groin area. One size fits a wide range of body types up to a 72-inch waist.

Superior coverage and comfort, hygienic and low allergy. We haven’t found anybody yet that we haven’t been able to fit. If you’re comparing machines, ask other suppliers for the same figures.

More information on Game Ready Wraps

Questions to ask before you hire

• – Has this exact machine been tested? Ask for the published trial, and check it involved surgery patients.
• – How cold does it get, and how quickly? Ask for the lowest temperature and the time it takes to reach it.
• – How big is the wrap? Ask for the cooling area, and whether the wrap goes all the way around your joint.
• – What compression does it give? Game Ready’s high setting runs from 5 to 75 mmHg.
• – Is it notified to Medsafe? WAND notification is compulsory for suppliers, but it isn’t an approval and doesn’t mean Medsafe has assessed the device.
• – What support do you get? Ask about delivery, setup help and cleaning between patients.

Game Ready for sale and hire across New Zealand

Sports Health has supplied Game Ready in New Zealand since 2017. You can rent or buy a Game Ready, and rental units can be couriered anywhere in NZ or collected from our Albany warehouse. Pricing and rental periods are available here – Game Ready Rentals

Avoid post-surgery regret and choose Game Ready for your recovery.