It works on the same premise that a thermacell does. It heats up a pad with scent and supposivly dispenses more scent into the air. If you already have a thermacellyou basically have athermascent. You canuse a usedinscect pad and saturate it with the scent of your choice, then pop it in your thermacell. Whether or not it puts more scent into the air I dont know.It doesnt hurt to try though.