Buy a bed warmer (heated mattress pad), not an electric blanket

I know that at some point in our lives, we had an electric blanket. I remember it - it was less than ideal and I don't think we used it often. At some point we discovered electric mattress pads and have used one of those ever since.

I would have thought that by now everyone would know about the advantages of these over electric blankets, but to our surprise, we do keep finding people who have either never heard of these at all or (perhaps even more surprising) can't imagine why anyone would use such a thing.

Let's dispose of the electric blanket comparison first. These mattress pads are nothing like electric blankets. I'm sure electric blankets have improved over the years and are much better than the awful things I remember from forty years ago, but they still suffer from several disadvantages.

First, some of the heat from an electric blanket is going upward. Sure, you could put another blanket on top, but you are still losing more heat than you will with the pad, which is always under you.

Second, electric blankets are subject to more abuse. They get folded over and bunched up in quite normal use, so need to either be resistant to that (which means stiffness) or suffer the consequences of hot spots or broken wires.

Warming pads aren't likely to get bunched up and are more durable because you are sleeping on them and aren't yanking them about as you toss and turn.

Don't assume you are feeling bulky wires; you won't notice anything but heat.

Safety

Modern warming pads and electric blankets are low voltage. You don't have to be concerned about electric shocks killing you and fire is unlikely (Wikipedia says that fires attributed to electric blankets are almost always older models).

Diabetics are warned not to use electric blankets because they may not notice them getting too hot. This really isn't as much of an issue with modern mattress pads as these are thermostatically controlled, but manufactures still warn against this.

The matter of ELF fields was a concern for older blankets also. Modern designs run wires in opposite directions to cancel out most of this effect; it is generally felt today that there is no concern here.

Manufacturers do warn that you should not use these with infants, young children, incapacitated persons, or anyone who cannot understand the instructions or cannot operate the controls.  As noted above, they also warn against use by diabetics.

Benefits

The most obvious benefit is comfort. The best designed mattress pads have individual controls, so each side of the bed can be set to match its occupants desire.

Most are also designed to provide the most heat down at your feet, which is the most comfortable for most of us.

As nice as that is,  there is more to this than just creature comfort.

Save money on heating

Turning down the heat at night can save a lot of money. We are bit extreme on that count, dialing it back to 53°F (11.66°C), but even a smaller setback is worth doing, and very easy if you use a programmable thermostat.

I know, you think it costs more to reheat the house in the morning. Studies have shown that is not true. Aside from that, there is also the fact that some reheating comes from the rising sun - turning down heat at night makes sense. See my Saving Heating Dollars this Winter hub for more on that.

The house is cool, but you are snug and warm in bed. All you need to make life perfect is a heated toilet seat in case you do have to get up in the middle of the night!

Operating costs

I have a Kill-A-Watt meter ( see "P4400 Kill-A-Watt power usage meter helped me decide to use a vaporizer instead of a humidifier").

I plugged the mattress pad into that and turned both sides on the highest setting of "5" (which we never do in practice - on the coldest nights we might set it at 2 or 3). After an hour and 6 minutes, it registered .07 KW used. That would be about 50 cents a night for us - if we really set it that high, of course.

However, I would think that if we were actually in the bed, our body heat would probably push that down even more as it would reach temperature more quickly and retain it longer.

So, to test that, I hooked up the Kill-A-Watt when I turned the pad on last night. We typically turn them on high (5) for an hour or so before we climb in and then we turn them down to 2.

The meter registered .29 KW after 10 hours and 50 minutes.. cheap enough!

Health

Breathing cooler air has health benefits too. Hot air dries out your mouth and sinuses, which causes everything from discomfort, painful tongues and even contributes to tooth decay!

A warm bed eases arthritis and muscle pain by promoting circulation. Interestingly, Wikipedia notes that heating your bed can reduce bed mite populations too.

What to look for in a bed warmer

Prices start as low as $40.00 and can run close to $200.00. Obviously the more expensive models have more features and may also offer higher quality.

If you share your bed, obviously you want dual controls that offer a range of heat settings. An auto-off feature (usually 10 hours) can help those of us who rush out in the morning and forget to turn the heater off.

Although the pad will be under other sheets and therefore not in direct contact with your body, you still may want to wash it now and then, so a machine washable and drier safe model is desirable.

As noted above, the models that put more heat down at your feet are more comfortable.

If your electrical outlets are not convenient to the head of your bed, you may need to be concerned about the length of the power cord. The length of the controller cords is less likely to be an issue, but we did have one model where these were a little too short and the consequence was that the controls regularly disappeared under the bed.

Premium models may have a preheat feature that lets you crawl into a very warm bed but then automatically adjust to a lower sleeping temperature.

I haven't yet seen a fully programmable model that could be set to turn on automatically to preheat a few minutes before your normal bed-time, but I would not be surprised to see that soon as electronics become ever less expensive.

Durability

You might think that something you lie on top of would quickly break or wear out, but we have not found that to be the case - I think we have only bought two or three in all the years we have used these.

Our current pad is wearing out - in fact it is worn out, but it's not the electric parts. That's all working fine; we've just had this so long that the fitted corners are wearing out!

A cheaper model we bought for our guest bedroom is now more than five years old and one side of the dual controls has malfunctioned and cannot be set to its highest setting. As it happens, it is our daughter and her husband who use this when they visit, and it is his side that has the problem. As he prefers a lower setting anyway, this works out fine and we need not bother to replace this unless and until it breaks completely.

Definitely a "must have"

Given all the obvious and non-obvious benefits, I think the decision to buy a heated mattress pad is an easy one. You'll be more comfortable, and you will save money. Long lasting, safe, durable and very convenient. We would not be without ours.

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