Best Electric Blanket in 2017

Warm feeling and comfort is not the only purpose of electric blankets use, there have some therapeutic benefits behind the use of this bedding addition. A good number of electric blanket purchasers enjoy its benefits to alleviate symptoms of various ailments. Here goes some of the health benefits of electric blankets use discussed.

1. Arthritis: Heat is an effective way to get relieve of the pains associated with muscle tension and stiffness.   It functions by increasing blood flow to muscles of painful area and results relaxation. Like warm bath, hot tub and sauna, electric blankets or mattress relaxes body muscles and decreases pain. It is also beneficial to combat morning stiffness.
2. Allergies: If you have asthma, electric blanket will help you lessen its symptoms. In most cases, environment triggers its symptoms. Dust mites are one of the causes of increased asthma. In addition, it is responsible for other allergy symptoms. Mites love humidity. Heated blankets or mattress pads are good to reduce humidity. It limits dust mites up to 50% in a month. Thus, it helps in reducing allergic problems.
3. Sinus: Drying sinus becomes worse in winter and continuous heat throughout the night helps reducing sinus complications.
4. Post-polio syndrome (PPS): PPS patients find difficulty in tolerating cold. Heated blanket gives them relieve from this problem.
5. Muscle soreness: After daylong work, we often feel tightening and soreness in hand and leg muscles. To get rid of this pain, you need to relax your muscle and loose the tightness. Heat works amazingly in relaxing muscles and reduces muscle stiffness and soreness.
6. Back pain: doctors usually advice to apply heat in pain area along with other medications and advices for back pain. Heated blanket is a better alternative of traditional heating bag to treat back pain.
7. Sleep deprivation: Winter nights become difficult to sleep because of excessive cold. Even it results poor sleep. Electric blanket allows you to set a comfortable temperature and sleep a sound sleep without annoyance of cool feel and extra weight of added blanket. A sound sleep prepares you for an enjoyable morning and you can perform best in your work.

Now you can use your electric blanket more purposefully along with its heating reason. However, every coin has two sides. There have some disadvantages of electric blanket that you should be aware of. Excess use may result harmful effect on health. Proper use of this bedding addition will give you more benefits than harms. 

When it comes to the matter of buying electric blanket, it becomes confusing to decide right electric blanket fabric to select. Heated covers are made of various types of fabrics, and blankets price are closely related to fabric quality. Most electric blankets come in synthetic materials, but natural products like wool made blankets are also available to buy. General material consists of cotton, polyester, fleece, synthetic and microfiber, microfleece, microplush.

Some people have allergy on particular type of cloth, and even many people are fussy about this material in terms of comfort. Therefore, it is necessary to think about fabric material and then determine budget.

A normal fabricated blanket will cost you around $30 – $50, while a luxury quality fabric will cost you more than $100. Of course, a high quality fabric will give you best comfort and these types of blanket come with additional features and options. Below are some notes on different quality fabrics.

• Cotton: Almost every people love to wear cotton fabric for its comfortable feeling. A cotton-fabricated product provides excellent comfort because of its soft characteristics, besides it is a durable fabric.

• Polyester: This type of fabric is strong, durable and easy to clean.

• Polar fleece: This type of material offers extra warmth and comfort.

• Microfleece: This is a lightweight and double-sided micro-fiber fleece quality material. It gives luxury feeling for its low pill velour face and velvety softness.

• Microplush: A single-sided fabric and the other side are covered with velvety fibers. It seems traditional velvet in construction, but it is made of a fine acrylic fiber. It is easy to wash and even machine washable.

Most people prefer Soft and plush materials blankets because of its comfort and soft blends. A superior quality fleece blanket has less pilling problem. If any pilling problem arises, simple hand wash is enough to get rid of this issue. Moreover, fleece blankets heats up quickly and a bit warmer that other materials.

Whatever the blanket you choose, it is ideal to select thick fabric; otherwise, you may feel embedded wiring on top layer and become annoyed. One more thing, if you are suffering from hay fever or asthma, you should get blanket with antibacterial fibers. This type of fabric prevents bacteria to grow.

For children safely, you can get waterproof electric blanket. A waterproof membrane has embedded on top layer of the blanket. This element saves heating wires from water, in case water spills on blanket. Some models offer polyester fleece that is good for additional protection. 

There is a debate regarding the use of heated blankets because of electric blanket safetyand its health hazards. One of concerns is fire risk in terms of safety. Many people are concerned about this and cringe using this. Factually, if it is used in right way and is maintained properly, you will enjoy its benefits and you get the most of this bedding addition. Here are some safety measures of this bedding option have discussed.

1. Get a tested product. Before buying a blanket, make sure it is approved by nationally recognized third party agency like UL964 or ELT (in USA), AS/NZS 3350.2.17:2000 (in Australia). Also, get your blanket tested by expert in every three years and replace it after 10 years.
2. Check cords and connections. Include this task in your routine work and check it at least once a week. Ensure proper fitting of wires and attachments. Loose wiring can be a reason of firing. Also, check if your blanket has any scorch or discolored mark. Replace the blanket as soon as any irregular mark or frayed cords discovered.   Beside fire risk, you may get shock because of broken cords.
3. Be cautious about machine use. Stay away from washing and drying electric blankets in machine, unless it is instructed. In addition, never dry clean heating blanket. Dry cleaning chemicals damage heating insulation and increases fire risk.
4. Follow washing instruction. Manufacturers provide an instruction manual about washing the product. Also, they include a label on Machine washable blankets. Therefore, it is strongly advised to read instruction manual properly before start using the product and washing as well.
5. Do not use heating blanket and heated mattress together. Over heat may result firing. Even do not lay on top of blankets, as this may cause damage of wires.
6. Be cautious about folding. When blanket is turned on, do not fold it. It should be cooled fully before you fold and put away. When storing it, fold in possible few creases to avoid damage of wires or coils. Do not pile up other blankets or cloths on it. It is better to hang it up in few bend. In addition, when storing, do not wrap cord tightly around the controller, loop cord loosely instead.
7. Turn off blankets when it is not in use. Some models have auto shut off option that turns blanket off after 8 to 10 hours automatically and some models have designed for all-night use. If your blanket do not have such features, it is safe to shut it off before going bed or as soon as it heats up in optimum level.
8. Keep pets away. Sharp claw or tooth of pets may damage wiring or puncture wire insulation.
9. Understand the signs of damage. You should replace the blanket or fix it as soon as the signs discovered. Some of signs have listed below:

• Fraying fabric or cord
• Scorch marks and discoloration
• Creasing
• Damp patches
• Tie tapes damaged or missing.
• Loose connections
• displaced or damaged embedded heating wires

Heating blankets are nice addition of bedding in cold weather months. Careful use of the product will give highest satisfaction in shivering nights. 

Often people find their product quick damage. This may for buying faulty a product or second-hand product. Even after buying a good quality product, it damages for less care of it. For this reason, it is important to take great care of the heated accessory. Good care of the product will let you enjoy for longer without facing any fire hazard or getting electric shocks.

However, you should know about the signs of damage of electric blanket, and fix or replace as early as possible. It is advised not to use a blanket more than 10 years.

To get maximum benefit from the heated blanket, you should take care of it regularly. Keep you electric blanket in a safe place and keep away from pets. Do not fold it tightly, better hang it on a safe place.

Do not send it for dry clean, unless manufacturer instruction is telling to do so. Iron of this product is strictly prohibited. 

If you are already using electric blanket and going to buy a new one, you need little things to know about its mechanism and options. Yet you need to understand new blankets options and offers. This electric blanket buying guide will let you find out right product according to your budget and purpose.

However, if you are a new user, it will be ideal for you to understand electric blankets mechanism and features that will help you compare different offers of various products and take right decision about buying your new heating accessory. Here we are going to discuss various aspects of electric blanket that will help you compare different products features in various viewpoints before making final buying decision.

1. How electric blankets works

Modern electric blankets come with carbon fiber wires that are embedded in fabric and generate heat. An integrated electrical heating device spreads warmth through the blanket.  Manufactures add heating elements between the layers of a blanket through an insulated electrical wires network. The wires are webbed across the width and length of the blanket and the heating element covers most of the area of a blanket excluding few inches on top and some of the sides. This is to save its uses from burning face unconsciously at night.

A quality electric heating cover will warm you and your bed quickly and evenly because of its well-designed wire distribution. Even some heating covers offer extra-warm facility in feet area. Early blankets used to come with bulky wires that made the product weighty, while modern versions comprise thin carbon fiber wires, which make a blanket less bulky. A control unit regulates heating element and its temperature range starts from 1 (coolest) and ends to 10 (Hottest).

2. Understand the sizes

Usually electric blankets are available in various sizes. Below are some examples of the sizes –

• Twin (62 in X 83 in)
• Full (72 in X 83 in)
• Queen  (84 in X 89 in)
• King (100 in X 89 in)

However, it differs from blanket to blanket. More sizes for electrical blankets are given in following chart.

*Source: http://www.beddingstyle.com/

Twin and full sized heated covers come with single heating control and they are suitable for small beds. On the other hand, Queen and King sized blankets come with Duel Healing controls and they are best for larger beds. Duel control option is good, if your partner have temperature preference either hotter or cooler than you do. It is idea to get one or two sizes larger blanket from your bed.

3. Understanding forms

Typically, two forms of blankets are available in market.

1. Flat: It is used as cover like regular blanket. It is comparatively traditional option and affordable to buy.
2. Fitted: This type of blanket fits snuggly on mattress and prevents blanket from moving during use.  People with certain medial issues, like back-pain problem, will find it beneficial.

However, this preference depends on a buyer’s purpose.

4. Fabric Quality

Most electric blankets come in synthetic materials, but natural products like wool made blankets are also available to buy. General material consists of cotton, polyester, fleece, synthetic and microfiber, microfleece, microplush.

Blankets price are closely related to fabric quality. A normal fabricated blanket will cost you around $30 – $50, while a luxury quality fabric will cost you more than $100. Of course, a high quality fabric will give you best comfort and these types of blanket come with additional features and options.

5. Brands

Sunbeam, Biddeford and Soft heat are some common and well-known brands for electric blankets. These brands offer blankets in array of designs, styles, choices and options. Some other brands are – Vellux, Northwest, Martex, Sealy, SlumberRest, and so on.

People have different preferences in terms of heating quality, comfort, durability and maintenance. Each type of blanket has its own benefits and drawbacks. Users like to the get the blanket that fits to their purpose and budget best.

6. Safety

When it comes to the matter of buying an electric blanket, you should not compromise with safely. If you are living in United States, you should look for UL or ETL mark on the blanket before buying it. UL stands for Underwriters Laboratories and this safely standard is recongnized mark for safety in the United States. Alternatively, some manufacturers get their products certified by ETL, which is of same UL964 standard. However, Australian buyers should look for AS/NZS 3350.2.17:2000 in the blanket.

7. Cleaning

A machine washable blanket is good to buy, as you need to spend less time to clean it. However, you should send your blanket for dry clean, because dry cleaning chemical may harm the product.

8. Warranty

Usually these heating blankets come with 3 to 5 years warranty.

9. Common complains

Users experience different problems after getting an electric blanket. Few of them are – short life (1-2 years), defective heating elements, cheap fabric, slow heating, shrinks after wash, small from bed size, the blanket becomes cooler or hotter in the middle of night.

However, these problems less frequent in the products and users face one or two types of problems in their blankets.