Advise on Heated mattress pads
 

Looking for a good electric heated mattress pad for this upcoming winter months. What do you use and recommend?

We use plain ol electric blankets under the fitted sheet.
Cheaper to buy, cheaper to replace.
And I cannot imagine that the heated mattress pad is as inexpensive to buy or that it works any better.

But I love warm sheets and I hate sliding into a cold bed.
It takes forever for me to warm back up again and the jolt is terrible for cozy sleepiness.

We have a heated pad and a elect blanket. Both are sunbeam I believe. Two words DUAL CONTROL. For me there is nothing better than a cold room and cold sheets for sleep time. Momma however likes a year round heated taco effect, on all but 4 or 5 days a year. Winter she uses a down comforter also, helps hold the heat in she says while I have the windows open. Hard use, she burns through them about every two years, spendy but she's worth it.



Owl

As for me, I prefer the elec blanket over the elec mattress pad. I found that, with the mattress pad, the cold still seeped down thru the covers on top of me. With an elec blanket, that doesn't happen. I turn it on a little while before bedtime, and there are no cold sheets.

I have one like this, not sure if that is the exact model or not. I second the dual controls because my DH likes his side to be HOT. I always turn it up on high a little before bedtime, but I have to turn it down once I am in the bed or I am kicking off blankets. Which kinda defeats the purpose, you know?

HTH

Heated mattress pad (or an electric blanket used as one) with a down comforter. Aaahhh. I got a mattress pad for DW for her birthday a few years back and had to give it to her a week early because she had the flu. She cried, she was so happy. In the dead of winter I'll turn my side on a little while before bed and turn it off when I get in, but the dual controls have kept our marriage intact because she uses it all the time- on high!

Bought ours from JC Penney's catalog. Like the dual controls also..and more so than an electric blanket. Worth the price..

Oh my! We don't use either one. Although, we do have a couple electric blakets that were given to us, as gifts. We like to slide into that cold bed & snuggle, for awhile.
We sleep better in a cool bedroom, though, usually 66 to 68 degrees.

When I donated platelets at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital last month, they provided a plush electric blanket. OH MY GOSH! It was heaven. Asked where they got them, then went to J.C. Penny to get one. Absolutely wonderful. Expensive if not on sale, but they were half price that week.

our heated mattress pad is Sunbeam, and yes..dual control is great! oh my, there is nothing like warming up that bed on a winter night! we then usually turn it off once snuggled in. the mattress pads are made for laying on top safely, electric blankets generally are not. that isn't baloney, as my little niece's bed caught fire from having an object sitting on top of her electric blanket. luckily my SIL was there to put out the blanket immediately. we have a full bed, and not sure the exact amount, but it wasn't horribly expensive for the mattress pad. I do love a cool room, too, just not jumping in to a cold bed! :)

I cannot use electric blankets as they mess with my body's energy. (People with thyroid issues really need to be careful with this.) For Christmas last year my mother bought me an electric mattress pad for our Sleep Number bed. It has dual controls and runs on a different current than the electric blankets. It is WONDERFUL! We use a down comforter and two other blankets on top. Best Christmas present ever! (Other than when my daughter was born on Christmas 21 years ago!)

Ours is a CA King and was $130 on sale. Mind you, it is the Sleep Number brand, so I'm sure you can find them cheaper.

Vern,

I am a certified weenie when it comes to cold weather. My wife and I have used heated mattress pads for at least 25 years, and probably more. Our current one is a West Point Stevens brand with dual controls.

I couldn't survive the winter without it.

Tom in TN

I use a heated blanket, but you have to be careful not to leave it on when you aren't using it, because you can damage your mattress.

Hi,
We use a heated mattress pad from Westpoint-Stevens.
It works very well -- ours is about 5 years old and still doing fine.

The power consumption of the heated mattress pads is much lower than for electric blankets -- only about 0.15 KWH night. We use the heated mattress pad to allow us to comfortably lower the house/bedroom temperature at night, which saves heating fuel.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Referenc...n.htm#Mattress

Gary

When I saw what an electric blanket cost, I passed and instead bought just a heating pad for $10. Just enough to take the chill out of the bed.

Liked the zone heat one too, puts the heat where you need it. Sweeties was on med, my side on low. Much better than a heavy electric blanket on top. We liked 1 or 2 light thermal cotton blankets over us, held in the heat better. Here at the cottage, with the even passive electric heat with no fan, we don't feel drafts or cold before/when the heater comes on, so don't need one now. No cool down, blowing cold air, then too hot. Another good thing was being able to use regular cotton sheets, I hated flannel sheets. But regular cotton sheets are sooooo cold in the winter in an unheated bedroom when you first get in....James

I use the heating pad over my feet covered with a down comforter....and 3 cats who like that arrangement so well there is little room left for me!

We don't use either an electric blanket or mattress pad. My mom's mattress pad shorted out and nearly set the bed on fire. She was napping but got up to answer the phone so was fortunately not in bed at the time. Someone wrote about using an electric blanket as a mattress pad but I believe that this is not recommended - you are not supposed to put weight on the blanket.

We live in the Arctic and the way we keep warm at night (and I drive my husband crazy by insisting on having the window open even at 35 below zero) is we have a down duvet on the bed under the mattress protector and bottom sheet and have a down duvet on top. In the coldest part of the winter I throw a quilt on top of the down duvet. To heat the bed we fill two Nalgene bottles (soft plastic not the brittle kind) with boiling water. They are leak proof. The bottles are placed inside socks (before filling!) and placed down by the foot of the bed under the covers. This is what my husband does in his sleeping bag since he works outdoors all year round and all of his crew has now copies him. Believe it or not the bottle water is still hot by morning and we are always nice and warm because the down traps the heat.

Of course when we moved up here the old timers told us that we would face a lot of three dog nights. That is when you have to take three of the dogs into the tent and under the covers with you at night so you don't freeze to death. Until then I thought a three dog night was a 1970s rock band. My husband and the dogs were willing but as I told them - I already have one snoring, twitching, farting, shedding hound in my bed. No way was I adding three more.

I'll second the Nalgene trick. I did this in college when I was too poor to turn on the heat. Works great!

Too funny. DW and I are always arguing over the thermostat because I grew up thinking 68 was what houses were heated to and I'm quite comfortable there- I change into shorts and short sleeves
when I get home year round. I like the mattress pad because it gives you all its heat, while most of an electric blanket's heat goes out into the room.

It's nice to to climb into a bed that's already warm- the snuggling doesn't need any extra incentive.

I am sooo glad that I decided to read this thread! My DH and I turkey hunt in the Spring in the mountains. When we leave home it is hitting the 80s so freezing and below is a little hard to take at night. The worst part is getting into a COLD sleeping bag. Now I am going to find a Nalgene hot water bottle! Thanks everybody!

I'm a hot blooded person and if I were to get into an already warm bed, I'd instantly break into a sweat! My wife though is cold blooded.

During the winter, there is no heat in our bedroom other than what comes up through the register. And in the summer, the air condioner is usually set at 64. Our ceiling fan is ALWAYS on high when we are in bed.

When I first come to bed, (and I only wear underwear), I like to lay on top of the bed and get cool. I then usually get under the covers, but usually I have one leg sticking out on top of the covers as I drift off to sleep.

We use a heated mattress pad with dual controls. I don't remember the brand, but it is not a Sunbeam because we had so much trouble with Sunbeam electric blankets.

I think ours is Sunbeam, but I'm too lazy to pull all the bedding off and look. We've had it for years.

DH keeps it on HIGH full time, I seldom turn my side on. Who needs an electric blanket or heated mattress pad with hot flashes! I'd rather have my little fan next to the bed. I love my little fan...