Do you use an electric blanket or electric matress pad?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Irover

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 13, 2010
Posts
448
Location
Where the Good Lord wills!!!/Music City; TN
:eek: I bought and electric throw from Big Lots as the nights here in the Music City area are getting colder!!! I put a light flannel blanket on top of that and with the use of my tower ceramic heater on low (900 watts) it so far has been great down to the low 20's. If it gets colder will try another blanket, still haven't had to set the electric throw higher than # 4.
 
I use a blanket and set it on high about 30 min prior to bed time. Once in bed I turn it to the lowest setting and have a great nights sleep...My elect tower heater is set to 60....
 
Just remember to  NOT use the electric blanket if you are on a modified sine wave inverter as that will burn out the controller.  BT, DT.
 
Just remember to NOT use the electric blanket if you are on a modified sine wave inverter as that will burn out the controller.

True.  We've fried two electric blankets and now use an electric mattress pad that has either 12v or 110v.  No problems with it.  And it does a really good job of warming the mattress.

ArdraF
 
Jim, I use a 12V DC electric mattress pad with a direct fused line to my house batteries. And never turn on my inverter - or anything else overnight. If hooked up, and the park is OK with electric heaters (many are not), I will use an electric heater as well.

Have installed 2 12V DC plugs in the bedroom - so while boondocking I can also charge my smartphone - or whatever other DC devices I may want to use/charge.
 
ArdraF said:
True.  We've fried two electric blankets and now use an electric mattress pad that has either 12v or 110v.  No problems with it.  And it does a really good job of warming the mattress.

Ardra,

We have found replacement controllers at used stores, may have to take the blanket too but at least you have saved your blanket.

I guess I should look at a good one and a bad one to see ifthey can be repaired.  I think it is just a burned out resistor so should be an easy fix. 

So much to do, so little time.    :)
 
The electric blankets are long gone so no repairs for them.  ::)  We've had the mattress pad for several years and it works so no need to change....  But thanks for the idea.

ArdraF
 
I turn on the electric blanket around 1/2 before going to bed, then turn in off once we get into bed.  We only really need it the first few nights heading south.  After that it gets put away under the bed until maybe the trip home.
 
I have 12 V mattress warmers and love them. I've read in various places that the new models of electric blankets and modified sine wave inverters do not work well at all.
 
I have been using a mattress warmer for 3 years of fulltiming. I can't take the cold, even Florida night coldness. 

The beauty of the mattress pad, is you don't have to store it in the winter, it can just stay on the bed, unplugged.

Mine is very simple with 10 settings and no timer.

Oh my gosh, if I could purr like a kitty cat, I would purr every time I need to use the mattress warmer. It is ideal.

On top of the mattress warmer I have a mattress pad and sheets, so the warmer stays clean. I have a big fluffy comforter on top of the bed, it holds the heat in nicely.  I have the controls by the bed so I can bump it up or down a notch as desired.

My little  dog LOVES the mattress warmer too!

We also have a 12volt throw we sometimes plug into the cigarette lighter forward, but the cord will reach to the dinette or the club chairs or the double bunk over the cab. Puppy will claim that too when I plug it in to keep my legs warm.  Do not plug the throw into the regular 12 volt outlets, they tend to freak out.
 
We have flannel sheets, a thermal blanket and a nice comforter. If it gets really cold, we have an extra blanket, another comforter, and a 90-pound Labrador for extra warmth. Other than my nose occsionally, I've never been wickedly cold - and the nightly lows in central Oregon were in the low 20s.

Wendy
Indio CA
 
I have a 12 volt mattress pad that I bought at a truck stop.  In the truck my generator has an auto-start feature, when the batteries get low, it starts up and charges everything. 
My 99 Win Advn with Onan 6.5 Generator doesn't do that, so I use my battery jump starter that I can plug DC socket into.  It gets the bed warm before I get in, then with all the blankets, by the time it goes dead, it's warm enough in the bed.  I plug it in to the wall socket and turn on the generator in the morning for heat and making breakfast.  Then, once the sun comes up I turn off the Generator and my jump starter is charged back up again.  It saves gas that way as well.  The gas Gen uses about 4 times as much as the diesel Genset, I'm told that is normal.
 
yarnkitty said:
How do you know if you have a modified sine wave inverter?

Look up the model number at the manufacturer's web site if you don't have a manual.
 
If the inverter doesn't boast of having True Sine Wave power, it's almost certainly modified sine wave.

True sine wave is a smoothly varying waveform, looking like a sine function on a graph.  It's identical to the power that comes out of your home outlets.  So-called modified sine wave should really be called modified square wave - the voltage transitions sharply from 0 to maximum, then back to 0 again.  It's cheaper to make but is much dirtier power.
 
Jim Godward said:
Just remember to  NOT use the electric blanket if you are on a modified sine wave inverter as that will burn out the controller.  BT, DT.

Jim, there is one electric blanket that does work with modified sine wave inverters. The Soft Heat blanket has an integral power supply and actually works from 18 VDC. Aside from the fact that it works, it is the nicest blanket I have ever used. The one downside is that for a duel control model, you need two outlets. See http://www.electricblanketinstitute.com/softheat-low-voltage-blanket.html

If you can still find an old blanket with analog control, that will work also.

Joel
 
Great Horned Owl said:
If you can still find an old blanket with analog control, that will work also.

If you can find an old analog controller, it will probably work with any blanket with matching plug.  I have one around here some place with a well worn digital blanket and they  work together fine.

The problem is the new blanket in the MH has a different plug.    :(
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
134,554
Posts
1,431,382
Members
140,125
Latest member
Schwabelectric
Back
Top Bottom