Most Even Heating Electric Blanket -- Award Winner [Editor's Choice]
We get lots of requests for our recommendations on which electric blankets heat the most evenly. Many people have complained about hot and cold spots with their products. So we decided to investigate. Here’s our analysis.
All electric blankets are made with channels to hold the heater wire in a serpentine pattern and prevent the wires from congregating into one little area either during use or during washing. Until a few years ago, all the blankets sold in the United States were designed and made with channels that were about 3” wide. There is nothing wrong with the heater wires being 3” apart because the human body does not distinguish any uneven heat when they are this distance apart. The body will start to feel hot and then cold areas at a spacing of around 3.5 to 4” and the farther apart the wires are laid out, the more hot-cold areas will be felt.
To illustrate how some heater wires are more than 3” apart, we took a blanket with a design that allows heater wires to drift around within its wide channels (green blanket photo). We then switched it on and took some infrared photos to show the heat pattern. When the wires are allowed to migrate more than 3” apart, a cold spot develops. Note the uneven pattern of the red lines (the heater wires) in this particular photo which shows some heater wires nearly touching while some are over 5” apart.
Then we took similar photos of each different manufactu
rer's products. The SoftHeat Low Voltage blanket clearly heats the most evenly. This is due to its very narrow ¾” channels (on 3" centers) which prevent the heater wire from shifting around. The SoftHeat allows this narrowness due to its ultra-thin heating wires. These narrow channels make for a perfect all-over even heating with no cold spots or hot spots.
Have you had blankets with uneven heating?