12v electric blanket any good?

Stumpalump

Expedition Leader
Has anybody ever used a 12v electric blanket? How hard was it on the battery? I’m headed out next week and its suposed to be in the 30’s. Thought it might be nice to run for an hour before bed. Can anybody think of a brick and morter that sells them?
 

IdaSHO

IDACAMPER
We have been running a $25 12v truck stop blanket in our camper for years.

Most excellent for sub-freezing temp trips, to pre-heat the bed in the camper :cool:
I plug it in and let it run for a few hours before our planned stop for the night.

FYI, most have built in auto-off timers, that shuts them off in less than an hour.
The one I found does not, so it works great for our use.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
I love mine. Works great on low, on high it adds 30f to my minimum comfort sleeping temp. 80w on high I think.
 

llamalander

Well-known member
I use a 12v. mattress pad that is 60 watts or less, depending on the setting. When I remember, I turn it on while I'm driving and it heats the bed for an hour or two before I stop.
Generally I set it at 2-3 (out of 7 settings) and turn it off after a few hours because it gets too warm. With a good quilt on top, it makes freezing and near freezing nights totally comfortable with a fairly minor draw on the battery.
Truck stops probably sell them in person, I got mine online...
 

FlipperFla

Active member
We use a 110v heating pad on low, high throws off way too much heat. 15-20w dosent effect inverter draw on the batteries at all. I turn it on about an hour before we go to bed. A lot more efficient than trying to heat the whole interior. Just tuff getting out of a toasty bed on a really cold morning, LOL!
 

waveslider

Outdoorsman
We use a 110v heating pad on low, high throws off way too much heat. 15-20w dosent effect inverter draw on the batteries at all. I turn it on about an hour before we go to bed. A lot more efficient than trying to heat the whole interior. Just tuff getting out of a toasty bed on a really cold morning, LOL!

That’s where the furnace timer comes in. For years we set our espar furnace to come on an hour before we want to get up and it’s wonderful.
 
I used the electrowarmth "bunk warmer" which is a 12v mattress pad warmer a couple weeks ago in moab when it got around 30 deg. It worked great and like others have said it doesn't need to be on high. My first time using it so I had it on a high setting and woke up from being too hot. I found a setting of 2 to be fine during the night. I used mine with a Yeti 1000 and it does suck some power on the higher settings.
 

Hilldweller

SE Expedition Society
I got a 12v "throw" off Amazon years ago and use it all the time when we're out in the winter. It has a 45 minute timer which warms the mattress in the teardrop --- if it's really cold I might cycle it a few times during the night too.
The teardrop has two 122 ah boat batteries and 100w of solar so I've never had a problem with running the batteries flat. I also run lights and ham radios off the batteries.
 

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