No season is more grueling than winter. When the temperature plummets, your heating bill can really take a hit. If your sheets and comforters aren't keeping you warm enough, electric blankets are a great way to stay cozy.
However, a lot of electric blankets have thin wires, high price tags, and bad heating, so we set out to find which ones are worth it. After weeks of research and testing, we found that Sunbeam Velvet Plush Cozy Feet is the best electric blanket you can buy. Available in a number of sizes, it offers extra heat in the foot area, plush fabric, and a five-year warranty.
Credit: Sunbeam
The Sunbeam Cozy Feet Electric Blanket is warm, luxurious and features extra heating zones designed to keep your tootsies toasty.
Best Overall
The Sunbeam Cozy Feet does several things very well, starting with producing consistent, distributed heat throughout the entire blanket. Larger sizes, like the queen we tested, offer dual heating zones with separate temperature controls so that two people can both sleep comfortably. Yet even in these larger models, the Cozy Feet only uses one power cord, which isn’t true of all heated blankets this size.
As its name suggests, the Comfy Feet also features independently controlled heat zones for your feet. The foot zone can be set higher than the rest of the blanket, resulting in a noticeably warmer foot pocket. For anyone with cold feet, this is the electric blanket of your dreams.
The Cozy Feet is made from ultra-soft material, with excellent stitching along its edges. The edges of the blanket are rolled, so the seams feel as soft and fuzzy as the rest of the blanket. The inside of the blanket, which contains its heat-producing electrical wiring, features a stiffer fabric. While not as pliable as other electric blankets, this stiffness and weight help keep the blanket from folding and bending on itself, protecting the wires within.
The Cozy Feet blanket weighs in at nine pounds, controllers and cables included. This makes it one of the heavier blankets we’ve tested. But the extra weight and thickness pay off. During testing, we found that it was one of the warmest blankets we’ve had the pleasure of lounging under.
During our 30-minute temperature test, with the blanket set to its highest heat level, the Cozy Feet registered a peak temperature of 91.2 ℉. This is great news for anyone that never feels quite warm enough, but it could be a dealbreaker for others. It’s heavy, dense, and hot enough that even with the heat turned off on one side, it may be possible for one sleeper to make the other feel too warm. Still, it’s a minor possible downside to an otherwise great top pick.
Consistent heating
Foot zone
Soft fabric
Stiffer inner fabric
The Sunbeam Microplush’s construction is not as nice as the other blankets in this guide—its wires are thick and a bit rigid. The wires are all the more noticeable thanks to the Microplus thin fabric. That said, it does offer a nice preheat feature with a separate button on its well-designed controllers.
The Microplush’s preheat function can be turned on by clicking a single button, instead of having to hunt for it through a menu of other features, which is nice. It also comes with a five-year warranty that should ensure long years of service, provided you treat it well.
Great value
Preheat button
Five year warranty
Really noticeable wiring
Serged ends
The Westinghouse has a lot of great features. The feel of its super soft fabric is lovely. The stitching along its edges is outstanding: the fabric at the edges is folded over to hide the thread work. The wires inside of the Westinghouse were not particularly noticeable and its controller felt like great build quality.
This blanket comes with a five-year warranty from a well-established company and might be worth the purchase if found at a good price.
Unfortunately, during testing I found that its heating was patchy, leaving many spots unheated for long periods of time.
Good construction
Five year warranty
Patchy heating
High electricity consumption
With wiring that can barely be felt inside of the blanket, the Perfect Fit Soft Heat Warming Blanket feels very much like a regular polyester blanket. While soft and cozy, it doesn’t offer the fancier features of our top pick, like separate heating zones for feet. However, it does provide consistent, subtle heat, which peaked at 90.8℉ during testing.
However, we were unimpressed with the controller’s limited functionality: There is no way to set a specific auto shutoff time, for example. We also have issues with the blanket’s warranty support.
While the Perfect Fit comes with a five-year warranty, our research uncovered that some customers have had difficulty having their warranty honored. Taking a close look at the company’s website, we found that multiple links lead to content unrelated to Perfect Fit products. And, when we called their warranty support number, we received no answer.
With this in mind, the Perfect Fit might not be a great buy right now.
Thin wires
Lightweight
Five year warranty
Questionable warranty support
No adjustable shut-off time
If you love plush, cozy blankets, the Beautyrest Microlight-to-Berber Reversible Heated Blanket is right up your alley. This dual-sided blanket features a super soft velvet on one side and a wonderfully cozy sherpa material on the other, making it incredibly warm and welcoming before you even turn on the heat!
This plush blanket comes in a number of rich colors, and its queen and king sizes have dual controllers, so partners can set their respective zones to different temperatures. Each controller comes with 20 heat settings—much more than standard—and since the fabric is fairly thick, its wires aren’t as prominent.
The Beautyrest Microlight-to-Berber Blanket isn’t the quickest to heat up, though it does have a preheat feature to warm up your bed before you climb in. Plus, once it gets to temperature, your bed will stay warm. In testing its reversibility, we found that the heat is more noticeable when the velvet side is facing down: The sherpa is so thick that it blocks some of the warmth from reaching you.
Unfortunately, the controllers kept this blanket from ranking higher. They’re unnecessarily big and blocky, and also hard to adjust and read. A piece of translucent plastic over the digital display makes it impossible to read at certain angles, and the buttons themselves are somewhat hard to press.
Additionally, while the blanket does deliver a range of heat, we were expecting more of a difference between the lowest and highest settings. In general, we weren’t able to feel a difference if we only nudged it up a few numbers.
Plush
Cozy
Big controllers
The Sunbeam Quilted Fleece Heated Blanket was the least welcoming of the bunch. It’s made from polyester like many others, but it’s neither soft nor cozy, and I didn’t want it against my bare skin. Additionally, the wires inside this blanket were very stiff—you can feel them immediately when you lie under it, and they made the blanket difficult to fold.
One thing that’s different about this blanket is its two separate heating zones are served by a single connector. For this reason, you have to set the cords up in a specific way to ensure the controllers end up on the right sides of the bed. I didn’t realize this until I had already spent 10 minutes threading the cords under the bed. It was frustrating, but also my fault for not reading the directions more carefully.
Another problem was that the cord connecting the two controllers was a little too short to reach under my bed, so if one controller got jostled or pulled, the other one fell off the side table.
This model has 10 heat settings and a 10-hour shut-off, but that’s about it in terms of features. It seemed to get warmer than other blankets, even on low settings. When I used it overnight on setting 2, I woke up uncomfortably warm after a few hours. As such, I would be concerned about using this blanket on a high setting overnight.
Gets warm quickly
Not very soft or cozy
Stiff wires
The Beautyrest Heated Ribbed Microfleece Blanket fell short for us. In addition to its clunky controllers, this electric blanket is made of thin fabric that’s not overly soft or welcoming, and you can readily feel its wires.
This blanket had cold spots because the wires were too far apart, and the wires also stop nearly a foot away from the edges of the blanket, leaving you with cold toes if you stretch out too much. Overall, there are simply better options out there to spend your hard-earned money on.
None we could find
Clunky controllers
Thin fabric
Credit: Reviewed / Camryn Rabideau
As you might expect, testing electric blankets required a lot of sleeping.
My name is Rebecca Boniface. As a full-time RV nomad, folks assume that when temperatures start dropping I would move my house towards warmer climates. The reality is a bit different: sometimes, I get stuck in a colder place, so I'm always prepared for a wide range of temperatures which help keep me on the road and in my RV home.
When the weather is truly awful, being able to hunker down in bed with an electric blanket keeps me toasty and my propane consumption low. At night, dropping the furnace and the oil heater down but cranking my electric blanket up allows me to keep warm using a smaller amount of electricity.
We tested electric blankets in a room heated to 60℉, while the tester lounged under the blanket and read—one of the toughest gigs we’ve ever had. We tested each blanket passively (with the power turned off) and then with the power turned on. This gave us an understanding of how warm the blanket was with and without electric heat.
To register how much warmth each blanket generated, we used iButton temperature sensors. Before testing, an iButton was tucked into the hip pocket of the tester’s pajama pants. Once covered up in the blanket, the tester would turn the blanket on, turn it up to its maximum temperature and stay under it for 30 minutes. This allowed us to register the peak temperature for each blanket.
Between tests, we removed the electric blanket and tested the bed with an IR thermometer to ensure that its temperature dropped back down to match the temperature of the room it was in. We also ensured that the tester’s body temperature had a chance to drop back down between each test.
Finally, we looked at the average amount of electricity each blanket used while in operation, by plugging it into an energy monitor. However, the blankets all used such a minor amount of electricity that the data we collected here felt like a secondary consideration, at best.
Subjectively, we considered the build quality of each blanket, how intuitive its controls were, how the shell material felt against the skin, and how noticeable the wires were inside each of the blankets.
In general, there are three types of electric blankets: standard blankets that you sleep under overnight, heated mattress pads that you sleep on top of, and throw blankets that you can use around the house. We focused on standard blankets, so the details provided here are specific to those.
With that in mind, here’s what you need to know about electric blankets to make an informed purchase.
Electric blankets aren’t as thick or puffy as a winter comforter. Instead, they’re typically more akin to a lightweight summer blanket or throw blanket. Most are made from polyester fleece or velvet, making them super soft to the touch.
What distinguishes these blankets from a regular throw is the wiring that runs throughout the material. Unlike a heating pad, electric blankets don’t have a “cover”—the wires are integrated directly into the fabric, and they can’t be removed.
At the end of the blanket is a power cord connector or two, depending on how many zones the blanket has. When you set the blanket up, these connectors are typically positioned at the foot of the bed. You can run the cords under the bed, positioning the controller(s) on your bedside table and putting the plug into a nearby outlet.
There are several common features you’ll see on electric blankets. First, almost all electric blankets have 10 heat settings and automatic shutoff after around 8 to 10 hours. This safety feature ensures your blanket won’t stay on all day, even if you forget to turn it off.
Another common feature is dual-zone controls. Queen- and king-sized electric blankets typically come with two controllers that allow partners to customize the heat on their side of the bed. This was once a “luxury” feature, but it’s pretty standard today across all brands.
There are also some special features reserved for more expensive electric blankets. For instance, some models have a “preheat” option, which typically heats up the blanket on a warmer setting for 30 minutes or more to get your bed toasty before you hop in. Note that the preheat settings we tested specifically note not to use them when you’re in bed.
Another special feature is a timer, which means the blanket will turn off after a set number of hours. Similar to the preheat option, this will ensure you don’t get too hot overnight, and it will save electricity, too.
If the cold weather makes it hard for you to fall asleep, an electric blanket is an effective way to warm yourself up without heating the entire room. It can also be used to preheat a bed, if crawling into a cold bed is an unpleasant thought. If your feet are often chilled, an electric blanket helps warm up faster and stay warm more effectively than throwing a pair of socks on in bed.
As part of the testing, we tried a highly-rated Amazon Basics blanket and I was reminded of how effective regular blankets can be. After testing several electric blankets in a row, I expected to be disappointed by a non-heated version. Other than a bit of chill around my arms, I didn’t notice much difference.
Our heat sensor supported this, noting a peak temperature difference of 1.4℉ between the unheated blanket and our Best Overall pick. So, if the room you’re in isn’t particularly chilly, an electric blanket might not serve you as well as you might be hoping.
One of the first things you’ll notice when you buy an electric blanket is there are a lot of safety precautions. They’re listed in big bold letters in the instructions, but the blankets themselves also sport a big patch with important safety guidelines—and it can’t be removed.
In general, all heated blankets have a few key guidelines for safe use:
Because it’s an electric device that you’re using while asleep, it’s important to follow these guidelines carefully to ensure your safety.
Despite the fact that they’ve been around for many years, electric blankets are still plagued with issues. There are several common problems you might experience if you purchase an electric blanket, and they range from moderately inconvenient to dangerous.
On the mild end of the spectrum, many electric blankets don’t last as long as you might expect, especially considering their high price. If you read reviews on popular electric blankets, you’ll see many users complain their blankets stop working after a few months—sometimes just one “zone” dies out, and other times the whole thing goes kaput. Another frequently cited issue is hot spots, where one zone or area of an electric blanket doesn’t get quite as warm as the other.
However, electric blankets can be dangerous if used incorrectly. Some users report their blankets started smoking or melting at the power cord connection. There’s also a risk of burning yourself if you leave the blanket on too high overnight.
To prevent these hazards, it’s essential to carefully read and follow the manufacturer’s safety precautions. You’ll also want to stop using your blanket if there are any signs of fraying or loose wires or other damage.
You may want to check if there's a year warranty on the blanket, too.
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