The Only Thing I Look Forward to About Winter Is Curling Up Under This Electric Blanket | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Marguerite Preston

Marguerite Preston is an editor covering kitchen gear. She has spent countless hours in the test kitchen and edited hundreds of guides since 2017.

I am a summer person. Winter is a season I suffer through only because, for a variety of reasons, I’ve chosen to live in New York. I dislike the early darkness and the dreary days, but most of all, I dislike the cold. Seriously, I would much rather sweat on a subway platform in August than leave my apartment on an average February day.

So I am barely exaggerating when I say that the only thing I look forward to about winter—and even miss during warmer months—is falling asleep cocooned in the gentle, soothing warmth of my Beautyrest Heated Electric Blanket.

This electric blanket may not be much to look at, but it has a wide and surprisingly nuanced range of temperature settings, and it emits a soothing warmth.

A post shared by NYT Wirecutter (@wirecutter)

When I volunteered to test the Beautyrest blanket for Wirecutter’s guide to electric blankets and heated mattress pads, I didn’t have high expectations. I just saw it as a low-stakes way to try to solve a common problem: My husband sleeps hotter than I do.

We keep our bedroom quite chilly (and we have little choice, since the radiators in our pre-war building are either off or sauna-level hot). But my husband nonetheless finds comforters suffocating, and he struggles to sleep under more than a cotton quilt. For years, I’d bundle up or stick a little heating pad underneath myself, and I’d spent the first hour or so in bed waiting for our body heat to warm things up.

So I figured it was worth adding a twin-size electric blanket to my side of the bed, underneath our cotton quilt. But there were many reasons I thought this might not work out. What if the wires zigzagging through the blanket felt stiff and unpleasant? What if it got way too hot? And, frankly, the blanket looked kind of cheap. But if it didn’t work out, at least I could offer some good testing notes for the guide.

Reader, it did work out. In fact, beyond solving the metabolic mismatch in my marriage, the Beautyrest blanket has become a highlight of my dark winter evenings. Every night, I crawl into bed, crack open a book, and let the warmth settle over me like a weighted blanket, melting the day’s tension and quieting my mind. To me, the effect is a near-spa-like level of relaxation (granted, with a 3-year-old at home, my standards may be low).

For the most part, my concerns about the blanket have dissolved right alongside my stress. While I can easily feel the wires in the blanket when I run my hands over it, they’re lightweight and flexible enough that I don’t notice them when the blanket is on top of me. There is a big plastic connector where the power cord plugs in, but that’s at the foot of the blanket, and it ends up draped over the foot of the bed, where it doesn’t bother me.

You adjust the temperature with a controller (or, on the queen and king sizes, with two controllers, one for each side of the bed), and it’s attached to the blanket by a cord. And the level of adjustability is impressive: All of Beautyrest’s bed-size blankets have 20 temperature settings (the throw sizes have just three), and I’ve found there really are subtle differences between each setting.

It also helps that you can set an automatic shut-off timer for anywhere from one to 10 hours. For safety, the blanket will always shut off after 10, but it’s fine to use for that long, provided you follow the manufacturer’s guidelines (don’t run the cord under your mattress, don’t cover the controller, and don’t leave the blanket on while it’s folded or all bunched up).

Most of the time, I keep my blanket set pretty low, between a 5 and a 7, depending on the night, and it provides just enough gentle heat to soothe without bothering my husband or causing me to wake up sweating. But I have cranked it up above 10 on a few occasions—most notably, this blanket got me through a couple of miserable sick days when I couldn’t shake a chill.

The controller does present some minor annoyances. The long cord it’s attached to is an eyesore that stretches from the foot of my bed to the nightstand next to my head. Plus, it’s lightweight enough that it can easily topple from the nightstand if I accidentally kick the cord. Also, the buttons don’t light up, so there’s some fumbling around if I want to turn on or adjust the blanket in the middle of the night. But I’d rather fumble and feel for the slightly raised buttons than have them glowing in my face all night.

Also, to be honest, it’s not just the cord—the whole blanket is kind of an eyesore. This is the one suspicion I had that did prove true: This blanket looks kind of cheap. To be clear, it’s not shoddy-construction, possible-fire-hazard cheap. The cord and controls feel sturdy, the blanket is UL-certified, and, according to the manufacturer, “each product undergoes 78 independent safety tests.” You can even safely throw it in the washing machine, after you unplug it.

But the polyester material itself, though soft and cozy enough, looks low-quality. The plush side has a plasticky sheen, and the sherpa side quickly becomes pilled and matted. There are at least some decent, neutral colors to choose from, and Beautyrest also makes a version that’s plush on both sides, if you don’t like the sherpa look. But it’s still not the kind of thing I’d leave out in my living room when guests come over or even on top of my bed, rather than hidden underneath the quilt.

Style, however, is not what this blanket is for. This blanket is for staying warm on frigid nights (and mildly chilly nights, for that matter). It’s for burrowing under after a long, hard day (or in the middle of one). It’s for melting away my cares and giving me something to look forward to at the end of every too-short, too-dark, too-cold winter day.

This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp and Daniela Gorny.

After testing dozens of heated mattress pads and blankets over the years, we found the best ones to keep you cozy at night.

Whether you’re escaping the cold or embracing it, our favorite throws, slippers, space heaters, and more will keep you toasty until spring.

We talked to experts, read hundreds of reviews, and tested a dozen heating pads, finding that the PureRelief XL King Size is the best for most people.

A great weighted blanket is soothing, cozy, and attractive on your bed or sofa. We have nine to recommend for adults and kids.

Advertisement

Marguerite Preston

As an editor I cover cooking tools and small kitchen appliances (such as toasters and blenders), as well as all things related to food and drink, including coffee gear, table settings, and taste tests.

Advertisement