My verdict
There are few things I hate more than being cold in bed. But, with heating the house feeling more like a luxury than a necessity these days, sometimes it feels like wearing five pairs of socks and a bobble hat to bed is the only answer.
However, as I’ve discovered, you don’t need to blast an electric heater all night to stay cosy. The room can be chilly, but if the bed’s warm then you will be too. Enter the electric blanket.
Unlike a heated throw, which acts as an extra layer, an electric blanket goes on top of your mattress and under your sheet and it warms the bed for you.
It’s been a long time since I last used an electric blanket - our old one perished about a decade ago and was never replaced. And, since then, they’ve come a long way it would seem.
Rather than you and your partner fighting about being too hot or too cold and wrestling the duvet from each other, electric blankets now have multiple zones and temperatures to keep everyone happy.
The Vonhaus Dual Zone Electric Blanket has two controls so you and whoever you share a bed with can set your own preferred temperature - of which there are three.
It was incredibly easy to use and fast to heat up, which I definitely appreciated on cooler nights.
The dual controls and heating zones were really handy for making sure my side of the bed was the perfect temperature for me. The downside was when my husband went away and I had the bed all to myself. Half of my starfish shape was much warmer than the other because I hadn’t set both controls up.
I tested a double size Vonhaus electric blanket, but I actually have a king size bed. That meant that although the electric blanket was wide enough, it wasn’t quite long enough. Overall it wasn’t a huge problem (especially for me as I’m not very tall), but my husband complained of cold feet.
One drawback of having the blanket under the bed sheet was the fact you could feel it easily. I was very aware of where the heating elements were and although it didn’t make the bed uncomfortable, it did feel like you were making a small compromise between comfort and warmth rather than having the best of both.
I liked that the blanket is machine washable, although I haven’t yet needed to wash it. As a mum of two boys under five, pretty much everything in my life needs to be machine washable.
At under £50 I was impressed with the quality and the output of the heated blanket. It really did warm the bed up quickly and made cold nights a lot more bearable. I haven’t had to wear socks in bed for a while; long may that continue!