Electric blankets for cold weather camping

[The other Sean]

We are in a van. Its amazing how little heat you need in between the “sheets” we have to keep the pad turned on low, high or even med. would be way too warm. Whats a nice bonus is turning it on a couple minutes before bedtime so its nice and toasty! I have back issues so I use it on the drivers seat for long drives also.
I see you are based in SC, we go to Lake Jocassee and Fontana, beautiful country up your way.

This is a valuable bit of thought. You really won't need it all night most times. While my wife and I don't use it camping, we always have an electric blanket on our bed at home. usually, in the dead of winter, we crawl in, flip the blanket to low, let it warm the mattress and comforter as we read. 9 of 10 times I shut it off when I decide to go to sleep. If you can get some "heat" put in to your sleeping bag/pad/blankets, you are money ahead on staying warm for a while.

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

But you can't wash it. That's a problem. If you sit around a fire wrapped in it it will smell like smoke. Sleep in it and you will sweat. Hard not to get everything covered in dust on the trail.

If/when we ever need to clean it, we can just have it dry-cleaned. But it shouldn't need washing too often (if ever). It's only going to be used in our bed between our comforter and sheet, so it's not going to be touching us directly and, therefore, won't be gathering sweat.

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

This is a valuable bit of thought. You really won't need it all night most times. While my wife and I don't use it camping, we always have an electric blanket on our bed at home. usually, in the dead of winter, we crawl in, flip the blanket to low, let it warm the mattress and comforter as we read. 9 of 10 times I shut it off when I decide to go to sleep. If you can get some "heat" put in to your sleeping bag/pad/blankets, you are money ahead on staying warm for a while.

Exactly. Getting your bed/bag/whatever "primed" with heat before you get into it can easily keep you warm throughout the night, as long as you've got a sufficient bag or blankets.

When I use to go backpacking, in colder weather I would sometimes boil water, put it into my Nalgene and then put the Nalgene in the bottom of my sleeping bag an hour or so before getting into the sack, and it was always a game changer.

 

[The other Sean]

Exactly. Getting your bed/bag/whatever "primed" with heat before you get into it can easily keep you warm throughout the night, as long as you've got a sufficient bag or blankets.

When I use to go backpacking, in colder weather I would sometimes boil water, put it into my Nalgene and then put the Nalgene in the bottom of my sleeping bag an hour or so before getting into the sack, and it was always a game changer.

I normally just use those hand warmer packs. If I wake up cold, I open one, toss it in the sack by my feet. Depending on the temp, 1-3 and I'm back asleep for the night.

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

I normally just use those hand warmer packs. If I wake up cold, I open one, toss it in the sack by my feet. Depending on the temp, 1-3 and I'm back asleep for the night.

Good call. It's amazing how far even a small amount of ambient heat can go in a well-insulated bag.

 

[Flipper]

This is a valuable bit of thought. You really won't need it all night most times. While my wife and I don't use it camping, we always have an electric blanket on our bed at home. usually, in the dead of winter, we crawl in, flip the blanket to low, let it warm the mattress and comforter as we read. 9 of 10 times I shut it off when I decide to go to sleep. If you can get some "heat" put in to your sleeping bag/pad/blankets, you are money ahead on staying warm for a while.

I agree. I don’t think we have ever had to run it all night. Usually the auto shutoff takes care of that. Wearing a beanie helps also. I’m ready for some cold weather. Mid 90’s again today down here.

 

[Flipper]

Good call. It's amazing how far even a small amount of ambient heat can go in a well-insulated bag.

Heading to Fontana in about a month. Cant wait. Did you get a chance to check it out yet?

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

Heading to Fontana in about a month. Cant wait. Did you get a chance to check it out yet?

I haven't yet but I'd love to in the Spring. Lately, I've been spending a bunch of time exploring around Jocassee and Keowee.

 

[Prerunner1982]

A naked warm body next to you helps too.

 

[Gustavo Amaral]

I don't know anything about the efficiency of any particular heated mattress pads vs. any particular heated blankets. Most likely, I'll be getting something like this:


It's a 12-volt travel blanket (designed to be plugged into a 12V cigarette lighter socket, which is also available on the Jackery 240) and it draws 4.6 amps – so 55 watts. Compared to the other heated blankets I looked at on Amazon, that wattage is extremely low. With that wattage, the Jackery 240 should be able to power it for nearly 4.5 hours, which is awesome.

You'll see some heated blankets advertised as "low voltage" but keep in mind that they're running off of AC, not DC. So in your house, it'd be plugged into a 120V wall outlet and on the Jackery 240, it'd be plugged into the 110V AC outlet. Using one of the "low voltage" blankets as an example, which only draws 1.5 amps, that would equate to 165 watts. So you'd only get about 1.5 hours of use with that blanket on the Jackery 240.

Actually I'm looking for this one: - It's more expensive than your suggestion. Maybe if I put the Blanket under my sheet it will run similar the heater mattress. I don't know.

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

Actually I'm looking for this one: - It's more expensive than your suggestion. Maybe if I put the Blanket under my sheet it will run similar the heater mattress. I don't know.

Nice, looks like a good option. FYI, it does have a higher amp draw, so it'll run at about 75 watts. That'll give you just over 3 hours of run time on the Jackery 240.

 

[Gustavo Amaral]

Nice, looks like a good option. FYI, it does have a higher amp draw, so it'll run at about 75 watts. That'll give you just over 3 hours of run time on the Jackery 240.

I saw the higher amp draw. But it's only in high mode. It's so difficult to compare due to we don't know how efficient (in the heater) does those are. But it seems to be more efficiently a heater under my body than on the cover. But I don't know exactly. It's only intuition! ;-)

 

[The other Sean]

I've also got an inexpensive fleece bag liner that is good for a few more degrees of warmth.

 

[DrivingTacoLoco]

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[Overland Vic]

I haven't bought a heated blanket yet but I did just buy the Jackery 240. Last week it was randomly on sale on Amazon - $70 off! So it was like $180 instead of the usual $250. Fastest $180 has ever left my bank account.

And it's awesome. I can't wait till it gets cold enough to try it out with a heated blanket.

Hey Jeffrey. How is your Jackery 240 working out for you? Can you point out some pro and cons from your experience?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

Hey Jeffrey. How is your Jackery 240 working out for you? Can you point out some pro and cons from your experience?

Thanks in advance!

It's great. I've used it once for an electric blanket for chilly camping and it worked great. Turned it on for maybe an hour and a half before we got in bed, so it was toasty warm when we got in. It knocked off about 30% of the battery. Mostly I've been using it to power my notebook when I'm working remotely.

I wouldn't really say there's any con to it. It all comes down to your needs. It is on the lower-powered end of things at 240Wh and 200W max output, so you're not going to be running an electric kettle off it or anything like that with a higher draw. But it's great for lights, personal electronics, short runs for an electric blanket, etc.

It's also super small and lightweight. Enough so that it's able to just stay in one of our camping boxes, which is awesome. That being said, I'm very much considering getting the Jackery 1000 they just released - especially since they've got a $200 discount on it right now. It's definitely too big and heavy to live in the camping box but you can run just about anything off of it.

 

[DrivingTacoLoco]

It's great. I've used it once for an electric blanket for chilly camping and it worked great. Turned it on for maybe an hour and a half before we got in bed, so it was toasty warm when we got in. It knocked off about 30% of the battery. Mostly I've been using it to power my notebook when I'm working remotely.

I wouldn't really say there's any con to it. It all comes down to your needs. It is on the lower-powered end of things at 240Wh and 100W max output, so you're not going to be running an electric kettle off it or anything like that with a higher draw. But it's great for lights, personal electronics, short runs for an electric blanket, etc.

It's also super small and lightweight. Enough so that it's able to just stay in one of our camping boxes, which is awesome. That being said, I'm very much considering getting the Jackery 1000 they just released - especially since they've got a $200 discount on it right now. It's definitely too big and heavy to live in the camping box but you can run just about anything off of it.

Find out if their 12 volt output is regulated and to what the voltage. I can only get 10.3 volts out of my Lion energy. I run my fridge 120 volts. Works but not ideal.

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

Find out if their 12 volt output is regulated and to what the voltage. I can only get 10.3 volts out of my Lion energy. I run my fridge 120 volts. Works but not ideal.

Wow, that's very odd. When not in use, it's not unheard of for a 12V outlet to be reading below 12V but 10.3 is way out of range. Just put a multimeter on mine and everything looks good. It's reading 13.32V.

 

[MOAK]

I don't know anything about the efficiency of any particular heated mattress pads vs. any particular heated blankets. Most likely, I'll be getting something like this:


It's a 12-volt travel blanket (designed to be plugged into a 12V cigarette lighter socket, which is also available on the Jackery 240) and it draws 4.6 amps – so 55 watts. Compared to the other heated blankets I looked at on Amazon, that wattage is extremely low. With that wattage, the Jackery 240 should be able to power it for nearly 4.5 hours, which is awesome.

You'll see some heated blankets advertised as "low voltage" but keep in mind that they're running off of AC, not DC. So in your house, it'd be plugged into a 120V wall outlet and on the Jackery 240, it'd be plugged into the 110V AC outlet. Using one of the "low voltage" blankets as an example, which only draws 1.5 amps, that would equate to 165 watts. So you'd only get about 1.5 hours of use with that blanket on the Jackery 240.

My wife was gifted one of these heated blankets. We have really good sleeping bags rated at -10 degrees and a Mr Buddy heater. So last winter she wraps it over her legs and plugs it into the 12v power outlet. My alternator has a pretty constant charge of 14.1 - 14.3 volts. Even with the blower going and the subwoofer cranking it’ll maintain the 14.1 volts. That blanket got plugged in and the voltage dropped all the way down to 12.5. Very gently I said, sweetie you see the voltage drop? I’m a lucky guy, my wife knows about all this stuff as she is generally at my side when doing any modifications to our Landcruiser. She unplugged it immediately and exclaimed, this thing sucks, literally. Save yourself money and aggravation. Get good sleeping bags, good cots, and a good R rated thermorest air pad and call it a day.. if you’re tent camping in really cold weather as we sometimes do, get the little Mr Buddy heater. We use ours to warm the tent up a bit so we can take our clothes off for bedtime. Once in bed we shut it off. I’ll get up at 5 or so and turn it on to warm up the tent in the morning to get dressed and begin our day. We’ve only had a couple of occasions to leave the heater on overnight. Using the heater the way we do, our 2-1/2 gallon propane bottle will last a week. If it’s on over nite then 3 or 4 nights. If you have all kinds of money then sure, 100 ah battery, charging system, wiring, and buying a new battery every 5 years or so, then by all means, go for it! Good luck with your decision. Oh BTW, these are the best base camp bags we’ve ever used, comfy, warm and big enough to roll around in. https://scheels.scene7.com/is/image/Scheels/70343840733_F?wid=1200&hei=1200

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

My wife was gifted one of these heated blankets. We have really good sleeping bags rated at -10 degrees and a Mr Buddy heater. So last winter she wraps it over her legs and plugs it into the 12v power outlet. My alternator has a pretty constant charge of 14.1 - 14.3 volts. Even with the blower going and the subwoofer cranking it’ll maintain the 14.1 volts. That blanket got plugged in and the voltage dropped all the way down to 12.5. Very gently I said, sweetie you see the voltage drop? I’m a lucky guy, my wife knows about all this stuff as she is generally at my side when doing any modifications to our Landcruiser. She unplugged it immediately and exclaimed, this thing sucks, literally. Save yourself money and aggravation. Get good sleeping bags, good cots, and a good R rated thermorest air pad and call it a day.. if you’re tent camping in really cold weather as we sometimes do, get the little Mr Buddy heater. We use ours to warm the tent up a bit so we can take our clothes off for bedtime. Once in bed we shut it off. I’ll get up at 5 or so and turn it on to warm up the tent in the morning to get dressed and begin our day. We’ve only had a couple of occasions to leave the heater on overnight. Using the heater the way we do, our 2-1/2 gallon propane bottle will last a week. If it’s on over nite then 3 or 4 nights. If you have all kinds of money then sure, 100 ah battery, charging system, wiring, and buying a new battery every 5 years or so, then by all means, go for it! Good luck with your decision. Oh BTW, these are the best base camp bags we’ve ever used, comfy, warm and big enough to roll around in. https://scheels.scene7.com/is/image/Scheels/70343840733_F?wid=1200&hei=1200

Works fine for me plugged into my 240Wh Jackery that I paid $180 for. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯