I don't know how long ago your great aunt and uncle died, but I'm sorry for your loss.

Electric blankets should be discontinued. What a fire hazard. Scary stuff

We use a heating pad to warm our feet in the winter. DH turns it off when he comes to bed. I think all my quilts have 80 20 batting. Glad the child is safe, as some one else said, blankets and quilts can be replaced, not so with children.

Thanks for the warning. We have our electric blanket on a timer so that it turns on a half hour before we get into bed to take the chill off and shuts off during the night. For those with blankets, you might consider doing this as the blanket does not get left on accidentally and it saves electricity.

When I was a teen in the 50's, yes I am dating myself, there weren't electric blankets. I slept upstairs without heat here in the mid-west and it was cold in the winter. We heated river rocks, that were nice and smooth, on the wood stove and wrapped those in old clothes or old flannel sheets and put in the bed under mounds of quilts to help get warm and stay warm. Many a time the cloth that wrapped the rocks would be scorched the next morning. I wonder how close I came to a bed fire? All our quilts had cotton batting as this was before polyester. The GOOD OLD DAYS! Just thought I would share.

The warning on electric blankets says not to put anything on top of it. People don't read warnings or follow them, the reason some have dumb sounding warnings on them. Life don't use a hair dryer in the bathtub, someone did that and that is why they have them on all type of warnings. I have used electric blankets and had no problems, cotton batting would have just caught fire. Warnings tell you not to leave the on when not in use, DUH.

Bad news for me. I sleep under atleast one electric blanket, one polar fleece blanket and one quilt come Fall. Just the electric blanket is not going to cut it and I can't get warm. Do you think it had to do with a person sitting on top? Because I know you are not supposed to sit on top of an electric blanket.
Cold in SoCal

[quote=Kathy N]I lost a great aunt & uncle to an electric blanket fire. I've not used one since. They are scary.[/

Yikes is this recent!

Thanks for sharing, I don't like them but my husband does. Glad the boy is fine.

wow thats scarey thank god i,ve never brought one, as im always scared to use one ,now i know why ?,happy to hear no one got hurt or the house did,nt burn down .at least one good lesson came out of this on electic blankets

Like alot of you I don't like them either! Good common sense tells me they're not good! With all the government regulations to keep us all safe I'm amazed that they are still on the market!

Try heating corn packs in microwave and putting under your sheets and blanket then when you crawl in itsalready warm and toasty and it will bd much more effective and efficeint and cheaper! Plus it's a great heat! You'll never go back!

Try heating corn packs in microwave and putting under your sheets and blanket then when you crawl in itsalready warm and toasty and it will bd much more effective and efficeint and cheaper! Plus it's a great heat! You'll never go back!

Okay, what's a corn pack? I've made many rice or buckwheat packs for the neck or whatever ails you and those work really well to warm your bed, too.

oh my i m glad the child is ok , i dony use a electric blanket but when i hear of someone that uses one i will think of the lesson you learned and pass the info on
thanks for the info

This is a wake up call for me. I use a quilt on top of the electric blanket. That picture was enough to throw the electric blankets in the trash.

I'm scared to death of electric blankets. My husband loved them. He would turn it on at night and he always fell asleep quickly. I would immediately get up and unplug it. Thank goodness we now live in a warm climate.

Thanks for the warning. Glad the boy was not hurt.

We used them for years and I hated them. Found out I have too much electricity in my system and it sets me off in strange ways. I can actually feel the vibes from the current and it is weird.

Give me blankies or quilts.

Yes, thank goodness he wasn't hurt. I jar an electric blanket drom October to May because my husband likes to sleep with the upstairs heat off (we are not compatible temperature- wise). It's kept the peace in our marriage. But now I'm scared.

I don't use electric blankets but this is good information to pass on to those who do.

You could not pay me to use an electric blanket. I am that afraid of them. Dad was a Fireman for 20 something yrs & oh the horror stories we have heard! I also made Corn pillows & pads that we heat in the microwave. I slip them in @ the foot of the bed and it is nice & toasty when I crawl in. They I can put my feet on the corn pads or pillows. I made many diff sizes. Even some small ones that I heat & put in my pocket to keep the hands warm when I'm outdoors. I used Cracked Corn like Deer Hunters use. Made the pillow or pads out of ticking fabric and then made cute pillowcases for them. Heat the lg one for 3--3 1/2 mins. and it is better than a heating pad.

I was reading a book about feng-shui - and it mentioned that electromagnetic fields close to our bodies can be disruptive - especially at night when trying to sleep.

(clock radios, computers, TVs, almost anything that has to be plugged in)


Can/should people with pacemakers use electric blankets?

Thanks for the tip! I used an electric blanket years ago, and under a comforter too. Fortunately, nothing happend. I got rid of the electric blanket when I got my first kitten. I didn't like the sound of his claws catching on the blanket. Haven't used one since, since I have had cats ever since!

wvdek, I am the same way! I have alot of electricity in my body and I also feel the vibes or lectric shock, whatever it may be!! But when I start feeling them, I immediately turn the blanket off for fear of getting lectrocuted! Scarey! I have so much electricity in my body that I shorten out the tv signals sometimes! My electric blanket caught fire one time while heating up before going to bed about 30 years ago! Yep, caught my mattress on fire, well really it just smoldered but I caught it in time before it caught fire, from smelling the smoke! Yes, I still use an electric blanket to heat up my bed, but I am continuously checking it! My cause of the damaged blanket was that the wiring must have shorted out from washing and alot of use! It was given to me already used! Layering the quilts still does not heat the bed before entering and I don't have enough body heat to heat it!! But when my husband is in bed, he is like 100 degrees and it doesn't take long to get warm with him beside me!!

That is why I use a rice bag (just pop it in the microwave for a minute for hours of heat - no wires) rather than an electric heating pad. Also pile on the quilts for me. Never did like blankets of any kind.

Wow I am so thankful that no one was hurt. God bless.

My son and DIL bought me a heated mattress pad about 3 years ago because I get so cold in the winter and I cannot lie down in a cold bed when I am so cold. But last year after my daughter heard of the blanket and the child, she harrassed me last year too take the mattress pad cover off. Almost had me scared too the point I almost took it off and throwed it away but I don't have quilts too cover the bed. Even with the bed heated sometimes I would get DH too put some throws over my feet and legs cause they were so cold. I found two quilts the other day in some things in our storage building but they need so much repair done to them. DH bought an old quilt at an estate sale a couple of months ago and it has some bad spots on the edges that need fixing. Guess he is trying to tell me I won't have the mattress cover this year. I always turned them on about 2 hours before going to bed and when he got in bed, he would turn his side off. I am just cold natured to the point of being miserable when winter gets here.

Poodles,

I completely understand the being cold in winter! My old farm house has original single-pane windows and an oil furnace that is over 50 years old (read 57 degrees in the winter costs $600+ per month). I'm always cold. I made several sizes of rice bags, heat in the microwave and put in the bed 15 minutes before I climb in. They really heat up the bed and keep me warm all night long. Flannel sheets help as well! After seeing the damage done to the quilt, I will never use anything electric on my bed again. My friend is lucky her son wasn't burned severely, killed or her house burned down. Makes me love my rice bags even more!!!

That is a very scary thing to have happen! Who knew!?!?! I'm posting on your topic in the hopes that it will move to the front again and be read by a few more people. I'm sure glad the little boy is okay!!! Makes me wish I could take the poly batting out of my past 3 quilts. (i'm a newbie) But I can warn their users and use cotton from now on! I didn't like the uneveness of the poly batting I was using anyway. It was so thin in spots. The best way for me to buy cotton batting is to use those JoAnn 50% off coupons!

And for all you people with chilly farm house bedrooms... just borrow a friend who is hot flashing and have her come over and tuck you in at night! I'm available on weekends. :-P