Heated blanket vs heated mattress pad

The spec table

The real difference is when the heat arrives

The specification table makes them look similar. In use they are not, and the difference is about timing rather than warmth.

A pad heats the mattress, and a mattress is a large thermal mass. Switch it on an hour before bed and you get into a bed that is warm all the way through, which is a genuinely different experience from getting into a cold bed under a warm blanket. The warmth is also underneath you, where the mattress has been drawing heat out of you all night.

A blanket heats the air in the small space between you and the fabric. It is faster to feel and it stops the moment you lift the blanket. It is better at keeping a person warm who is already in bed and cold.

So the question is not which is warmer. It is whether your complaint is about getting in or about being in.

Cost: closer than you would guess

Comparing the two Bedsure products, which is the only like-for-like pairing available since Bedsure is the only brand publishing wattage on both formats:

Three cents a night apart. That is not a reason to choose either one, and anybody presenting a running-cost argument between these two formats is manufacturing a difference that the published numbers do not support.

Where a real cost difference appears is in how people use them. A pad is commonly run hard for an hour before bed and then switched off, because its job is done once the mattress is warm. A blanket more often runs all night. Used that way the pad costs substantially less, and that is a habit difference rather than a specification one, so we are not going to put a number on it.

Where each one clearly wins

The pad wins if

• The complaint is getting into a cold bed.
• You dislike feeling the wires. A fitted sheet sits between you and the element.
• You want the bed to look normal. It is invisible once made.
• There is a pet or a child on the bed. The element is under a sheet, out of reach of claws. See heated blankets and pets.
• You would rather not store anything in summer. It can stay on the bed unpowered.

The blanket wins if

• You are cold once you are already in bed, not before.
• You want to use it on the sofa as well as the bed.
• Your mattress is deep, or already has a topper, and you are unsure a pad will fit. Pads claim 18 inches and that stops being enough once a topper is on.
• You want the warmth adjustable during the night in a way you can feel immediately.
• You want the option of layering it over the duvet on the coldest nights.

The memory foam case, which decides it outright

One situation where the choice is not a preference. If you have a memory foam topper and you are not going to remove it, a pad has to go on top of the topper, under the fitted sheet, or it will not work: foam insulates, and a pad underneath one heats the underside of the foam.

If that placement is not practical, a blanket over you is the format that works, because it does not have to get heat through the foam at all. Full detail on heated bedding on memory foam and placement rules.

The verdict

For most people asking this question, the pad is the better first purchase, because the complaint that sends people looking is almost always a cold bed rather than a cold night. It is invisible, it cannot be bunched, it keeps the element off your skin, and it stays on the bed in summer.

Buy the blanket instead if you want the flexibility to move it, if your bed is too deep for a pad to fit properly, or if you are genuinely cold in bed rather than cold getting in. And do not choose between them on running cost, because at three cents a night the published numbers do not support a decision either way.