Sunbeam Therapedic Heated Mattress Pad Saves Energy!

Living in Alaska, our winters get mighty cold, and my husband and I have enjoyed electric blankets for many years. This year we will be putting away our electric blanket and using our new Sunbeam Therapedic Electric Mattress Pad instead. We purchased this two weeks ago at Bed Bath & Beyond, and have been very pleased with it's performance so far.

Description of Warming Mattress Pad

This pad looks just like any other typical mattress pad, except it has wires running through it, much like an electric blanket would. Since our bed is a king size, the king size electric mattress pad has dual controls, also the same as an electric blanket.

Features

According to my users manual, the Sunbeam electric mattress pad has five different control styles. Ours is the "Choice Plus" version. It features 20 different warming settings, and will turn itself off automatically after the unit has been on for more than 10 hours. The button on the right has a PH setting, which is a preheat button that quickly heats up the pad so you can slip into a nice warm bed. If you push the PH button, it will warm the bed for up to 30 minutes before it returns to it's original setting.

Since ours is a king size, it comes with dual controls, one for each side of the bed. Queen sized versions also have dual controls. The 200 thread count fabric is made of a cotton and polyester blend top and a polyester bottom, that is as easy to care for as a traditional mattress pad, and can be machine washed and tumbled dry. Since so many beds these days have pillow tops they are thicker than a standard mattress. This pad will fit mattresses up to 19 inches in depth, and fits nicely onto our thicker mattress.

This heated mattress pad comes in four sizes: Twin, Full, Queen and King, and comes with a 5 year warranty.

Our Thoughts

Buying this electric mattress pad was actually my husbands idea. With the high energy prices, we felt it was a smart decision to have a mattress pad that we could keep on a warm setting to keep us comfortably warm at night, and turn down the heat in the house substantially to save on our gas bill. We have a very warm (and expensive) comforter made by Nikkan, and it keeps us very warm in the winter months, and not too hot in the summer. We wanted to continue to use this in the winter, but liked getting into a warm bed. We keep our room very cool at night, and turn the heat down to 50 degrees, so it gets very chilly in our home.

I was shocked by the high prices of the Sunbeam Electric Mattress Pads! First, we found it hard to find a store that carried them, and when we shopped at Bed Bath & Beyond, they only had this one model in stock. The king size retailed for $159.99. Luckily, they honored a competitors coupon for household items and took $30 off the price for me, bringing our cost down to $129.99.

The mattress pad we removed from our bed is a Simmons BeautyRest, and it's very thick and plush. This Sunbeam replacement is much thinner and not nearly as nice, but we are really enjoying it so far. I do notice the slight bumps from the electric cords running through the pad, but my husband doesn't feel them at all. If you are very sensitive to such things, you might want to remember this before spending a lot of money on this kind of product.

The dual controls are great, and easy to set up. The dial is large and is easy to move from 1-20 as the dial is lit up and there are ridges along the main controller that help you to turn it when the room is dark. What I don't care for is the fact that the on/off button is not back lit, and is very hard to find at night. This far into the winter season I am still turning the mattress pad off after several hours, as I am getting too hot, even on the lowest setting. I am usually fumbling around trying to find the off button! You would think for the price of this unit, it would be a little better designed. Other than that, we both love this product, and I find I am sleeping better - it has helped my mild arthritis! I feel much more comfortable sleeping on the heat rather than having it on top of me, as it would be with a traditional electric blanket.

I have a bad back, and deal with a lot of muscle spasms that can be very painful. I find relief from heat, such as a heating pad, and the heat from this mattress pad really seems to help relax my back muscles and help me to get a more comfortable and even a deeper nights sleep. If you have arthritis, muscle or joint issues and get relief from heat, this is a must to consider.

To conclude, using a warming pad on the bed, such as this Sunbeam Therapedic, is a good way to:

* Pre-warm your bed to prevent getting into a cold bed

* Save on energy costs

* Remain warm without heavy or bulky blankets

* Relieve sore muscles

* Keep the room at a comfortable cool temperature

Twin measures 39" W x 75" L; Full measures 54" W x 75" L; Queen 60" W x 80" L; King 76" W x 80" L and California King 72" W x 84" L.

Popularity of Electric Bedding

I was astounded to read that around 4 ½ million electric bedding products are sold each year in the USA, and Europeans purchase 4 million pieces. I found an excellent article that gives helpful information about electric blankets and mattress pads, (from the electric blanket institute), which claims that electric mattress pads have a few advantages over electric blankets. My husband made a few of these arguments to me as well. When you are using a heated mattress pad, the heat remains around the body, but when an electric blanket is used, half of that heat will radiate upward toward the ceiling. Therefore the mattress pads use less energy.

Another positive on the side of the warming pads is that they are safer because they remain flat, and blankets can get balled up and catch on fire. When you use a heated mattress pad, you can use any form of blanket or comforter on top, and you have to be careful about having any weight on top of an electric blanket.