electric blankets

[FTVS]

are they safe?

[andy hughes]

The concensus is that they are not adviseable. Wiring problems, bed fires and so on have made them a lot less popular, and the increase in duvets and central heating has made them more or less redundant. If you are considering a second-hand one - don't!

[Oneeyedvic]

Rubbish - sorry but there is absolutely nothing wrong with an electric blanket. The inadvisable ones are ones from carboots which are 20 years old and have dodgy wiring. If they were really dodgy, I doubt you would find Debenhams, John Lewis etc selling them in this age of litigation. We used to use one - unfortunately since we went up to a super king size bed we can't get one that fits. There is no nicer feeling in winter than getting into a prewarmed bed. I do agree - DON'T BUY A SECOND HAND ONE though.

[Oneeyedvic]

Oooohhhh, just found and ordered one - �85 from amazon...... Can't wait

[secretspirit]

I don't think they're safe. My grandparents bought a brand new one and used it as per the instructions and when they'd had it 13 months (i.e. 1 month out of guarantee) it caught fire and they had to get the fire brigade out. That was last year so we're not talking about a long time ago. You're far safer with a hot water bottle ;-)

[Oneeyedvic]

Trading Standards advice is to get it checked every 3 years: http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/calitem.cgi?file= ADV0047-1111.txt Sorry, secretspirit, but you will find someone who has something broken just outside of warranty for every thing you can imagine - if you took that advice you would never buy anything - and hot water bottles do leak - boiling water over your body....

[secretspirit]

I know things break outside of warranty but when they can potentially burn your house down it's quite serious! Anything can be dangerous of course.

[Oneeyedvic]

New one just come through - 3 year guarantee on it!