During a recent session of Christmas shopping I was looking at electric blankets for my wife. Browsing online from one site the next, I was rather surprised by the disparity in prices. Some sites had electric blankets as cheap as $20 while others were selling the base models between $80 and $100. It made me wonder. So I decided before I could settle on a specific blanket, I needed to do some research into the various manufacturers and models. I also had to ask myself if cheap electric blankets were really worth the price.
Unfortunately, all of my research still doesn't allow me to answer the question unequivocally. What's important to me in terms of price and quality may not be as important to someone else. Likewise, other people may have higher standards than I do. In the end, I made my decision based upon what I thought was important; anyone else would have to do the same. That said one of the first things I looked at was the reputation of specific blankets based upon customer reviews.
The Problem With Cheap Electric Blanket Reviews
Though I don't always trust customer reviews 100%, a common thread I found among them all was that cheap electric blankets generally had poorer reviews than the more expensive ones. However, I'm smart enough to know that with any product review, unhappy customers are far more likely to post a review than happy ones. So a particular electric blanket that had a total of 50 negative reviews doesn't necessarily mean a lot if the manufacturer has sold 10,000 units.
I also found that the more expensive electric blankets had more complex control modules and were made of more luxurious materials. That's a big factor. If I really know my wife as well as I think I do, she probably won't care what the blanket looks like. She's all about function. All things being equal, if you had two electric blankets with the exact same control module and wiring, she would not choose the more expensive model simply because it looks nicer. She would choose the cheaper model and save the extra money for something else. Besides which, the blanket is going to be underneath the comforter and no one will see it anyway.
Compromising on Quality
One thing I did not compromise on was quality construction. I refuse to buy an electric blanket that is not UL listed as the build quality of an electric blanket in highly important for several safety reasons. Never buy an electric blanket on the sole reason of price if you suspect it might not work safely for very long.
In the end, I didn't buy the cheapest electric blanket I could find, but I didn't buy the most expensive one either. I settled for a mid-range model that cost me about $50, primarily because I was comfortable with the manufacture and the positive reviews.