Silentnight Comfort Control Electric Blanket Review

I thought electric blankets were all heated duvets that you wrap yourself in or pull over yourself like a comforter, but most of them are actually thin heated sheets that you permanently place under the fitted sheet of your bed.

If you’re interested in a heated blanket that’ll cover you on the couch or in bed, check out our Glamhaus heated throw review.

I tested the Silentnight Comfort Control king size electric blanket during a cold spell in the UK and was grateful for what it offers – a quick way to warm your bed before getting in, at a cost relatively small compared to central heating or plug-in radiators.

This blanket is a good simple option but it’s not without its flaws, which I wasn’t expecting given its £55 price tag.

Design features

The Comfort Control has a similar design to most under-sheet electric blankets. This is a simple polyester fleece blanket that you secure over the top of your mattress or duvet using elastic straps.

It’s very easy to put on, but I immediately found that the king size blanket was not really king size. It measures 165 x 137cm, while a standard UK king mattress is 200 x 150cm.

According to Silentnight’s images, the blanket should be positioned at the foot of the bed, leaving a gap from about your shoulders to the top of your pillow where it doesn’t reach.

This creates two problems. The first is that the top of the bed does not heat up! I felt the coldness of the bed much more keenly in winter and would prefer my top half to be warm when I came in after putting the blanket on – but if I moved the blanket it meant the bed was cold where my feet rest, as the blanket doesn’t go that far.

My little wife didn’t have the same problem.

silent night

Silentnight also manufactures the blanket in single, double and super king sizes. The latter is the same width as the king at 165cm and is only 10cm longer at 147cm. Why are the blankets not the same size as the mattress?

I’ve used other electric blankets that cover most of the mattress and found them much more satisfying. I found with this size too small that the blanket also tended to bunch up or tilt to the side after a few nights.

The other issue with the Silentnight is the positioning of the connector. The blanket has a coiled wire inside that gets hot when you turn it on, so it needs a mains-connected cable to plug in somewhere.

This connector is necessarily on the left side of the bed when looking at it from the foot of the bed. It needs to be there so you can access the three-tier hanging heat controller when you’re lying down.

It happens to be my side of the bed. Due to the size of the blanket, the connector sits precisely where I lay and I often rolled over it painfully at night. It’s a flawed design.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Other electric blankets exist with two separate sides so that each person in a larger bed can control their temperature. The Comfort Control only has one control, so if you’re sharing a bed you’ll need to agree whether you want it set to one, two or three.

I found level one too low for the coldest nights. As a rule of thumb, setting it to level two for an hour before bed makes the sheets nice and warm without being uncomfortable. Level three is noticeably toasty, but a good setting for quickly warming up the bed if you forget or are particularly cold.

This is a simple electric blanket and has no “smart” features or technology to adjust the temperature in any way. It’s on or off, although Silentnight says it has “overheat protection”.

You can also machine wash the blanket after removing the connector.

How much does it cost to run?

Electric blankets are an economical way to heat your bed. The Silentnight Comfort Control king size can heat up to 90 watts on level three, which equates to around 3p per hour of use at the time of writing in January 2023.

Level one heats up at 28 watts, or 1p per hour, and level two at 51 watts, or 2p per hour.

This is considerably cheaper than running central heating or a plug-in electric heater.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Pricing & Availability

The Silentnight Comfort Control is an entry-level electric blanket with the most basic features: three heat levels.

The king size blanket I tested costs £55 direct from Silentnight or Amazon UK. It is also available in single, double and super king sizes from these retailers.

It is not available in the United States.

Verdict

The Silentnight Comfort Control Electric Blanket is a simple and relatively affordable electric blanket that could save you a lot on electric or heating bills, costing around 3p per hour to use on the highest setting.

It’s almost too simple considering there’s only one control for the whole bed, whereas other electric blankets are split in two so you and a partner can control separately if you wish. different temperatures.

The cover is also smaller than the mattress size it matches, so you might want to size up, and the cable connector in the upper left corner sits uncomfortably close to where a person lies.

Despite these drawbacks, it is still a competent and efficient electric blanket that heats up quickly and has an overheating safety device.

For another buying option, take a look at our Cosi Home heated blanket review.

Specifications

• 165x137cm
• Polyester
• Three heat settings
• Maximum power 90 watts (about 3p per hour)
• Overheat protection