Dreamy Sleep or Dreary Sleep? (Dreamland 6705 Heated Electric Dual Control Blanket)

Member Name: Nar2

Product:	Dreamland 6705 Heated Electric Dual Control Blanket
Date:	21/11/08 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Economical, well packaged. washable, variable heat settings including fast heat, 3 yr guarantee,

Disadvantages: Wires can be felt through the fur, some quality issues.

Normally if I need a double heated blanket I'll go with what I know and use past experience relying on anything that is produced with a Morphy Richards label; my last blanket lasted for a good couple of years and now rests with my cousin. As far as I'm concerned if a heated blanket is plain and doesn't offer anything other than heat with a good bargain price and a well trusted name backed up with a three year guarantee, who's complaining? Trouble is it seems everyone in Edinburgh has been buying up utility blankets, woollen blankets and Morphy Richards heated blankets leaving the likes of Dreamland products behind - even though they mirror MR in offering a three year guarantee too. Although I have never sampled Dreamland before, I recently bought an over blanket for my mum and it seems to do well with her. Whereas Dreamland appear to make several products including the aforementioned double or single over blanket, they also produce a different range of heated mattress/under blankets either fur lined or plain, single, double, an Aromatherapy version and this latest version, a Dual Control version of the double fur lined blanket - naturally for double beds. Now at the time I considered that it would be cheaper to buy the Dual Control version simply on the pretence that it was cheaper at £59-95 and could be used only by me or if I had two guests staying like a couple who could take advantage of the dual controls rather than be subjected and authority to one hand control. One side of each of this double mattress blanket has 150 watts which for a total of 300 watts isn't bad, economy and power wise. ** This is a long review **


Out of the zipped clear acrylic packaging (handy to keep as it serves as a reusable storage bag for this product when not in use) came a very tightly packed soft fleece lined double blanket with an approximate measurement of 152cm by 137cm and the two Dual Control hand sets that plug into two plastic flush fitting permanent flaps located at the top of the blanket. I must say that I'm impressed with this design as my old Morphy Richards blanket suffered from having a control permanently stitched into the lining of the cloth and additionally caused a slight hump at the side of the bed that could be felt through before falling over the ends of the mattress or felt uncomfortably by my elbow! Luckily Dreamland has fitted the flaps as thin as possible so not to cause intrusion to the sleepers intended for use. The two hand sets are hand-sized and consist of a 9 level heat system that is controlled by two different heat settings; a fast 10 minute heating up system that confusingly works by selecting the "75 minute" option or for continuous through the night function, the "12 hour," setting. If the blanket goes over the selected 75 minute setting a smaller LED light will constantly flash on the handset to let the owner know that the blanket has automatically switched itself off, thus alerting the owner to switch off the blanket via the handset and re-programme it by switching it on again. But the heat settings don't just stop there. Generally speaking the 1-4 levels should be used for all night use, 5 to 7 for a medium pre-heat and 8 to 9 for a high level pre-heat - or so Dreamland would have you believe...


As well as being BEAB approved, I find these protective measures including a thermal cut out/overheating cut out very reassuring as well as the fact that unlike my Morphy Richards blanket that was damp cloth washable only, the Dreamland 6705 blanket is machine washable to an extent of a 40º centigrade "Gentle," washing machine program and can only be spun through a wool program and not through an extra spin cycle. In a tumble dryer the Dreamland blanket can be dried but it has to be on a high or low setting for domestic dryers and low only in launderette dryers. Additionally the blanket can also be washed via hand washing but it can't be wrung out, simply stretched out to let the water drain and over a washing line must be hung over the line without pegs to ensure no damage to the wires inside the stitched cloth. With both instances, the blanket has to be fully dry before it can be used again.


When it came to fitting the Dreamland 6705 fleece under blanket cover to my double mattress, I didn't find any problem locking the blanket down -initially. On the back of the cover, it has a simple thin woven fabric so you don't confuse yourself as to which part goes up - logic of the fur facing upwards should be enough to tell you. However, the blanket has a couple of cord pull strings that allow you to pull the mattress upwards and tie the string across to the other side of the cover (passing the string along the bottom of the mattress) so as to lock it to the mattress. Although I had no problems doing this, an earlier vacuuming session meant one of the strings got caught up inside the spinning floor head of my Sebo vacuum which meant by the time it was untangled and pulled, it had unfortunately been ripped off the Dreamland cover; as such the quality and stitching of the string supplied could be better here and against Morphy Richards who supply strengthened eyelet holes as well as the same type of drawstring/shower pull cord, the quality of thought is lacking here.


One string down however and the cover still clings to my mattress before putting on a mattress cover over the fleece. I have to say that I didn't find this unsurprising that in use the heat transferred through my cotton sheets has been tremendous even though I was unsure at the time of whether I could lay on the actual fleece cover. In the past I've often purchased a separate fleece mattress cover to use in conjunction with a heated blanket - but this time with the extra fleece built in, it makes sense to consider nothing of the sort - unless you really want to sweat it out and stick to the bed!! So what is it like to use?


One of the effects of the Dreamland series of under/mattress heated blankets is the constant source of annoyance from other reviews by other consumers who complain about the "extra foot," of blanket provided to heat up feet. I have to say that in defence of the reviewers, I can only agree. Being 6ft in height, the first time I used the blanket at night time I realised that the "extra foot," wasn't really much of an advantage if I was to follow the user manual to the rule of placing the under blanket dead centre of the bed - the result? My tootsies were freezing!! In the end in desperation and being uncomfortably cold, I could either assume the foetal position whilst asleep thus giving me sore back pain in the morning when awaking, or get up and put a pair of bed socks on. The second night however I made sure I pulled the cover down towards the end of the bed to ensure warm feet and toes! The heat settings however are not very good which is a complete shock; I find the first four levels produce a simmering warm feeling generally (this is in a rented property with central heating off at night and secondary glazing with hard floors) whilst level 5 to 7 of the medium pre-heat keeps me snug and cosy all night long. This is not good given that the latter settings are for pre-heat only! It doesn't get any better in terms of comfort either; by far one of the worst aspects of this blanket isn't the heat settings or the copious options you have to heat the bed before you get into it; I can feel for the most part the thick cables at times whenever I move over which suggests that although the cover won't move in use, that it really isn't that locked to the mattress. And before you say that it could well be down to having one less string to lock the cover to the mattress, I had already returned my blanket to John Lewis who refunded and replaced me with a new blanket free of charge. Even with a new cover complete with all strings, Imetec who make this blanket should make the cables within the fleece thinner and not as obvious; the fur lining is simply a thin line of fur as opposed to something far more substantial.


If you don't connect the dual controls at the time of fitting, the bed will only heat up one side of the blanket that you've connected the handset to. This meant that the side I slept on was gloriously warm whilst the switched off side was freezing. When you have a double bed all to yourself with a more traditional hot water bottle, it starts to make sense for a more overall surface warmth compared to worrying about whether you've plugged in the extra handset on the Dual control blanket and reached over to set it! As for that fleece addition, well through a cotton mattress cover its impossible to feel the fur between the toes and this is why fitting an extra fleece cover over a standard non-fur/fleece lined electric blanket starts to make more sense; if you thrive on rolling your feet through fleece as well as feeling the benefit of an actual fleece mattress cover on its own. Despite not being able to do this, the insulation of the fleece does keep the bed warm somewhat after the blanket has been switched off, but being made of synthetics and acrylics mean that the heat insulation between a good tog duvet starts to escape quickly which results in keeping the blanket switched on for longer.


I'd imagine then, the Dreamland 6705 Dual Control will be a great asset for couples in a double bed, whilst those on their own in a double bed could consider this blanket for its optional sides of heat offering the choice to go double or more economically heating the side you only sleep on. However, given the more simplistic nature of an electric double blanket that doesn't offer the fleece addition, I'm more inclined to be looking for Morphy Richards blankets that offer a better balanced level of heat as well as being simpler to maintain, fit and not be able to feel thick wires at odd points on the backs of my legs and back through my nights of sleep; to my mind an electric blanket should offer plain and simple expectations; Dreamland need to improve the quality here as well as making those wires a darn sight thinner. Nice try, though Dreamland! Thanks for reading. ©Nar2 2008

www.johnlewis.com

Dreamland products are made by Imetec but there is no company website other than email facility, which is frankly disappointing: info@imetec.co.uk

Summary: Morphy Richards knows how to do it better, but not a bad effort - could be a lot better.