Heating Pad to stay Warm - Nice

[Groovy2]

i have been using a SunBeam Kingsize heating pad
to stay warm for 2  Winters and it works Great -

Uses small amount of electricity (20 watts ) so even small house
battery will be enough - small inverter - 
Heating pad Uses 120 volts AC-

heater pad Stays ON till you turn it off - NICE 
3 temperature settings 
( No automatic shut off after 45 minutes = cold 1 hour)
staying ON is a hard to find option 

heater pad is Large ish = 12x15 = Nice

a larger 24x12 is avaiable but have not tried 

Sunbeam Kingsize Heating pad $15 ish - Amazon

 

[elocs3981]

I totally agree with the option of using a heating pad to sleep in a van even in a Great White North winter where it actually gets cold as in 0 F and not the "Oh it's 32 degrees and it's so cold".  We know what cold in the winter actually is here.
I've looked at the using propane heaters of one type or another and frankly I don't consider it worth the risk.
A good below zero sleeping bag with a heating pad seems like a great option to get a good and safe night's sleep.
Where I live I always need to get into a cold vehicle on a frigid morning and start it up to warm it up, so what's the difference?  I don't need to stay in the van all day when it's cold and on a sunny day if I park it facing south the sun will warm it up quite nicely.  So no carrying propane or some other fuel and worrying about fire or fumes.
I would much rather pay for a good house battery which would be able to keep the heating pad warm for a night.

Now on Amazon it says I order this https://www.amazon.com/Pure-Enrichm...lja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1 pad a year ago but it's not what I'm using now.
I have a Sunbeam that does not have an auto shutoff and it does get very warm and even too hot without a covering.  It keeps the core area of my body, my chest and abdomen, completely warm.

I would certainly like to hear more from those who have used a heating pad as their heat source for sleeping in their van in the cold winter months.

 

[BigT]

An old member of this board, SternWake, used to rave about his 12V heating pad, saying it was super warm and used almost no power to run. He didn't run it all night, just before getting into bed, as body heat generally warms up a bed anyway.

Eventually I hope to get a much larger van with multiple AGM batteries so I can run one of these 12V pads for longer periods of time.

 

[maki2]

you don't want to lie on top of it as heating pads can cause the foam to shrink down in size. Not a real melt down but nonetheless similar to it.

 

[highdesertranger]

elocs how are you charging your battery? highdesertranger

 

[LoveCareThinkDo]

I have a car-seat heater that I picked up out of the free pile at the last RTR. It is about 15" x 30" and 35 watts. It has a standard 12v auto-lighter plug. By experimentation, I have determined that it only uses electricity when there is at least a little bit of pressure on it. Laying on top of my bed with nothing on it =no current used. Under my blankets = 35 watts used. It is just warm enough to keep my feet warm on the coldest nights without making my feet too hot. 

It seems to be really durable. Remember, it was made for people to slide around on as they get in and out of their car several times a day.

It is a Wagan brand, model number: 2282[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif], but that one has been [/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]discontinued.[/font]

 

[doublegregg]

i'm not even in a van yet... but i have a bed heating pad  in my stix n brix. it gets down to 45F or so in my house at night. the warming pad i set on it's lowest setting. you can't really tell the bed is warm. it's just not cold. it's really great just to not have freezing spots in my bed. i've never turned the pad beyond one of its super low settings, so i don't even no how warm it gets..... i'd love to have something like it when i get my van....

 

[SheepDog]

I use a a Nalgene bottle full of boiling water in a wool boot sock! Keeps the bed warm all night if you have decent covers and has zero chance of causing issues while you sleep!

SD

 

[abnorm]

We use a 12 volt Electro Warmth Bunk Heating Pad...the 36" x 60" pad across the foot of the bed….on a very low setting....'bout a $100

No more cold feet at nite !