Beurer Indulgence Heated Underblanket review: Surprisingly warm

Beurer’s Indulgence Heated Underblanket replaces its very popular Monogram Komfort Heated Mattress Cover. Like its predecessor, it uses a fitted skirt to protect the mattress to ensure that the garment is kept tight, while differing in color and the arrangement of its controls.

In terms of performance, this is one of the best electric blankets I’ve tested, with only a few niggles that won’t bother everyone. Read on to find out more…

Beurer Indulgence Heated Underblanket: What do you get for the money?

The Indulgence Heated Underblanket is available in four sizes, with one priced at £65. This rises to £84 for a double with one controller and £100 for a double with two controllers. Both the king and super king options are only available with two controllers, and cost £110 and £125 respectively.

These are the same prices as the Dreamland Hunker Down Scandi Sherpa underblanket, which also costs £100 for a double, and the Snuggledown Intelligent Warmth electric blanket, which is slightly cheaper at £82 (and which didn’t do well in our heat test). Of course, there are cheaper options on the market, such as the Silentnight Comfort Control electric blanket at £35 for a double – the caveat here is that the blanket doesn’t cover the entire surface of the mattress.

The Indulgence Heated Underblanket is 100% polyester, made with a ‘Teddy Bear’ style fabric on top and fleece underneath. The fitted skirt is a great addition, with plenty of stretch to fit my current 33cm deep mattress. Once you put the garment on, it doesn’t move at all, which can be a problem with pajamas that rely on stretchy straps. It also means that every part of the mattress is covered with a blanket. Having said that, the blanket is designed in such a way that there is a non-warming part where your pillow sits. You’ll find additional heating pads below to help keep your feet warm.

There are six heat settings to choose from: the highest of these (six) is designed to heat the garment to the hottest temperatures. Sadly, Beurer doesn’t quote any figures for this on his website, but Next – where the blanket is sold – suggests that the blanket will warm up in eight minutes.

You’ll also get four timer settings for two, six, nine and 12 hours, with overheat protection in case anything goes wrong with the cables. The temperature is set with buttons on the clear black controller, while the slider on its side is used to set the timer.

Comfort, performance and test results

Despite the polyester construction, the Indulgence Heated Underblanket feels soft to the touch and is comfortable to sleep on, even under a fitted sheet. You can’t feel the threads in the main body of the blanket when you’re lying on it and, strange as this may sound like a description of a warm blanket, the fabric actually feels very breathable: while I felt warm, the blanket didn’t make me feel clammy.

I did some tests to see how quickly the blanket heats up and what temperatures it reaches. I taped a temperature probe to the surface of the blanket near one of the heating wires and recorded the temperature rise. After 10 minutes at full power, the Indulgence Heated Underblanket warmed to 32.5°C and, repeating with the duvet on top, the temperature reached 40.4°C. I was particularly impressed by the temperatures at half power (heat setting three) and, with the blanket reaching 29.8°C after 10 minutes. In fact, in real life testing, I found that I only needed to leave the blanket on the first or second level overnight as the third level was too warm.

The Indulgence Heated Underblanket also holds the heat very well and you can feel a little warmth on the bottom of the foot, a fact supported by my reading. Using an infrared thermometer gun, I measured how warm different parts of the garment were after an hour. At the bottom of the mantle, temperatures reach 52°C, compared to about 41°C in the middle and upper part.

Finally, I also ran power consumption tests to see how the Indulgence Heated Underblanket performed. At full power the blanket used 63W of heat and 0.008kWh accumulated after 30 minutes, which is among the lowest readings we’ve recorded for an electric blanket. At half power, these readings were 48W and 0.010kWh respectively.

What can be improved?

I had a few minor issues with the Indulgence Heated Underblanket, starting with the blanket setup. The cable connects to the blanket at the bottom end, and is inserted through a hole on the outside of the blanket (two of these are two sizes for the controller, one in each corner). You can then run the cable next to the mattress, or under the bed, to wherever you want the controller, and plug it into a power outlet. I personally found this process fiddly, but it means you don’t feel any connectors at the top of the bed when you’re lying down.

Another issue I had was with the heating elements of the blanket. When I was lying on my back, I felt strings running horizontally across the blanket just below the pillow area. That being said, not everyone will have this issue: for example, my husband was completely deaf. I am light weight, while he is of average build, so this may be an issue that affects lighter people.

Should you buy the Beurer Indulgence Heated Underblanket?

Despite this relatively minor concern, the Beurer Indulgence Heated Underblanket earns its five stars – if not the Best Buy Award – and I would not hesitate to recommend it to many people. Comfortable, well designed (especially the mattress cover and fitted skirt) and the heat is amazing.

Of course, it’s not a cheap option, especially an electric undergarment. But on balance, I think it’s worth the investment.