Dunelm Teddy Electric Throw: Warm, fast and budget friendly

True to its name, the Dunelm Teddy Electric Throw reminds me of bear fur, and its ability to quickly heat up to impressive temperatures makes it a throw that I enjoy using.

While there’s a lot to like about this electric blanket, the material is on the thin side and the lack of timing options is a real shame. It’s these things that hold the Teddy Electric Throw back to a more enthusiastic recommendation. Read on for my full review…

Dunelm Teddy Electric Throw: What do you get for the money?

The Dunelm Teddy Electric Throw comes in two sizes, 130x160cm and 200x200cm – the latter not available at the time of writing. The smaller variant is the same size as both the Lakeland StaySnug Velvety Heated Throw and the Dreamland Hygge Days Faux Fur Luxury Heated Throw, but it’s £40 cheaper than both (and, at the time of writing, reduced to just £20). The larger option costs £75, which is a reasonable price when you consider that the Beurer XXL HD 150 Heated Throw comes in 150x200cm and costs £10 more. That said, there is a definite difference in the twist of the fabric, but more on that later.

Made of 100% polyester, with a soft teddy bear felt on both sides of the garment. It has a 278cm long cable and its single control is used to open/close the garment and adjust settings easily. You have six heat settings, marked from one to five with the sixth level labeled ‘H’. Annoyingly, there are no time settings, but the throw does have a feature to turn itself off automatically after four hours.

You can machine wash the throw, but of course you’ll need to remove the cable and controller first, and it won’t stop the tumble.

Comfort, performance and test results

To ensure consistency across the board, I run the same tests on all the thermal throws and electric blankets I test. First, I did tests with a heat probe attached – with a small piece of tape – under the blanket, next to the wired heating element. At full power (level 6/H) the probe reached 44.8°C after 10 minutes, while repeating this test at half power (level 3) gave a reading of 26.8°C after 10 minutes.

These results were not as impressive as other electric blankets I tested: for example, the Bedsure electric blanket reached 54.8°C after ten minutes at full power. And nothing comes close to the Stov Huge Hug 3, which reached 59.1°C. That said, the Dunelm Teddy Electric Throw still provides quick and effective warmth.

I also took readings from the surface of the shot with a heat gun, which – surprisingly – gave slightly lower results. These were still very impressive, with temperatures reaching 29.8°C in the center and rising to 32.2°C in the upper left corner. As you might expect, temperatures were much lower in the lower corners, but still reached a respectable 21.1°C and 20.9°C respectively. Finally, I did some energy consumption tests to see how much power saving the throw would be. Dunelm did really well here, using 18W of heat at full power and 14W at half power. After 30 minutes of full power, throwing used 0.016kWh, while half power used 0.013kWh.

In real-world testing, the throw provided plenty of heat and was comfortable to use on low settings for long periods of time. I liked that it is light and easy to move around and even the small size is more than big enough to cover one person comfortably.

What can be improved?

It’s not all good news though. I felt the fabric was thin, compared to other competitors I reviewed (an issue I also saw in my review of the Bedsure blanket) and it had a slightly artificial feel to it. It’s worth noting that this is the kind of trade-off you’ll be making for a budget-friendly power throw. If you want something more luxurious, you will need to invest more money.

Another thing that bugs me is the lack of timer jobs. Throw has a setting to turn itself off automatically after four hours but there is no option to set a shorter or longer time. It’s easy enough to just turn the throw back on after it’s off but it means if you wanted to use it in your bed at night, it wouldn’t last all night. Where many other electric blankets and throws offer time work, this one is annoying.

Should you buy the Dunelm Teddy Electric Throw review?

There are many reasons to recommend the Dunelm Teddy Electric throw. It’s incredibly budget-friendly, heats up quickly and has impressive temperatures throughout the garment.

That said, the fabric is smaller than many of its competitors and I wish there were time settings. Again, it’s an inevitable sacrifice you’ll make with such an affordable blanket, so if getting something on a budget isn’t one of your priorities, consider investing in something a little more substantial, like the Dreamland Hunker Down electric blanket.