Electric Mattress Pad

[cclarkego]

Well Sleeping Beauty is finally awake, I had the best night sleep ever... I turned it on high for an hour to preheat the bed as directed, then turned it to medium and slept for the first time the entire night without waking up like I usually do. Got up and flicked on the digital display for the battery this morning, nothing. Plugged it in and the display read zero. I had it fully charged, it is a Diehard and only a few years old.
I am pissed because I really wanted to use this.
In the trailer I have two batteries hooked together and I am hooked to shore power. Now if I use it there, would it only deplete them halfway since there are two? Plus if I am on shore power at the same time, wouldn't it be charging them at the same time as I am using them? I just don't want to run my trailer batteries too low over and over and limit their life span. Let me know....

[masseyfarm]

Originally Posted by cclarkego

Well Sleeping Beauty is finally awake, I had the best night sleep ever... I turned it on high for an hour to preheat the bed as directed, then turned it to medium and slept for the first time the entire night without waking up like I usually do. Got up and flicked on the digital display for the battery this morning, nothing. Plugged it in and the display read zero. I had it fully charged, it is a Diehard and only a few years old.

Originally Posted by cclarkego

I am pissed because I really wanted to use this.
In the trailer I have two batteries hooked together and I am hooked to shore power. Now if I use it there, would it only deplete them halfway since there are two? Plus if I am on shore power at the same time, wouldn't it be charging them at the same time as I am using them? I just don't want to run my trailer batteries too low over and over and limit their life span. Let me know....

Seeing as you had a good sleep, you can't expect your luck to continue?
Maybe you could buy solar panels and sleep during the day.
When the info details 50% cycle on the electric blanket, that would assume some other heat source in the shelter.

One solution would be to buy a timer for the blanket and have it cycle on and off during the night. You probably would not notice it once you were asleep and it would cut the useage down considerably.
Dave

[cclarkego]

Tell me if I am right in assuming that if I turned the mattress pad down to 3 for instance, it would cycle on only about 30% of the time?

[henw]

Heat a couple of good sized flat rocks over your campfire.
Wrap them up in a towel and stick them under the covers.
You'll be toasty for hours. No battery drain what-so-ever.

[KirkBoy]

We use an Electro Warmth dual-control queen-size heated mattress pad. I find I'm more than toasty on the bottom and a little cool on top, so I need a better blanket or down comforter. We used our pads for 2 nights while in Yosemite during the 1st week of October and our little Group 24 battery held up fine. My DW doesn't get as cold as I do, but we both pre-heated the bed for an hour or so and then turned them down; hers to 1 or so, mine to 2-3 depending on if I woke up cold during the night. We still had battery after the 2nd night, so the heating pad must not use that much juice because it DOES cycle. cclarkego, maybe you have to crank down the pad to 2 or 3 and use a thicker blanket or down comforter to make your battery last and that's what I plan to do. Please try it again because there's nothing like a nice warm bed if you are a cold sleeper.
Kirk

[ticki2]

Originally Posted by cclarkego

Well Sleeping Beauty is finally awake, I had the best night sleep ever... I turned it on high for an hour to preheat the bed as directed, then turned it to medium and slept for the first time the entire night without waking up like I usually do. Got up and flicked on the digital display for the battery this morning, nothing. Plugged it in and the display read zero. I had it fully charged, it is a Diehard and only a few years old.
I am pissed because I really wanted to use this.
In the trailer I have two batteries hooked together and I am hooked to shore power. Now if I use it there, would it only deplete them halfway since there are two? Plus if I am on shore power at the same time, wouldn't it be charging them at the same time as I am using them? I just don't want to run my trailer batteries too low over and over and limit their life span. Let me know....

What do you mean by portable battery with a digital readout ? Is it a regular deep cycle battery or one of those jump starters ? How many amp/hour rating ?

If the pad is rated at 6.3a and you leave it on all night it defeats the purpose , the furnace uses about the same .

[cclarkego]

The battery is one of those jump start things, combination inverter, air compressor, etc. I'll have to look up the amp/hour rating. I don't have a furnace, the PO took it out and replaced with two catalytic heaters which I use to get the trailer warm before bed, but don't want it on all night.
I'll try turning it down to 3 instead of medium and use more top bedding instead. I would really like this to work....

[alton]

try flannel sheets. they are great!

[chapparel]

Try fleece sheets. They are great. Made a big difference in my life....

[cclarkego]

I charged my battery up a second time, plugged in the mattress pad and this time I kept the battery plugged in to charge all night at the same time. The digital readout dipped immediately to 65% battery life, then cycled back and forth (the pad was set on three) between 95%, then 50%, slowly going lower and lower till it hit 0 again sometime during the night. I guess I am assuming this is not a regular full size battery, it is one of those backup, jump start things by Diehard. I still have not tried it over at the trailer where I have two large full size batteries hooked together and shore power to back them up. Unfortunately I don't have a digital set up there, I think it reads four stages of battery life with a set of four lights. I just want to know if anyone thinks that 6.3 amps for the mattress pad is excessive for my set up in the trailer or should I send it back. I really like how warm it keeps me, but perhaps an electric blanket and fleece sheets might work better. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated....

[cclarkego]

How many amps/hour can most batteries put out?

[masseyfarm]

Originally Posted by cclarkego

I charged my battery up a second time, plugged in the mattress pad and this time I kept the battery plugged in to charge all night at the same time. The digital readout dipped immediately to 65% battery life, then cycled back and forth (the pad was set on three) between 95%, then 50%, slowly going lower and lower till it hit 0 again sometime during the night. I guess I am assuming this is not a regular full size battery, it is one of those backup, jump start things by Diehard. I still have not tried it over at the trailer where I have two large full size batteries hooked together and shore power to back them up. Unfortunately I don't have a digital set up there, I think it reads four stages of battery life with a set of four lights. I just want to know if anyone thinks that 6.3 amps for the mattress pad is excessive for my set up in the trailer or should I send it back. I really like how warm it keeps me, but perhaps an electric blanket and fleece sheets might work better. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated....

Carol:
I repeat the suggestion to get a timer. It will give you the chance to control the amount of usage, depending on the battery capacity you have.
There are lots available, but this is an example.
You could set it to run 5 min every hour and I think it would be great.(unless it's really cold)
Dave


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[Gene]

People sure have different needs for warmth or cold during the night. We went to a baseball game in Phoenix one time and the A/C in the park seemed to be set for around 80˚ (it was 108˚ outside). Though we thought it was a little warm, people were wearing sweaters. The other side of this is—when I was very young, we had a maid from Iceland because my mother was sick a lot. She go out shoveling snow when it was pretty cold wearing only a sweater (yes, I never forgot her because she was so hot a 7 year old noticed).

There seem to many solutions to keeping warm—dogs, 12 v. mattress pads, electric blankets, memory foam, comforters, flannel or fleece sheets. Not suggested was a lover or moving further south. You could also spend some time in the mountains get used to the cold (the Icelandtic way).

Carol, that battery sounds like a regular car battery and it is not built the same as a deep cycle battery. It provides initial very high amps, but it doesn't last. You can't easily compare the two types of batteries. It sounds like you are not using the trailer yet. If you use the mattress pad in the trailer, the batteries should last the night. If you are plugged into a 12 v. receptacle in the trailer, and you have shore power it will run off the converter anyway, not the batteries.

As for what setting to use, you'll have to experiment. It might be good to start out fairly high before you go to bed (either kind of "high" might work), and then turn it down low when you go to bed.

Gene

[TouringDan]

Clark

Either an electric blanket or a mattress pad will use a lot of battery capacity heating up the bed, but once it is heated up and you are in it, it will only use as much energy as needed for heat loss. This is why a good down comforter is important to keep warm and minimize the battery power needed to feed the mattress pad or electric blanket throughout the night. Just a guess, but I suspect the energy required to heat the pad or blanket up over 30 minutes of time may be more than the energy needed to keep you warm for your entire sleeping period if you have some good flannel sheets and a good down comforter to keep the heat loss to a minimum.

Remember, all the battery power you are using is going to heat. The faster you use it the quicker the bed will heat up, and the more you insulate the bed once it is warm, the less heat you need to keep it at a constant temperature (and a constant comfort level for you).

Dan

[TouringDan]

The more I think about it you definately don't need a timer. You need to run the "bed warmer" on high to bring it up to temperature and then switch to low once you go to bed. You may find that you need to turn it off if you have adequate insulation (a down comforter on top to minimize the heat loss).

Dan

[cclarkego]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions, I really, really appreciate them...
I am relieved to know that if I am hooked up to shore power that the converter will be providing the energy to run the pad. I just didn't want to ruin my batteries in the trailer. I plan to use it on high to warm the bed, then turn down to low. I do have a down comforter to take over there when I move into it. Right now I have a sleep sack there which is like a large sleeping bag with a winter and summer side to it so you can flip it according to the seasons. Combined with the down comforter and the dog and mattress pad, I think it will all work out. Oh, and flannel sheets too.
Thank you all again.........

Carol

[ticki2]

Originally Posted by cclarkego

How many amps/hour can most batteries put out?

A deep cycle group 27 battery has approximately 100amp/hours ( if there are 2 you have 200amp/hours )

Your jump start thingy probably has about 20amp/hours

Big difference , and the charger only has enough power to charge the battery , nothing like the converter in the trailer.
In short , you are not running a viable experiment using the jump starter and it's built in charger to run the pad .

remember you should only use about 50% of the batteries capacity before recharging.

[cclarkego]

I had assumed that my portable battery was a regular type battery with a lot more amp hours. Usually I would use it for small things like charging my computer up while boondocking and never let it go down beyond 50%. This was just an experiment to see how the mattress pad worked but I guess I was dealing with apples and oranges...
Thanks for the additional info!

[cclarkego]

One more question just to be sure I am on track...
So when I am plugged into shore power, anything I run on 12Volt is going through the converter and bypassing the batteries?

[richinny]

yes, the converter will put out in the 34-55 amp range depending on the unit. that booster pack probably has a 7-17 ah rating. what does it sat the amps output is? my 300a booster has a 7ah battery and my 800 amp has a 17ah. some units can go higher.