Powering an Electric Blanket from an Inverter… Part 2

Will it work or catch on fire? Read below to find out!

Everyone,

I just saw this post on the RV Tips Facebook Group. A year ago I ran a test on an electric blanket powered by a PSW (Pure Sine Wave) Jackery inverter which worked perfectly but was a little light on battery storage. Read below for how to do this safely.

It's my understanding electric blankets are not to be used in RVs. I think it might have something to do with the electricity being modified sine wave if using an aftermarket modified sign wave inverter. Or if running off the generator (I would imagine it would be okay if the RV was hooked on shore power). But I'm wondering, if I buy a pure sine wave inverter would that work safely? Thank you.

Hey Kevin

You don’t want to power an electric blanket from a Modified Sine Wave (MSW) Inverter because bad things can happen!

Thats because the 35% harmonic distortion in a typical MSW inverter waveform can cause the controller on the electric blanket to overheat and meltdown or catch on fire.

But a Pure Sine Wave Inverter works just fine. I’ve run this test on a variety of Jackery Solar Generators with their onboard PSW Inverters without any signs of blanket controller overheating or other problems.

Of course you still have to consider battery storage, but a 100Ah Lithium house battery should be able to power an electric blanket through the night. And 200Ah would give you plenty of wiggle room for overnight power. But your mileage may vary, so be sure to try this out for yourself with your own RV batteries to confirm battery life. But if you have a PSW Inverter in your RV it should be safe to power your electric blanket.

Read my full RVelectricity article including a Jackery PSW Inverter electric blanket test HERE.

Let’s play safe out there… Mike