Man, who knew everyone had so much to say about electric blankets just below the surface, haha.

At this point, I'm looking to pick up a new one. Mid century ones are pretty expensive, though, unfortunately, so I guess it's a future purchase rather than an impulse. I like my current one, but I don't want to wake up with third degree burns.

If you watch TV in a cold room and know you won't fall asleep you could keep the old one as an "awake use only" blanket. If your awake you can toss it off and pull the cord before the sud starts to hit the fan....

When I was a kid the 40's central heater was on it's way out and did not warm the place enough, so blankets and heating pads kept me comfortable on many winter days in front of the TV....

are the modern blankets safe ?

I have one bought in 2011

Yes, incredibly so. The blankets produced since 2005 all have timers to limit the on time, and all are double insulated, with failsafe controls.

The older blankets with their resistive controls (think rheostat) or fixed/variable bimetallic contact controls could fail on, and create unsafe conditions. Typical failures were contacts that arc-welded themselves shut.
Newer ones use a uProcessor based controller, with a fail "open" condition the norm. The timers also cannot be bypassed easily, making a safer-than-ever blanket.

The elderly were especially vulnerable with the older blankets, and most nursing homes ban the ones without a timer function.

Well, I'm fearless when it comes to electric blankets (Ha!) Never been very worried about one. Right now we have one that's only a few years old, after the last unit died. At some point in the last 5 years I sent one to the "service center" for repair and got it back, good as new, as promised. I'm not so sure that they don't just throw the bad ones straight into the trash can and just send you a new one.

We have also bought non-electric blankets at Roses (a sketchy sorta place these days, with ready to expire food and various odd-lot kinda stuff) and they were actually factory second Sunbeam electric blankets without the heating elements. Cheap, so we didn't care.

At one point I had a controller (only) for a 50's era Simmons electric blanket. Bakelite case, had a vacuum tube in it. Sold it to somebody on the ARF.

Vacuum tube - probably a thyratron? I can't imagine the need for a traditional vacuum tube of any sort. 2D21/PL21 tubes were commonly used in controllers in the late 50s/early 60s.

I don't recall except I don't think it was anything "garden variety". I probably should have kept it, since it made a neat paperweight! The indicator dial looked like a thermometer.

I know a guy that repaired one after it died. Sure he got it working but one evening, I had to run to the third floor next door where there was fire and the smoke was worse than any fog. To this day, if I hadn't ran up there, this girl and her child would be dead. Wall and floor heavily damaged not to mention the bed. And the smell. Bottom line is you respect electricity. Especially the kind designed to make heat. :nono:

Electric blankets these days are for the most part, non-repairable. Cryptic part numbering, and no parts support make them a consumable at best. When/if my controller dies, it'll become just another blanket.

pac.attack76 --

Glad you were able to save them -- you're a hero!

It must be very sobering to know how things could have turned out otherwise. And, yes, electricity must be taken very seriously.

Does anyone have any idea what era this one is from?

I'd say the mid to late 70's.

Using the same criteria I posted earlier, that estimate ^ is likely off by as much as a decade. A ballpark guess would be circa 1970.

Would an arc fault detector outlet such as this add a degree of safety margin, if one is using an older electric blanket?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AWJ8AV0/...ing=UTF8&psc=1

not affiliated,
jr

There was a tube specifically made for electric blanket controllers, the GL-1367 fused thyratron made by GE. It was later EIA registered as the type 5662.

It had 2 cathode pins, with a fusible link connecting them. If the current through the link exceeded 2.25 A, it would open, cutting off the power.