Cold Nights are Covered with the Kickass Electric Blanket

It’s getting towards that time of year where many decide to put camping trips on hold unless they are heading north in search of warmer weather. This said, some of the coldest nights and mornings I have ever experienced in a tent have been during winter on runs north. I distinctly remember one night in particular at the Nerren Nerren roadside layover, where it was low single digits by dawn! These sorts of nights make for very chilly sleeping conditions in a tent or swag, especially for couples who generally opt for sheets and a blanket over individual, appropriately temperature-rated sleeping bags.

A practical solution to the above scenario popped up on my Facebook newsfeed last year in the form of a 12/24V electric blanket released by Kickass Products. The unit received amazing online reviews and was very reasonably priced at $59.95, so I thought I’d give it a go.

The blanket is made of soft-touch polyester fleece and is fairly compact in size at 140cm L x 100cm W: perfect for one person to wrap themselves up in it. There is a zip fitted to each long side, though, allowing couples to easily join two blankets together.

Powered by either 12V or 24V through a cigarette lighter plug connection, the blanket features three timing settings (45, 90 or 120 minutes), ensuring that it won’t drain your battery overnight, although to be honest, it only draws 4.2A at max power, so if there was a timer override (there isn’t), it would only draw ~32A from a battery over the course of a typical night’s rest.

In terms of heat, the blanket has three settings (low, medium or high), and it takes around 5-10 minutes for it to get up to temperature. Even on the low setting I could notice the additional warmth, and once cranked up to high, the blanket was nice and toasty—perfect for those cold winter nights and cloudless early mornings!

Safety-wise, the product has an inbuilt safety thermometer that turns the blanket off if the temperature reaches 65°C, making sure that you don’t overheat while using it during the night.

The wired controller was simple to use, but I did find the cord length too short (1.5m). The workaround here is plugging it into a portable lithium battery (like a jump starter pack) or upgrading to a longer 12V cigarette lighter cable with a larger-diameter wire. Kickass sell a 3m version of this that is rated to 10A and is very reasonably priced at $14.95; I would recommend buying this at the same time that you purchase the blanket. The controller is easily detached from the blanket, which helps with rolling it up into the provided drawstring storage bag and also makes washing it a simple affair.

Overall I found the Kickass 12/24V electric blanket to be a welcome addition to my cold-weather camping repertoire. I really enjoyed using it as a lap blanket while relaxing in my camping chair during cold evenings, especially at locations where campfires are prohibited year-round now—locations like Shark Bay, for example. It’s a great value-for-money product that comes with a one-year warranty and, when paired with either a longer power cable or a portable lithium power pack, is highly functional. The ability to power the unit with 24V is also a huge bonus for truck drivers and potentially boaties who run 24V power in the cabin of their boats for trolling motors.

Further details can be found at kickassproducts.com.au

By Matt Payne