Using Pro power in the bed for an electric blanket?

[Brandaman37]

Can you share the blanket brand or link? Like to know which one to avoid

I'll check tomorrow, already in bed. But yeah, it's great when it has power!! Haha I got it at Walmart if that helps. It was dark blue and extra soft.

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[climateguy]

It does raise the question though, is it the blanket with the auto off feature that it doesn't like? Or, is it the amount of power needed to turn it on?

The blanket will have a label stating its power draw. The 120 volt bed outlets are labelled 20 amp. Some users here state fairly emphatically that you can draw 30 amps from them. I would not do that.

My casual search for typical power required by electric blankets indicates they are very low power, a few amps at the most.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

The rectifiers built into many modern, cheap electric blankets (and many motor controllers for tools like dremels) cannot operate properly on modified sine wave power. The Lightning's Pro Power inverters are apparently pure sine wave inverters (there's a thread on this site about it), so it's not likely to be that specific issue.

However, there's another quirk about these rectifiers and it may be that you need to have the blanket on a shared, powered circuit. Do you have an extension cord with a "pilot" light? or a string of Christmas lights into which you can plug the blanket to test? Don't operate it on the string, just test it. The test you did by plugging in the light on the same outlet group should have ruled this out, but it might be that you need to be on the exact same line.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

About half the LED lightbulbs in my house malfunction when I'm running the house on Pro Power. Unsure if it is the bulb or the dimmer switch in the wall that is unhappy with the inverter's output.

 

[Brandaman37]

The rectifiers built into many modern, cheap electric blankets (and many motor controllers for tools like dremels) cannot operate properly on modified sine wave power. The Lightning's Pro Power inverters are apparently pure sine wave inverters (there's a thread on this site about it), so it's not likely to be that specific issue.

However, there's another quirk about these rectifiers and it may be that you need to have the blanket on a shared, powered circuit. Do you have an extension cord with a "pilot" light? or a string of Christmas lights into which you can plug the blanket to test? Don't operate it on the string, just test it. The test you did by plugging in the light on the same outlet group should have ruled this out, but it might be that you need to be on the exact same line.

I can look into this next week as I'm headed out to acolorado to visit family. But, I did take a picture of the blanket label if it maybe will answer some questions.

 

[bmwhitetx]

Will the blanket work if that lamp is also plugged in and on at same time?
Plug both into the the same outlet group, e.g., lamp in upper outlet and blanket in lower outlet.

I tried that and it would work. I think the blanket has some odd features that doesn't work well with the truck. The lamp was also a dimming style lamp so I could change from completely off, to full brightness, no problem.

Yup, no luck guys!

So I'm confused. Did the blanket work with it on the same circuit as the lamp or not?

 

[Brandaman37]

So I'm confused. Did the blanket work with it on the same circuit as the lamp or not?

No, it didn't. I tried the light bulb. It worked in every outlet of the truck bed. While the light was on, I tried the blanket in the other outlets and it didn't work in any of them. I tried the light in other outlets and did the dame with the blanket and it didn't work regardless of any method unfortunately

 

[GoodSam]

Weird. My queen Westinghouse blanket failed to come on and never worked again after plugging it into the truck bed ProPower. However, this second blanket works, although i did have other things plugged in, like our Bodega refrigerator. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W829F3F/

 

[Hammick]

If you haven't already see if the blanket works on the frunk outlets. We have two Anova ovens and neither of them will power off the bed outlets. Both work fine on the frunk outlets. Had to put an expensive power conditioner on the kitchen outlet to make it work when powering the house with the Pro Power. I have a detailed post on here about it.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/pro-power-problem.16676/

 

[Newton]

Some marine inverters have a standby mode, since an inverter uses a chunk of power even if there is not a load connected, so you only want the actual inverter part running if it is needed. If they don’t detect enough of a load, they don’t power on. Some devices also have a standby mode with a very low powered circuit that powers some smart electronics. If the device standby mode doesn’t draw enough power, it gets NO power and doesn’t come on. The solution is to put another load on the circuit. Usually this affects LEDs but I imagine it could affect an electric blanket.

I don’t know if the truck is the same way. This is the inverter that I am talking about.

 

[Newton]

If you want to do an experiment in the interests of science, you could plug both the blanket and the light into a surge protector and then plug the surge protector into the outlet. Pro Power is supposedly pure sine wave so it should look just like your utility company.

Are both the light and the blanket two prong plugs?

 

[vtbound]

@Brandaman37, did you have any success testing this more? I have exactly the same blanket with the same issue. Looking for a different blanket that just works.

 

[Brandaman37]

If you haven't already see if the blanket works on the frunk outlets. We have two Anova ovens and neither of them will power off the bed outlets. Both work fine on the frunk outlets. Had to put an expensive power conditioner on the kitchen outlet to make it work when powering the house with the Pro Power. I have a detailed post on here about it.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/pro-power-problem.16676/

I just got back into town so I'm going to give it a try. I'll use a surge protector also to test that theory with the blanket and the light. If nothing works, maybe I'll consider a different style blanket to see if another type will work.

 

[Brandaman37]

@Brandaman37, did you have any success testing this more? I have exactly the same blanket with the same issue. Looking for a different blanket that just works.

I'm going to run some more tests today. Sorry for the delay, I was away all week and didn't have the chance to run any tests.

 

[Brandaman37]

If you haven't already see if the blanket works on the frunk outlets. We have two Anova ovens and neither of them will power off the bed outlets. Both work fine on the frunk outlets. Had to put an expensive power conditioner on the kitchen outlet to make it work when powering the house with the Pro Power. I have a detailed post on here about it.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/pro-power-problem.16676/

So, the latest test with the blanket was to use the frunk outlets. It worked! I didn't need to plug other things in, didn't need a surge protector or anything else. It was standalone plugged in and worked. So, question now is, can I get it to work in the back or do I need to get a different blanket? I'm going to get a surge protector and see if that works.

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