Electric throw blanket diagnosis and the suicide switch theory.

​Let me tell you a tale of woe. My wife recently bought two electric throw blankets from Target. These blankets were the “throw” variety designed to be used while sitting on the couch. The description for the product basically says to only use it as a throw blanket and also basically said not to use the blanket on your bed, which is weird right?
Unfortunately both these newly purchased throw blankets failed within months of each other and within months of being purchased. One blanket was two months old when it failed and the other was four months old. These are quiet possibly the worst electric throw blankets on the planet and should not be sold to the public due to the fact that they are quite simply an absolute abysmal product. The problem with these blankets comes down to the fact that they have a safety feature that is that safe or I should say “flawed” that it shuts the product down within months of the customer beginning to use the product. Don’t get me wrong, safety features are great, because I mean sure, the blankets don’t catch fire but they don’t exactly work for too long either? What’s the point of having a really safe electric blanket if the thing is only going to last two months? And if the safety switch is being thrown after just two months of being used what’s that say about the safety of the electric blankets in the first place? Believe me, after researching these products I have finally come to the conclusion that you would be better off using a bunch of cats duct taped together to keep warm. These electric throw blankets are crap. 
Finding more information about these Electric Throw Blankets was a challenge. The information on the net was basically nonexistent. The first hurdle I had was that I couldn’t find any information regarding the issues with the specific model of blanket I had and that’s because they didn’t exactly have a model number on them! They did have a part number which was T1A3. Lacking the required research informationI decided to go straight to the source. You could say that Target became my target. When I searched on the Target page where my wife originally purchased the product all I could find were disappointing negative reviews indicating that a lot of people were having the same problems I had encountered. So I was surprised no one had attempted to fix the problem or at least try and understand why the safety switch was being thrown in the first place. I believe I have found the problem, but sadly not the solution.
I opened up the controller device and inspected it. All the components were visibly in good working order. There was no evidence of burn out and there were no scents of burnt out components. When a capacitor or a circuit burns out the inspector can often smell the fault before they can see it. Overall the controller appeared to be in working order and yet the LED indicating that there was indeed a fault with the blanket was still coming on. The controller was working, the safety switch was also working as it had shut the blanket down from operating. This lead me to wonder, what was this safety switch? It acted as though it was a way for the controller to commit electrical suicide. Was that what the safety switch was, an electrical suicide switch? Perhaps, once the suicide switch had been thrown the controller would never be able to be used again? Who knows, perhaps continuing with the research into this products faults would be pointless but I decided to press on. At least I had one potential issue uncovered, I’m calling this problem “the suicide switch”. 


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After the controller had been inspected and the suicide switch issue had been uncovered I decided to inspect the blanket itself. I ran my fingers along the element inside the blanket feeling for any breaks in the element. I found none. That’s right, the element was complete, there were no breaks. But, perhaps there was something else at play here. Perhaps resistance had built up in the element causing the suicide switch to be thrown? Resistance can be generated in a power cord if the cord is kinked. So, perhaps the element had been kinked in the blanket at some stage and than because of this kinked element the suicide switch was thrown? But how would this work? The controller would need to be able to pick up on the increased resistance and than throw the suicide switch. 
Upon opening the connection on the blanket itself I found something of interest. The heating element itself was basic, it was basically a wire that is twisted around a plastic core and than coated with a plastic outer shell. The element feeds in and feeds out, basically an entry and an exit, this completed the circuit. However, there was something else in the connection unit and that was a second wire that ran with the element. This second wire was the thinnest filament of wire I had perhaps ever seen other then in light bulbs or 5 amp fuses. Was this the elusive suicide switch wire? Perhaps if this wire was kinked, over heated or broken than the suicide switch was thrown? 
And it is here dear reader that I need your help. Do you know if this is the suicide wire? Do you have any more information regarding these crappy products? I am guessing they cannot be fixed unless someone is willing to run a new filament of safety switch wire through the entire electric blanket. I could be wrong and I am willing to learn from anyone with any more information. 
What ever the case, these blankets are riddled with problems. As I have said, if the safety switch is thrown within two months of being purchased perhaps it is best not to use electric blankets in the first place. After all, electric blankets are very well known for creating fires all around the world. Perhaps this is a product that should be fully outlawed as it is a flawed idea in general. It is basically like sleeping with a kettle in your bed. A terrible idea indeed. 

Below I have included a video of the diagnosis and a suggestion on how to fix the issue as an experimental idea. I do not recommend fixing these as they are clearly dangerous and can result in fires. The video is a diagnosis only, all repairs should be carried out by a professinal.
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