A heated blanket warms you while you sit still. A heated robe warms you while you move. If you want to get up, make tea, answer the door and still be warm, buy the robe. If you only ever want warmth in one fixed spot, the blanket is cheaper and does that job well.
They look like alternatives to each other and they mostly aren't. The question is not which is better, it is whether you stay in one place.
Mobility is the real difference
A heated blanket tethers you to wherever it is plugged in, and getting up means leaving the warmth behind. A robe goes with you — it fastens, it has sleeves, and it has a hood. You can be warm and still be doing something. For anyone working from home in a cold room, that difference is most of the decision.
Coverage
A blanket covers whatever you drape it over and slides off the rest. A floor-length hooded robe covers your shoulders, arms, back and legs at once, and keeps covering them when you stand up. A lined foot pocket at the hem holds warmth around your feet, which a blanket cannot do while you walk.
Sleeping
Roughly equivalent, and both depend entirely on having a shut-off timer. Neither should be run under a duvet. More on sleeping in a heated robe.
Washing
Both come down to whether the controller detaches. Where a robe pulls ahead is frequency: a robe is clothing, worn against you daily, so it needs washing far more often than a blanket does. A heated robe with a fixed controller is a much bigger problem than a heated blanket with one.
When the blanket wins
- You want warmth in exactly one chair or one bed and nowhere else.
- You want to share it with someone.
- You want the cheapest possible way to be warm sitting down.
When the robe wins
- You move around the house and want the warmth to come along.
- You are cold at the extremities — feet, hands, head — rather than just your lap.
- You want something you can wear rather than something you sit under.
If you have decided on a robe, here is what to look for in one.