Sunbeam Heated Throw Blanket Royal Flannel 4 Heat Rainstorm Navy Blue 50x60

Why it's worth it

This Sunbeam throw gives you four heat settings, a push-button controller and a four-hour auto shut-off in a 50-by-60-inch velvet throw. It's thin, and owners say you can feel the wires through it, but it's the straightforward low-cost choice for a couch or a desk chair.

This is the simplest thing in the guide. One push-button controller, four heat settings — warm, low, medium, high — and LED lights so you know where you are. No display, no app, no programs. It's 50 by 60 inches of Royal Posh Velvet polyester, which is a lap-and-feet size rather than a bed size, and it weighs under three pounds, so you can carry it from the couch to the office chair without thinking about it.

A four-hour auto shut-off is the right call for a couch throw. You're not sleeping under this all night. You're watching two episodes of something and dozing off halfway through the second. Four hours covers that, with overheat protection sitting behind it, and if you do fall asleep it turns itself off instead of running until morning.

From our review of 7 electric blankets and heated throws, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +This is the simplest thing in the guide
• +A four-hour auto shut-off is the right call for a couch throw
• +What you give up is substance

What to know

• –The heat isn't uniformly well reported
• –The listing doesn't spell out washing instructions or a warranty term, so read the care tag before the first wash and don't…