BedJet Sheets are Finally Done!

I am going to start at the beginning, especially for those of you that do not know what a BedJet is.

Before we started packing to move to Panama, we had many discussions on what would actually make it into our shipping container. We had limited space and we were only going to take things that were hard to find in Panama or would not be cost effective to replace. However, when it came to our mattress, my wonderful husband declared we were going to bring our Tempurpedic king size mattress. I was not happy about this for a few reasons.

1. We had a wonderful new pillow-top mattress that we had recently purchased in the house in Panama.
2. The Tempurpedic mattress we have holds in body heat. I hear that the newer ones are better, but ours is a few years old and I have been too hot every night on the Tempurpedic mattress for over a year now.
3. I did not think that taking a foam mattress to a tropical place where we do not even own an air conditioner was a smart idea.

My husband's reasons:

1. His back hurts and the mattress will make him less grumpy.

So....the mattress is making it onto the shipping container. :) 

I then started researching gel cooling pads, bed fans and everything else I could find that would make it so we were both happy. Each item that I showed him, he would find fault with it or tell me how it was a gimmick. Eventually, I found the BedJet. It was more expensive than the other options, but cheaper than a new mattress, (like a cooling Tempurpedic.) I think he was getting nervous that I might actually cost him more money in the long run if he did not give in at some point.

So, I found a new BedJet on Ebay in Canada and had it sent to us a few weeks before we left for our journey to Panama. The temperature was in the upper 90s in Salem right before we left and the BedJet came at a perfect time to see how well it works. My husband, expecting it not to work, was glad that it came in time for us to send it back and get a refund. (He made sure that the one I ordered had a 30 day no questions asked guaranty.) 

The BedJet we got, came with 2 heating/cooling units. One unit for each person with their own remote, but the only way to keep the air separate is to have the "optional" sheet which apparently is sold separately. The sheet actually directs the air into chambers between 2 sheets. So, we decided to try it out as if it was the single unit, shared by both people. The first night, my husband turned the unit to a high setting and went to bed.

The machine is basically a bed fan or heater, with fancy controls. Your phone or the remote can control it, it can be programmed to change temperatures during the night..etc. It blows air under your sheets by your feet and keeps you either cool or warm all night. I stayed up that night reading all of the information that came with the unit. When I read that a "good" starting setting is 30% and saw that my husband had it at 90%, I started to adjust it down. I was met with a growl from my very hot, sleepy husband. I think he even barked at me to turn it back up. So I did. :)

Moving forward to 3am. My VERY cold husband was curled up in a fetal position shivering. I think he might have even been in pain from how cold he was. (It still makes me laugh.)

​Later that morning, instead of being grumpy, okay...maybe he was a little grumpy, but mainly he was excited about the bed fan actually working. It had dropped the temperature in the bed we were staying in by over 20 degrees. 

Hurdle 1 was done. Husband was no longer trying to find ways to convince me to send it back.
On to hurdle 2. How do we each get to use our own controls and not freeze out the other person, without paying the ridiculous price for the "optional" sheet. Which by the way, was $160.00.

How we did it:

1. We went down to the thrift store and bought 2 king size sheets and threw them into our shipping container.
2. Today, my husband set up the sewing machine on the dining room table and put the 2 sheets together, with a seam down the middle to give us each our own air chamber.
3. He left a gap at the end of the sheets to fit the fan nozzles in.

So, the fans work a little differently now. Instead of the air actually touching us, it keeps cool (or warm) air in the sheet chamber. I am excited to see how it works tonight!