How to use and repair heating pads

Before each use, examine a heating pad’s permanent inner cover; replace the pad if the cover is worn or cracked. Don’t lie on a heating pad or make sharp folds or stick pins in it. Place the pad on top of, not under, the part of the body to be heated.

Don’t put one on a child or a sleeping person. For a moist pack, use only a wetproof pad.

If a heating pad fails to heat, check the receptacle with a lamp you know is working. Replace a blown fuse or reset a circuit breaker as needed. If the pad still won’t heat, heats unevenly, or repeatedly blows a fuse or turns off a circuit breaker on a circuit that isn’t overloaded, take the pad to a service shop or buy a new one.