Why Essential Oils Are A Bad Idea For Your Heating Pad

So there are certainly reasons to like essential oils and that have many benefits.

But be very careful applying essential oils to your heating pad.

We will cover these reasons in the rest of this article.

Covers up the smell of your heating pad

Now, you might think that covering up the smell of your heating pad isn't a bad thing.

But why would you want to cover up that smell?

Well, probably because the insides of your heating pad have gone bad.

You see, with most insides of a heating pad, they use food or things that come from food.

This includes rice, wheat, cherry pits, and even flax seed.

And no matter how hard you try, you aren't going to be able to keep these from getting ruined inside the heating pad.

This is actually a pretty common side effect of having a rice or wheat heating pad.

So much so that eventually you will shrug off the smell of burnt rice and attribute it to the smell of the heating pad.

And this shouldn't be acceptable to you.

So some companies will suggest to you to add essential oils to your heating pad.

And this is mostly suggested to cover up the smell of the burnt rice or wheat.

If you do this, then you won't know when the time comes that you should most likely throw your heating pad away and buy a new one.

Another sign would be that your heating pad isn't heating up as much as it used to.

This is a good sign that the insides of the heating pad have gone bad and it needs to be replaced.

But if you put essential oils on your heating pad, then you won't ever know it is time to replace it unless you pay close attention to how long it stays hot.

Luckily, this spoiled and burnt food poses not threats to you personally unless you decide to eat the food from your heating pad, so please don't ever do that.

According to TheColdWire.com:

"According to the National Health Service, after this point, rice can begin to release a type of bacteria called bacillus cereus.

Bacillus cereus is known for causing food poisoning, but only when eaten.

One should never eat the rice used in a rice heat pack.

Bacteria buildup can lead to rice heat packs smelling moldy."

So to summarize, it is important for you to know when your heating pad has gone pad.

And it becomes much more difficult to know that point if you cover up the smell by using essential oils.

Essential oils do have their place, but don't use them with your heating pad.

Essential oils could end up burning you

As we've discussed previously, essential oils do have their place and time.

But if you misuse your essential oils, this could end up hurting you physically and could possibly lead to long term issues.

According to HealthLine.com:

"Although nearly 100 varieties of essential oil are commonly used, there isn’t a large body of comprehensive research on their potential for causing allergic reactions.

However, a 2010 review of patch test results and a 2012 review of case studies identified the following essential oils as being more likely to cause skin irritation:

tea tree
ylang-ylang
sandalwood
lemongrass
jasmine absolute
clove
lavender
peppermint

Also consider whether your carrier oil could cause skin irritation. Common carrier oils include coconut, jojoba, and grapeseed. It is possible to be allergic to these."

https://www.healthline.com/health/essential-oil-allergic-reaction#common-culprits

From my experience, the oils listed above have some good uses for your health, but can also lead to skin irritations, among other issues.

If you put this oil on your heating pad and then decide to use the heating pad, it could end up cause a skin irritation, which then could turn into a need to go get checked out by your doctor.

I have heard plenty of stories of people putting peppermint on their heating pad and then eventually that lead to a skin irritation problem, but this does seem to lead to a problem for people.

So if you apply these oils to your heating pad and then you have a reaction to it, you put yourself in a bad situation.

Add onto that that you then need to get the essential oil off of the heating pad, then you have to go through the process of washing the heating pad.

And as we know, this isn't always the simplest with your heating pad with rice, wheat, cherry pits, and flax seeds.

Since these don't work well with getting wet, you might have to take all of the insides out of the heating pad, wash the heating pad, and then put everything back in and sew it up.

And this would not be a fun process.

So avoid using essential oils on your heating pad, as this might lead to skin irritation or other issues.

It could attract critters

While it is true that some essential oils can repel bugs, some other smells will attract bugs as well.

For example, peppermint oil is said to be a great repellent for bugs because the smell is overwhelming to them.

So if you wanted to keep bugs away from certain areas of your house, then you would stick some peppermint oil on a cotton ball in that area of your house.

And this should hopefully then repel bugs away from that area of your house.

But there are other oils that might attract bugs.

An example of this might be the lemon oil.

Certain bugs like the smell of citrus, so this could attract bugs to that area.

To me, lemon oil is a very calming oil and I love the smell of it.

But if you apply this essential oil to your heating pad, that might attract bugs to your heating pad.

Put on top of that your heating pad is filled with something that might be a food source to a bug, you could end up attracting a lot of bugs.

So to avoid attracting bugs to your heating pad, avoid applying essential oils to your heating pad.

Why choose lava sand heating pads

Instead of worrying about the above concerns, you could purchase yourself a lava sand heating pad.

These heating pads are a great for many reasons.

One of these reasons is you will never have to worry about the smell coming from your heating pad.

Because the heating pad is filled with lava sand, you never have to worry about the insides getting burned and giving off a horrible smell that you feel like you have to cover up with essential oils.

And if you do decide apply an essential oil to the heating pad, you can easily wash the heating pad.

Firstly, you can purchase a cover for your heating pad.

So instead of washing the whole heating pad, you could just wash the cover.

And if you don't have a cover for the heating pad, then just wash the whole heating pad without worrying about taking the lava sand out.

Once it is washed, then you can throw it in your oven for a few hours at 200 degrees and the heating pad should be all dried out.

No need to buy a new heating pad.

Unlike these other heating pads filled with rice, wheat, or other food sources.

You wouldn't be able to wash those and you'd just have to buy a new one if you had a bad reaction to essential oils you've applied.

And you never have to worry about attracting bugs to your heating pad, since there isn't anything for them to like with the heating pad.

So you can use it time and time again without worrying about if you've attracted something you didn't want.

Summary

In summary, if you want to use essential oils while using your heating pad, you are probably better off diffusing the oils than applying them to your heating pad.

If you apply it directly to the heating pad, this could then lead to other issues for yourself and might lead to you having to purchase another heating pad.

And no one wants to purchase multiple heating pads.

So avoid applying the essential oils and get yourself a lava sand heating pad.