Heated airers/dryers/maidens

[Laquila]

Are these really for people who don't have a tumble dryer? We have one but don't use it very often as we're a bit needlessly wary of it 😁 I think because of cost/environmental cost, and also shrinkage. In the spring and summer we dry everything outside but our house is smallish (3-bed semi) and in the winter we usually have two (non-heated) maidens permanently drying in front of the woodburner in the living room. I wonder whether getting a heated airers would speed that up, or would it be comparable in energy usage/cost to using the tumble dryer? Any thoughts/recs welcome!

I find that a dehumidifier plus a normal airer is better at drying clothes than a heated airer, but not sure how economical and environmentally friendly it is to run one for a few hours compared to a tumble dryer for an hour.

Get a dehumidifier, drying clothes inside generates moisture, however you do it, which can cause damp and make the house more difficult to heat. A dehumidifier will prevent that. They also generate a bit of heat. A load of washing dries in a few hours with mine, in a small room with the door closed. Much lower energy use than a tumble drier.

I've got the Lakeland heated airer and it's one of the best things I've bought. Can put a big load on and it's dry by morning. I never usually need anything quicker than that. We used to have a washer/dryer but replaced it with just a washer as we weren't using it (plus I did used to always shrink stuff!)
You definitely need a cover for the heated airer though otherwise it doesn't work anywhere near as well.

Thanks both, all good points. This might sound daft but we don't really have a drying room we could close the door on - downstairs is all open-plan! I suppose we could use the upstairs office actually.

We don't spend much at all on heating the house - underfloor heating downstairs combined with a woodburner seems to make it fairly easy to heat, and we don't seem to have a problem with damp despite drying a lot of laundry near the fire.

But I guess the draw with a heated airer.for me was that it could stand alone, as it were, and wouldn't need a dehumidifier running next to it or a closed door. Hmm I'll have a think - thank you!