Lakeland heated airer

[Decafflatteplease]

Are these any good / useful? Especially this time of year

We are a large family of 6. Currently have the utility room as a laundry room with washer, airers, tumble dryer and dehumidifier. So each morning I do a wash, put in on airers with dehumidifier on and shut door. 24 hours later things are slightly damp so I finish them off in the tumble dryer as I need the airers free for the next load. Also need to tumble dry from scratch all socks, pants, wipes etc as too fiddly and time consuming to hang up. Also tumble dry sheets from scratch as too big for airers. Also tend to to one other tumble dryer load from scratch eg pyjamas. also tumble dry uniform as need to get it all washed dried and our away between Fri night and sun night. 25 shirts a week plus trousers jumpers pe kit etc. basically heavy tumble dryer use. In summer we use approx 200 units of electricity per month, this time of year it's 450.

Basically despite having a dedicated laundry room I am drowning in washing.

I'm wondering if I had a heated airer with a cover on upstairs would that help me get on top of the washing? They are currently on offer. But I'm worried that it might make upstairs even more damp (old large damp house) and also make it more cluttered. It would have to go on the landing. How big are they in real life it's hard to gauge from the website? We currently have a dehumidifier running approx 8 hours a day upstairs to keep on top of the damp so don't know if the heated airer would make it worse?

How long do you have it on for to dry the clothes and is it expensive to have it on for long periods?

@Decafflatteplease I can't remember the size. My lovely MIL got it for us, we did have a smaller one but it was too small so she took it back and exchanged it for the bigger one.

I never turn ours off - just swap one load for another. Most loads dry in 12 hours with cover on.

We've noticed a massive drop in our electric bill since having it as we used the tumble drier all winter before.

I’ve recently bought a biggish dehumidifier (supposedly up to 20l/day) and it dries a small washing load in about 9 hours (our machine is only 5/6kg) if I shut it in the bathroom.
How warm is the utility room? The dry soon might work but you might also get the same effect from a small heater on a timer, or turning the radiator up, dunno how the balance of cost would go though with that.
I feel like covering a dry soon seems a bit counter intuitive if you have a dehumidifier in there too?

I’ve also had great success covering a regular airer and the output part of the dehumidifier in a sheet or duvet cover. That gets stuff like T-shirts and leggings dry in a matter of hours, but it’s a bit of a faff if you have to move it (I usually do).

people going from tumble dryer are iften disapointed.

think of it as airer ++ and not tumble dryer.

fwiw we have it in the attic, the most drafty bit of the house. we rarely switch it on. but if we need things dry quicker than 24h we switch it on. 6 pairs of jeans dry on it over night if needed!

I’ve just bought one this week and I’m pleased with it.

With my normal airer I always had to put trousers/ hoodies on the radiator for a little while otherwise they just don’t dry fully.

With the heated airier it’s much better. It’s not quick, but things will dry properly.

I wouldn’t put it upstairs if you have a laundry room, I’d replace one of your normal airers with it.

I have the 3 tier deluxe and it is quite big… but any smaller and I wouldn’t fit a load of washing on so there would be no point.

Thanks, it cant really replace an airer as I need it in addition to the airers so I have more washing drying at the same time to get through the laundry pile faster

Another vote for the Drysoon Deluxe. I run mine with a 25L dehumidifier but without the cover. I just make do with a bath sheet or some bed linen. Best purchase by far given, the amount of sports kit and uniform I wash every week! I only now tumble dry occasional bits.

We have the larger one from Lakeland and It's about the same size as an airer. We had to move location though to reach a plug.

I fit a whole 7kg load on and it dries over night. No faffing or moving of stuff.

I bought one after seeing all the rave reviews on here. I don’t get it at all. It was a total waste of money. You can’t get even half a load of washing on it. I have an unreasonable level of hatred towards it and it never gets used. For a family of 6 I’d make a rough guess that you would need at least 12 of them!

Are you sure there isn't something wrong with your dryer?

Our dryer takes two hours and works a treat for DS' hoodies and tracksuits (including the cheap primark ones(

We've got the large Dry Soon, no cover but I bought a cheap poly cotton flat sheet to put over it and that works well, it is right next to a slightly open window. I lie knickers and socks flat on the bottom shelf, jeans, hoodies etc hang on the middle rack (over two rungs each, spaced out, max 4 at a time) then tee shirts etc hung similarly over the top rack. Takes 8-9 hours to fully dry them. We use a smart plug as it's easier than the built in timer, the cable is really short so we have to have it with the controls facing the wall. However we have it in DS's room when he's at uni and can't use it when he's home, nowhere else to put it, so we are replacing our old broken, vented tumble dryer with a heat pump one and will probably sell the dry soon as the new TD will be much cheaper to run than our old one.

People on here do seem to love them but I’m quite meh about them. Probably fine if you do as the PP in the photo, who seems to have maybe five or six things drying on it. Doesn’t quite work for me and my full
loads - and the amount of hours you have to keep them on to get things dry… at about 15p an hour or something when I looked it up? Might as well tumble dry them. But anyway I use my big radiator in utility with drying racks over and all my washing dries quickly when the central heating is on in winter.

No it works, it’s just useless (in my view) for the amount of washing. I mean the photograph a previous poster showed has like 4 things on it and that’s my experience. If you actually want something to dry you have to lie it on the whole shelf rather than hang on a rung. There are only three shelves! May as well use a hairdryer to dry three things. Sorry I sound very grumpy and I’m glad it works for you, as I say I have an unreasonable level of hatred towards it! 😂

If you actually want something to dry you have to lie it on the whole shelf rather than hang on a rung.

no. you hang your laundry onto it just like you would on a not heated airer and then you just leave and wait as you would do with a not heated airer.

clothes will dry. and of course they will dry near the heated elements first. but the rest will dry as well. just wait.

Well of course it all dries eventually. The point is, the Drysoon is supposed to speed it up significantly. I share PP's experience that for something to dry any quicker than it would on a regular airer, it must be laid flat on the rungs. Maybe that's not your experience, but it seems plenty of people have the same lack of success with the Drysoon.

From reading some of the replies and also reviews elsewhere, people are using them in small, warm spaces or with dehumidifiers which then baffles me as to how they are attributing quick drying times to the Drysoon. Those people would almost certainly have the same success with a regular airer.

Well I did wait and waited and waited and waited. It is marginally quicker than a normal dryer/airer but not worth paying £100 more for.

People who are saying they dry things overnight, do any of you not have central heating? Because I suspect that plays a role in the drying overnight but would love to be proved wrong.

I have big heated airer with cover - the Aldi version. No tumble drier in the house but v useful heated towel rail in our en suite which toasties up the whole room. It is quite a large and blue item. About a metre square and 130cm tall i would say? I can live with it.

Top discoveries are:

No point trying to dry hefty jeans and hoodies on rails of Aldi airer - take up room and take too long. Can get a bit musty at times. However - if you lay them on top of the cover - ie, on the outside! - they add to the overall poultice effect and also benefit from the rising heat while being aired at same time. That was a gamechanger moment. Same goes for towels.

Heated airer is brilliant for school shirts and sports tops of the superior wicking variety. They will literally dry in about two hours or less. So I bung those on first and themon hangers and into the kids wardrobes (or drawers) where they stay. Rest of wash then goes onto airer.

Socks and pants on soctopus and hung in ensuite. DH shirts ditto.

Um that is it.

I use mine and I don’t actually plug it in! I spread things out on it. But I’ve got a very warm boiler / utility room with ventilation and things seem to dry in 24 hours without extra heat.

agree that you best not ramming it full.

I use mine slightly differently than advertised. I only use it for thick items. Only 6 at a time so I lay it flat over the bars and fold most items in half. It makes it super quick, dries in 6 hrs, no damp cover. I use tumble dryer and another airer for lighter stuff.
It means no more 2 days to dry a hoody.

I have one but don't use the heated function. It takes forever! It's a well designed piece of kit, we still use it daily even turned off.

I’ve got a refurbished one. It’s been absolutely brilliant for us (family of 4). I put socks and underwear on the bottom rung, shirts, trousers and jumpers on the top rung and things like PE kit or pillowcases on the middle as I find the middle stuff doesn’t dry as well as top and bottom rungs but the material of the PE kit is quick to dry. I don’t have a cover so I put a throw from the sofa over it or bedsheet if I’ve done that too. I’d say it’s dry after 6-8 hours in our utility room. I only use my tumble dryer for towels and some bedding.

Oooh fascinating. And you don't get that mildewy smell when you fold things in half? My DD16 wears the most voluminous bellbottom black jeans with about six feet of material in each leg. Like sails. Wet, they weigh as much as an electric car. And she wears them once for about an hour before dropping them in the basket. They are the bane of my life, and drying them is the curse of the week. Might try your trick!

Also try putting the jeans on an extra spin after they’ve been washed.
My washing machine has a 10 minute setting called “spin and drain”.. don’t know if you’re has something similar.