Talk to me about heated airers.....

[hayal]

I'm considering purchasing one.

If you have one in your home, would you replace it if it broke?

Was it a waste of money or one of your best purchases?

If not, do you think owning one would be no better than a normal airer next to the radiator?

Thank you

At between 5 & 10 pence per hour they are definitely not cheap to run. If you leave that on overnight then you might just as well run the tumble dryer for a couple of hours.

Even in winter we rarely turn our heating on....last couple of winters have been quite mild and we live in London. We only popped the heating on occasionally in the morning and then before we go to bed. I couldn't rely on it for drying clothes.

Thank you for commenting.
A few of you have mentioned the Meaco dehumidifier, so I will have a look into them, too.

It's especially useful right now when it's often too damp to dry clothes outside, but the heating's not on yet.

You can't overload it though - agree with PPs saying you need to lay clothes across the bars. If I do a whole wash I'll often put essentials on the heated airer (I can fit 2x full school uniforms) which will be dry by the morning, and less urgent stuff just on a regular airer. I'm too nervous to leave it switched on during the day while I'm at work - I don't know if I'm being ridiculous about that or not!

I got one and I bloody love it. It was a cheap one off eBay. It gives out loads of heat. I will get my student daughter one as it will heat up her room and dry her clothes.

Found mine a waste of time unless I'm moving it around as only seems to dry bits that are on bar . Worked better with humidifier on. MIL swears by hers thou .

Easier with maiden and humidifier for me this winter I think .

I have this one it’s great I hang my clothes on hangers and then place in the dryer clothes then often don’t need an iron afterwards and dry so quickly. I also don’t have to heat the room in winter if using this as it makes the living room so toasty. Also makes putting away the clothes so easy as I just have to place in wardrobe after. The cover comes with it and is a must if doing bedding I lay the pillow cases over the arms and then place the sheet over the whole thing.

The hot air circulates throughout the bag so the heat is evenly distributed unlike the ones where the bars only get hot.

Heated airer (Aldi) with cover - same as others. Lead is short and the airer folded out is the entire footprint of the utility floor, so I can’t then get to the switch to turn it on. Or it’s using masses of space in the kitchen. If you hang a Tshirt then you have to reposition it 3 or 4’times to get it entirely dry. jeans are worse especially waistbands and pockets. Towels - don’t even try!

Yes, our Lakeland one has a really short cord which limits where it can go, means we have to have it with the switch facing the wall, we get round that by using it with a smart plug. If we had to use a dehumidifier too it would cost a lot more to run than the tumble dryer plus the upfront cost. I think they are only worth having if you haven't got a tumble dryer.

Yes, we only use it for things that can't be tumble dried. It is quite bag, so we only have one side folded out - it works well like this.

The only things we don't tumble dry are sports clothes made of technical fabric which dry super quick anyway, none of us wear wool. We line dry in the garden as much as possible all year round.

We've had ours for years now and wouldn't be without it. During the winter we dry all our washing on it, even bedding and towels. We do have to lie those flat and have nothing else on there though. We have it in the conservatory with the windows open.

We got one with a cover a couple of years ago and it was absolute rubbish so we got rid of it.

We have a few things that can't be tumble dried, and don't tumble dry socks as we find they just shrink. But yes, we dry outside when we can.

I have two. I was initially disappointed with mine - as others have said it’s better to lay flat than fold the clothes - but what I have found is that using one raises the temp of the room so washing dries quicker anyway. I have one in my home office and leave it on constantly in the winter which means I don’t have to put the heating on and I get my clothes dry too. I lay some clothes flat and put other clothes on hangers and hang them around the aider and they dry pretty quickly.

The other one is in a much bigger room but again I still feel the effect of the heat. They are also great for drying towels after a shower etc.

I would definitely replace.

Mine was useful when in a house where we didn't have space for a dryer. As others have said lay the clothes flat and use a cover.

We have space for a dryer here and when comparing electricity usage the dryer wins with the electric airer taking more energy to dry a load.

We have a pulley airer so use the dryer rarely with most things drying on the pulley airer in winter.

These days the heated one comes out to dry jumpers flat so doesn't even get switched on!

I've had the Lakeland one for 10 years and yes I'd replace it.

I have it in a room with the window open and one of those tubs that absorb moisture underneath. It warms up the whole room so anything in there hanging on hangers also dries quicker.

I hang things over 2 bars and t-shirt type stuff on the top level is dry in 4 hours. It is good for hoodies because it gets them dry before that damp smell starts to appear, although they take a lot longer to dry.

It isn't a tumble dryer. It won't dry clothes in an hour. It's probably not even as quick as putting a normal airer in a sunny conservatory, but I would not be without mine.

I have a Lakeland Drysoon fantastic. Wouldn't be without it, keeps the room warm too.

I think the people who dislike them are expecting the drying time to be comparable with a tumble dryer. I see it more as an airer that's just a bit quicker.

Meant to say I didn't buy the cover just throw an old duvet over it.

Line dry as much as possible but wouldn't be without my heated airer. Don't like the expense of using a tumble drier for everything (plus my fitted sheets always seem to shrink in the airer!)

No, of course I don't think that, I know it will take at least overnight. The things I don't like about it are that it is bulky, flimsy, has a very short cable, fiddly controls and has to be loaded in a very particular way.

They’re more expensive to run than a tumble drier.

it’s true that hour for hour they are cheaper, but whereas a tumble drier takes maybe an hour to dry a load, a heated airer takes a couple of days, when you consider that you can’t dry a whole load on the airer and so have to reload it several times.

I've had a three tier A shaped airer from John Lewis for several years and couldn't be without it in the winter months or when it rains. I've got a combined washing machine /drier but have only ever used the tumble drier twice in the six years that I've had it. The heated airer is very cheap to run, is light to move around, and dries things like towels overnight. Some things will dry in a much shorter time, but jeans can take a bit longer.