to ask your clothes drying arrangements ... and what I should do

[Dieu]

Sorry, a ridiculous topic for AIBU I know, but I find the replies on here very helpful and speedy.
We moved into our flat a couple of months ago, a Georgian basement. It's all very nice but the Edinburgh summer seems to be coming to an end, and I'm eyeing my 2 baskets of wet washing rather nervously.
I thought today would be glorious like the last few days, and that I'd be able to get it out on the line. Wrong, as it's pissing down.
Now that winter is approaching, I need to have a think about the best clothes drying option for us, and was hoping you nice folks might have some suggestions.
Points to consider:

• there are 4 of us, myself and my 3 children.
• unlike my neighbours above, we don't have the ceiling height for a pulley ... much as I'd love one.
• the flat has had damp in the past, so I'd rather avoid draping clothes all over the radiators. Heating is on the blink right now anyway! Aah, the joys of the older property ...
• we have a drylined outdoors utility cellar, which is where our washing machine lives. There is space for a tumble dryer but when we had viewings here with the previous owners, who had a tumble dryer in there, it smelt of damp. It no longer does. I've never had a tumble dryer, so want to do without one if possible. I guess I don't miss what I've never had. Our bikes and scooters are also in there, so there wouldn't be much space for anything else.
• I have a standard sized clothes airer, but it's too small and the clothes take ages to dry in here. We're in a conservation area with single glazing, so the condensation probably doesn't help.

My thought is that it might be best to get Lakeland's heated clothes airer. Plenty of space for all our clothes and it dries the clothes fully as heated, albeit over a longer period than a tumbler. It can't take as long as a standard clothes airer though. Reviews are good on the whole, some mixed and not brilliant. Does anyone here have one and would you recommend? Or should I just bite the bullet and go for a tumble dryer? Any info or recommendations would be appreciated as, like I said, I've never actually owned one (previous house was a new build with loads of indoor (dry!) space to hang up washing.

Many thanks in advance.

Dehumidifier!

Seriously, solves all our clothes drying problems. We have one on low setting in the room the clothes are in, and they dry out within 12 hours (overnight, so they can be out away and the room can be used the next day).

Thanks Hopefully. I did buy a couple of double packs of those from Poundland but yes, I probably do need something a bit more hardcore!

Sounds good. May I ask for the brand/model of yours. They can be expensive, so I don't want to pick a dud. It's a good option, and would be handy for the flat as a whole.

I never had a tumble drier in the UK, got by with a clothes airer in the bathroom and a big airing cupboard; but once I moved to australia, the laundry here has a concrete floor and I couldn't get clothes dry for love nor money with just hanging them on the airer. So now I have a tumble drier. BUT I almost never use it for wet clothes - I hang them on the airer first, leave them a couple of days and when they've just got that lasting dampness about them, stick them in the tumble drier just to finish them off. Much cheaper (and less shrinkage).

tumble dryer - get a condenser one

If you don't want to increase damp levels, you need to make sure the water gets out of the house - the heated dryer/pulley system is no different from radiators as the air still goes into the house. I see 3 options - condenser dryer (not vented type unless you can get it properly vented), drying rack/radiators with dehumidifier, or drying rack in room where you can leave window open.

I have a heated clothes airer which I use in addition to a clothes horse when I can't hang stuff outside. It is pretty good but my first reaction is that it probably wouldn't be big enough for all of your stuff for a family of four since mine certainly couldn't take all the stuff that we have for three.

However I have just googled the lakeland one (don't know where mine was from as it was a present) and it looks like they do one in three tiers which is much bigger than mine which only has one tier.

I would say it could be a reasonable solution. You do have to keep moving stuff about a bit as obviously the bits nearest the heat dry first.

I don't have and never have had a tumble drier either and don't feel the need.

Food for thought - thank you all.

One more thought - the more water you can get out with the washing machine the better; try fast/extra spin.

Heating is not the answer, you need to get water out of the air, there are three options

1. Leave windows open
2. Condenser dryer
3. Dehumidifier

I agree that fast spinning can get rid of a lot of water in advance.

Oh yes, jess - I always always do an extra spin on my washes, all of them.

I'd get a condenser dryer and do what thumbwitch suggests.

On dry days you can hang clothes out and on damp days you can put them over an airer, then finish them off in the dryer. You'll also have it to fall back on in an emergency.

Id hazard a guess that the damp feeling in your cellar was caused by an vented tumble dryer that noone had bothered to vent to the outside properly. I've got a Zanussi condenser in the hall cupboard of my flat and there's not a hint of damp - previously when drying clothes on an airer overnight in winter the windows were streaming in the morning.

I'd 100% recommend the Lakeland one. I find it dries thing's really well, as long as you keep moving them around like someone else said. I do have a tumble dryer, but hardly use it now. There are 5 of us at home and we get loads on the Lakeland. Layer things up on it btw, rather than hanging things on it and put a cover over it for faster drying, though it does say not to do that.

I've got the Lakeland three tier heated airer and it's BRILLIANT!

DH has a jumper that takes three days to dry if we drape it on a radiator/around the house. Takes a few hours on the heated airer. Drape a towel over the top of it and it really traps the heat in and gets things dry fast. And folds up flat so easy to store should you ever actually run out of laundry to dry - takes up about one square metre of floor space when it's out.

Condenser drier. I'm not convinced by the Lakeland drier at all tbh. Also it takes yo a lot of room which is fine if you have spare room to dry everything in.

tumble dryer - get a condenser one

that's what we have. stacked on the washer (we live in London. Space is an issue of course).

basically, if the weather is decent, I hang the clothes out. if not, they go in the dryer. Simple. space efficient.

However, if that is not your cup of tea, I second the dehumidifier. If the clothes are drying somewhere more spacious than an airing cupboard, throw a fan in for good measure.

I actually don't understand how you wouldn't get damp if you just hang them in your flat. All that moisture is just floating in the air after your clothes have dried.

If you have even an inkling of damp don't try and dry in the house. We used to get mould even with with a dehumidifier. I would just get a condensing dryer.

Might sound a bit obvious but could you incorporate a trip to the launderette into your weekly routine in v. Bad weather weeks..? We have a flat with balcony which has been fine all summer but notsomuch this time of year and beyond.... Even when it's dry it still takes pretty much a full day to do one load! Just discovered our local laundry has large machines that the other day (a desperate bedding/towel wash) did THREE LOADS for £1.20!! Is going to be my new fave place this winter I can tell (saddo that I am)!

Ignore if you've no car access (or family/friends that can be roped) :)

I agree that the key is getting rid of the moist air. It doesn't matter how you dry you clothes indoors, pulley, airer, heated airer, hanging over rads or the back of doors, if the damp air can't get outside then you'll get damp windows/walls.

In a basement flat in winter, I'd worry that you'll be wanting to keep the heat in so won't want to have windows open = damp air in a confined space, even with a heated airer.

I had a pulley in our old flat and it was great, but it also had high ceilings, was top floor so benefitted from other's heat, and had crap windows so was always getting plenty of "airing" . Even then, sometimes the kitchen windows streamed with condensation on cold nights and it was definitely rotting the frames quicker than in other rooms.

The only way to avoid the damp air associated with drying clothes indoors is open windows, a dehumidifier, or a properly vented or condenser dryer.

Does a dehumidifier warm the room at all? I have a cold house, no proper heating so can't dry in front of radiator as we don't have them

I have a condenser dryer, but lots of things I can't tumble. I don't need shrinking clothes. So have been thinking about the Lakeland one, but if I had a dehumidifier I could put it in the conservatory with washing on airer, but would it warm up the room? It's so cold in there and I'd like to be able to make it habitable in the winter.

We live in a flat and I hate having clothes hanging around drying. I wash them and then take them to the launderette and dry them there.

I don't understand ask the gadgets that avoid using a drier-heated driers, de humidifiers etc- unless space is the issue then a drier is what you need. Modern driers use far less electricity than the old leccy guzzlers did. Or the laundrette.

Ask = all

One of the concerns I would have with using a heated airier is where does all that moist air go to? In a basement flat with no heating and single-glazed windows it sounds like you'd be inviting condensation and consequent mould.

If you have an outside space to install a condenser dryer, or even put the heated airier in there I'd not be worrying about that getting damp. It's an outside space, so who cares? If that won't work I'd go for a really powerful dehumidifier, install that in one of the rooms and use it with the windows and door firmly shut. I've heard that they're not that much more costly to run than a fridge-freezer.