I want to buy one of those plug-in clothes airers from Lakeland...

[saltyseadog]

...but are they any good?

I hate tumble dryers, but I'm also fed up of having damp clothes around the house every autumn and winter, so I reckoned that one of these (slightly naff) airers might be the way forward:

heated airer thingy

Anyone got one?

No, but I like it!

Unless you have the heating on washing indoors seems to hang in a suspended state of animation, never drying, makes me crazy. So I see this as a good solution.

Get one and tell us all if it's worth it!!!

We've got one. Haven't been hugely impressed so far, but think we haven't got the technique right! I think that you need to layer the clothes rather than hang them individually and also put a duvet cover/towel or something over the top to keep the heat in IYSWIM?

I'll keep you posted !

Friend has one, loves it.

I haven't, but I've just moved and have no room for a dryer in the kitchen. I shall watch this with interest.

I have a slightly different (wilkinsons? R days?) one where it plugs into mains socket but also folds flat. I find it really useful to give things a quick blast of heat without having heating on. Mine has 8 heated rails so it does a fair amount of washing. I mostly use it for "heavier" stuff I find hard to get dry indoors, like DH thick rugby shirts ( which otherwise take days to dry).

Sorry, Robert Dyas I believe.

Will have a look at the Robert Dyas site (I heart RD :o)

Bumping for the morning crew.

Yes I have one. Not as impressed as I hoped I'd be. It doesn't get as hot as I thought it would but it is useful for wet days. You can also fold half of it flat and just use the other half if space is a problem. Mine has a VERY short lead on it so it always has to plug into an extension even if it's right next to the plug. Very strange design flaw! It also feels a bit more lightweight and flimsy than I'd imagined for a Lakeland product - it wasn't cheap. General feeling here is that it's fine but I'm not overwhelmed. HTH!

I bought one (not Lakeland though) for my son at Uni when he told me that his jeans weren't anywhere near dry in three days. Didn't really seem to do much and he gave it back to me. It's not bad for small light items, eg socks but is useless for heavy towels or sheets. Mostly it is only effective at the exact point at which the item touches the bar. You therefore have to turn the item over e.g. the sock and move it about periodically. It's hardly worth the bother I reckon.

Thanks for all the feedback.

I've decided to put the £74.95 I'd have spent towards getting our clapped out AGA fixed.

If that gets up and running again then I won't have a damp clothes problem any more (I may have a humongous oil bill problem though :o).

Oooh handy thread - I was thinking about getting one of these but maybe I should ust bite the bullet and replace our bust tumbe drier..

I've got one and love it. I tend to use it in conjuction with a dehimidifier though. Haven't had any trouble with jeans etc. My tumble drier is so pathetically slow at drying anything I don't know how I'd manage without it.

Anyone returned it for not working? I want to try the lakeland airer, but am concerned they won't accept it back again and refund me if I have used it ... but won't know if it works without testing!

If you have any ceiling height and are allowed to screw into the ceiling I reckon you're better with an overhead pulley airer - stuff dries overnight, with things like jeans slightly damp, but not wet. It takes a full load, too.

I have got this one, not heated, but a million times better than those useless gateway style or three Xs on top of each other airers.

You can fit 2-3 wash loads on it easily with nothing overlapping, it's fab. Same amount of floor space as one of the XXX ones as well, and the option for it to take up half the amount of floor space if only drying one load.

I guess it doesn't speed up drying time (apart from spreading out the washing, so maybe 2 days instead of 3) but as you can fit so much on it it means you can do washing more often.

Ikea have a very similar one, but not seen it anywhere else.

ooh, that one looks interesting - [saddo]

I raise you Jareth
I'm so interested in the 6 arm ironing tidy from Bertie's link that I'm going to buy it!
Just hang up the shirts to dry and hey presto - no need to iron (....hardly)

Bertie- we have the ikea version (antonius), and I agree it is fantastic... folds up very small too.

Lakeland is very good at reurning products which will not work.

Dsis has heated airer thingy - was a present and she says it works well, but is actually ruddy expensive to run. Lakeland are great at returns though, years later and without a receipt - the temptation to abuse their no quibble policy by returning items bought elsewhere of course has never crossed my mind much

Sounds like the Ikea one is better then, the Argos one does fold flat but it's still about the size of a door, so difficult to store. Doesn't make much difference to me though as it's in constant use anyway.

morag my Mum's got one of those She say's it's the most useful thing ever (she used to hand shirts in doorways which was irritating)

i got one a month or two back (the three-storey one) and it's a real godsend - fed up with having stuff hanging in doorways and draped over bannisters. now i stick it in the spare room and leave it to do its stuff (and warms the room up too)

things like big pairs of men's jeans are going to take an age but it's perfect for baby clothes, pants and relatively light stuff.

agree with another poster that it does feel a bit flimsy for the price but then it is lightweight and easy to fold up and move.

of course now it's cold and the heating will be going on so prob won't use it as much ...