Should I dry clothes in the bathroom?

[larryphilanddave]

I live in a small 2 bed flat (rental), no outdoor space, no dryer/dryer function, no space for a dryer (really). No launderettes nearby. W/M is a bit old and basic and max spin is 1200rpm. Until now things have dried well in the living area (warmest room, well ventilated) but it's become much longer with the change in weather. This is our first winter here so hadn't considered this before. I do small loads and space out well so I don't think there is anything else I can do with the current system and I don't want damp stuff hanging about for days.

Our bathroom is small but I can just about fit the airer in which could be done overnight (during the day would make it too hard to use the bathroom). Also I thought I could get an over bath airer. We can't attach anything to the walls like a washing line.

The bathroom has a small window, it doesn't open out fully as it's on a lever thing, and there is a fairly new extractor fan (about 10mo). There is also a towel radiator which gets quite hot and makes the bathroom very warm (not on atm). The bathroom was painted with anti mould stuff in the beginning of the year.

Would the following make sense?

• do a wash, max spin, towel radiator on, space clothes on airer/s in bathroom, extractor on, close door, leave overnight.

Should I also have the window open?

I am trying to speed up the drying with the warmth of the bathroom, but I also don't want to cause too much moisture build up.

Sorry if this is long! All tips appreciated

extractor on, door closed, window closed.

it will suck in replacement air from the house, through the gap under the bathroom door.

Ventilation is better for drying than heat is.

I think that would work, but in terms of running costs it might be cheaper to get a lakeland heated airer for your living room. Heating and ventilating a whole room overnight would cost more than applying the heat directly to the clothes, I would guess. Re leaving the window open, it would depend on how efficient your extractor is and how warm it gets with the towel rail on so you'd need to experiment for the best ventilation/heat mix.

I find generally the bathroom is the worst room for drying, presumably because it tends to be cooler than the living room and more damp, but it sounds like yours is much better suited. Do you have normal radiators or storage heaters? If normal radiators you can get a lot dry on those, maybe with some of those radiator drying rails too, and on the heated towel rail.

Ooh, thank you! So, the radiator may not be necessary? If it gets cold it will go on anyway, but good to know how this actually works...

Also very pleased that the window stays closed, I'm not sure I would have slept well knowing it was open

An modern extractor will run for between 50 and 100 hours on 14p worth of electricity.

Since the window is closed, the air that is sucked in from the rest of the house under the bathroom door is unlikely to be actually cold.

The extractor will suck the water vapour out so that it does not diffuse around your home and cause condensation, damp and mould. If you drape wet washing in the living room, you will have to ventilate the water away anyway, but I am strongly opposed to making homes damp with wet washing.

Pickle We have storage heaters and we're on Economy 7 (I didn't think it still existed till we moved in here), and the towel radiator is relatively efficient, so combined with the cheap night rate I don't think it would be too costly. Funnily enough it was looking at the Lakeland heated airer that made me consider if there was another route to try first We have an odd layout to our flat so the bathroom is positioned such that it is well insulated and doesn't really get cold. The only cool room is DS' bedroom in winter

Thanks again Piglet, that is my concern, I don't want lots of wet stuff making the flat damp. We got by so far as the clothes dried really quickly in the hot weather and we've only been here about 6mo, so I was still working out how to manage things. We had dryers in previous properties so it wasn't really an issue before.

We have noticed quite a difference putting a second spin cycle on after the wash has finished - so run a normal cycle, and then run a "spin" cycle. Seems to take a couple of hours off the drying time. Worth trying to see if it makes a difference to you.

I recommend second spin and then shut in a room with a dehumidifier, which you can buy from about £60 and up. Failing that, the extractor, but check the amount of electricity it uses.

Typical cheap bathroom extractor

12W/1000=83 hours on 1kWh of electricity (about 14p)

=> £0.0017 per hour

Other powers are available.

Eco7 may only be on certain circuits in the flat.
In our flat there are two fuse boxes, one has the Eco7 circuits, which for us are for heating and hot water.
1980's built flat.

We got a dehumidifier last winter and it's been amazing. We put it in the bathroom overnight with the clothes on a rack, shut the door, and it's all bone dry in the morning! Ours has a laundry setting for this.

I would also recommend buying a dehumidifier. Have had mine for about 5 years. It's great.

This week in ALDI they have a heated clothes airer for£30 if that could be another option? Cheaper than Lakeland I think but it is smaller.

My SIL just bought the Lakeland one, as is thrilled with it, although it is a much bigger footprint than I thought it would be from the website, if you go with that check it will fit. I was seriously considering one too, but we ended up going with the dehumidifier as we don't have much space. We also had a mould/damp problem (not helped by drying clothes on the radiators!) so in Winter it's on for a few hours in the morning on our landing to sort out all the condensation in the bedrooms.

I feel a bizarre satisfaction when I tip out the water from the dehumidifier and see how much isn't going up the walls and windows in the form of condensation.

I'm in a similar flat and dry mine in the bathroom. I stand the airer in the bath, makes more space and you can just whip it out temporarily if you need to use the bath. I also have a little airer that hangs out the window and it's brilliant! Only fits six items but on a windy day like today it dries so quickly you can rotate, and leaves more space on the airer in the bathroom so sometimes I even manage to do two loads in one day!

Thanks Suz, hadn't even considered putting my regular airer in the bath!

Tried last night with just the extractor and with the door closed, but clothes are a bit more damp than they usually would be in the living area. Made some adjustments this morning to hopefully help speed things up.

I think a dehumidifier might be the way to go, would it be best in the bathroom or would it still be useful if I had it on in a different room? Would a particular size or power be good? (maybe I need a dehumidifier thread now...)

For drying laundry we put it in the bathroom as it's a small room so gets nice and hot quickly. Keep windows closed and toilet lid down. Then we'll put it on the landing on the lowest setting in the mornings if there's a lot of condensation or damp going on. Or if we've had too many hot showers the wallpaper out on the landing bubbles a bit so the dehumidifier sorts that out too. The one we bought has been great, def recommend it. It's powerful enough to sort out the whole of upstairs from the landing. It's this one: ECO DD322FW Desiccant Simple Dehumidifier www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005G7M9BU/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_xqyrub08BC91Q

"if we've had too many hot showers the wallpaper out on the landing bubbles"

do you mean the bathroom does not have an effective extractor?

It's not great Piglet, we put a new one in but it's not as powerful as we hoped. It's fine as long as the bathroom door is shut whilst showering, but if the door is open or opened right after the shower then the steam escapes out onto the landing.

is it a fan looking rather like this?

No that was what was there, we replaced with one like this: www.totalwarehouse.co.uk/products/AirFlow-QuietAir-Low-Energy-Extractor-Fan-%2d-Standard.html

I also recommend putting your load on a second spin

it's not much more powerful. It has a max throughput of 90 cu m/hr, the cheaper ones are about 80.

It should be quieter and last longer, with the ball-bearing motor.

The best ones I know are ducted inline fans that are fitted above the ceiling, they are bigger and more unsightly but I suppose if you are in a flat they could be hidden in an airing cupboard. They can have as much as three times the power, but are quieter.

For best results leave the door and window shut, and leave the fan running until the windows stop getting wet. The suction prevents steam diffusing round the home.