Are heated airers worth it for drying clothes in winter?

[MrAlyakhin]

Heated airer are they worth it?

See really mixed feelings on these. In summer I hang outside or if raining in the porch which is usually very warm. Autumn winter so much harder - I tumble dry anything I can. But still have lots I can't tumble dry. Some stuff goes on radiators some I use a clothes airer and dehumidifier but I constantly have to move clothes about so everything dries as quickly as possible otherwise it smells. I have a room / cupboard housing the washing machine and tumble dryer and have just enough space for a heated airer. I wondered if this would dry stuff more quickly than the airer/ dehumidifier. I also wondered if it would be cheaper?

Any advice appreciated.

They aren’t any better than just leaving your clothes on a big airer imho, even with the cover on. We have two of those big over-the-radiator racks that you can get, I hang them double decker style over the big radiator in the utility room and all the washing dries lovely. Dehumidifier helps too. The radiator is coming on anyway so in my mind it’s free.

I have the Lakeland one. It’s okay but winter clothes and towels take forever to dry. Taking into consideration the length of time on they’re not that cheap

My clothes take days to dry on a normal airer and end up with that damp smell so it has to be heated or on the actual radiator in my house.

Can anyone recommend a dehumidifier ?

I don't have a tumble drier. I dry as much as possible outside but in winter it can be tough so I use my heated airer. It's fine, my only objection is that it's quite big and I need to set it up out of the way and my house is quite small! But it does a good job of drying stuff.

Ours is a Blyss one from Amazon. Make sure you get one with laundry mode.

I really like ours, but we use the plastic cover and a dehumidifier too. Ours was only £30 off Facebook marketplace so if you can get one cheap/second hand then I’d say worth it! As others have said, investing in a good quality dehumidifier is probably the main thing though. Ours is good and takes about two days to fill if no washing out, or one day to fill if we have washing out. It was around £100 ish from Homebase

I like ours. It does a load easily dry overnight. I worked out it costs about the same to run as my air pump dryer for one load. I tend to use it for all the clothes I don't want tumble dried like work clothes that cost a bit more than my Primark leggings.

Having it on genuinely makes the room warmer too. We have it in a massive open plan area and you can tell if it's been on overnight.

I absolutely love mine, I've got it back out yesterday because we had no sun in the conservatory, so my usual drying spot was useless.
I thought I'd broken it when it fell down the stairs and I would've been straight out to replace it, but I just hadn't plugged it in properly.
I have the large one but the only space I have is the top of the stairs so I only have it half open and it dries a load overnight. This will be my fourth winter in this house and no mould issues.
It didn't work quite as well in the last house but that house didn't have any heating so was to be expected.
And the cats love it, I have a blanket on the floor under it for them to sleep on.

You lie the clothes flat, not hanging over the rails

Meaco
Laundry Mode just means it’s runs at a higher speed for a few hours, rather than being used to take dampness out of the atmosphere inside a dwelling on a lower speed, handy though I guess

Yes then holds like three items on it !

No - layer about five items on each rack, then you can have four items on hangars (one on each side), then you can have the sock holder fitted through the top rack, which holds 15 pairs. Easily dries a full load overnight!

Yep, wouldn’t be without mine. We’ve had to cut down on how much we have the heating on in winter due to cost and my clothes were just not drying. The airier is pretty big though and does take up a lot of space so I can see that that would put people off but I can put a full load on mine and use it all the time in winter, it has been a godsend!

They’re brilliant. We use ours in the room where we work because it’s so cold in there so it heats the room too. I wouldn’t be without it now.

Glad you asked this, as I've seen a ladder-style heated airer in Dunelm and wondering if it's worth getting. Not used a heated airer before.

I used to layer things when I was drying smaller kids clothes and they were all little and fiddly. Worked quite well, and I still lie things across the bars if I want them to dry fast. But I find now it’s all giant human size T-shirts that they dry better hanging down, as long as I enclose the whole thing in a big cover. Hanging them one per bar and leaving the whole thing uncovered doesn’t work well.

We do exactly the same as this. Heat pump dryer is way easier cheaper.

I found it absolutely useless to be honest! An ordinary clothes airer does the job just as well especially if placed near a radiator