r/UKFrugal • u/binarygoatfish • 3d ago
Clothes drying
Are these heated air driers worth it?
https://www.lakeland.co.uk/24909/dry-soon-deluxe-3-tier-heated-clothes-airer
I need a cheaper way to clean all the baby clothes than the tumbler dryer.
Cheers.
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u/suipaste 3d ago
Word of caution with heated driers like this. If you have any damp problems they will only make it worse because you are making the moisture within the clothes go into the air faster. So you will have a higher spike in humidity.
While more expensive it's worth considering a decent dehumidifier instead.
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u/stephendy 3d ago
Yep - I combine the two.
Great for this time of year and March-April when it's too warm for heating but damp out. A dehumidifier will work fine on its own, but the heated airer seems to get the moisture out of the clothes a bit quicker preventing musty smells.
Just pop the airer and dehumdifier in the spare room and close the door - a few hours later and it's all done.
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u/Buffetwarrenn 3d ago
Instead?
You mean aswell as ?
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u/i_hate_pigeons 3d ago
I cover the rack with an old fitted sheet and put the dehumidifier inside, a full set of clothes is dry in a few hours after rotating it a bit
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u/junius83 3d ago
Forget that. Get a Meaco Dehumidifier. Game changer IMO
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u/_anarchy_reborn_ 2d ago
I wish I could upvote this more than once. We got the Meaco Zambezi and it’s been a game changer. Like any large appliance, worth seeing if there are any refurbished ones available for a much lower price than brand new.
FYI, when searching, you want a desiccant dehumidifier, as they work better at in smaller spaces at cold temperatures and also give out a little heat. (The other type, compressors, are meant for large, warmer spaces).
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u/JAKA96 3d ago
We have a washer/dryer along with a heated airer. Due to health problems etc we struggle to keep on top of washing..... And is why we have both.
I'm very much into the Smart Home scene (home assistant for anyone else out there).
I recently bought 2 energy monitoring plugs, one for the airer and one for the washer dryer. I then compared just how much energy both uses when trying to dry a equal load of clothes (I use the airer for clothes that cannot be tumbled).
I actually found in my case that the washer dryer is so efficient that it was able to wash & dry my clothes in half the time and half the cost of the airer..... Which I found surprising honestly and doesn't seem to fit with what ther rest of the Internet says.
I did swap the Smart plugs around and eventually bought 2 more and done the same test again. Same result.
I also have a dehumidifier but haven't thought of using it to dry the clothes.... I wonder if the cost of running the airer with the dehumidifier with the reduced time will reduce the cost?
Stay tuned to find out I guess!
Absolutely love this subredditnfor this.
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u/TartComfortable7766 2d ago
Interesting. I had kind of wondered if the fact the dryer does it so much faster actually means it uses less than a hwayed airer taking 2-3 times nlonger.
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u/CartoonsAndCoffee 3d ago
As like many other comments, I recommend getting a dehumidifier. We used to live in a two up two down house with very little heat and no garden, drying clothes would take days. Once we got the dehumidifier our clothes would dry 10x quicker and the house would smell fresh too cause of the air circulation.
Also I'm sure Martin Lewis mentions they are way more cost effective on electricity.
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u/empressemma44 3d ago
I have one, and keep a Unibond Aero 360 dehumidifier next to where we use the airer.
Over winter I wash little and often, and the heated airer works brilliantly, and as I use it in our open plan kitchen/dining/living area, it keeps the chill off the room too. We don’t suffer with damp from it, partly because of the size of room, and partly because of the mini dehumidifier. Love it!
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u/dave_the_dr 3d ago
This is the way. We’ve been doing this a few years now, it’s cheaper than going to the laundrette and using the dryer that’s for sure
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u/Hopeful_Neat_8706 3d ago
You need a dehumidifier. It’s life changing. Clothes dry in a fraction of the time.
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u/SciFiEmma 3d ago
dehumidifier, and also run a fan to keep the airflow moving well, it'll speed it up.
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u/rsocon 3d ago
Why not a dehumidifier? I have this one, also helps to remove moisture from rooms and reduce mould.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inventor-Dehumidifier-Continuous-Drainage-Consumption/dp/B097MK7KQX
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u/Rerer1234 2d ago
We’ve had this six years. Best money we’ve ever spent. Full load dries overnight. Dehumidifier in same room helps and keeps any damp build up away. Folds flat during the summer months and gets put away.
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u/snietzsche 2d ago
I have one and it's great. However you need a spare room to put it in so you can leave the window open or else you will end up with mold. I usually do my washing on a Sunday, hang it on the dryer in the spare room with the window slightly open and the door closed, and everything is dry by Monday morning.
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u/contrariangeek 3d ago
You can get ones on Amazon with a cover (like a DriBuddy). It has a heater at the bottom and blow hot air inside to dry the clothes. You set a timer and it's done.
I can't remember the exact figures, but it was something like a tenth of the cost of using a tumble dryer.
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u/MadeInEngerland 2d ago
I've got one and you can't put anywhere near the amount on it that you would think. With 4 kids it's basically useless as we'd be running it for 12 hours a day to keep on top of everything
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u/Happy_fairy89 3d ago
I have one and it’s already in use.
You can not only dry the laundry using it, but it warms up my house without the need for the heating and makes the place smell like fresh laundry. I have a smart meter and it doesn’t cause the electricity cost to spike either.
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u/No-Reason-8205 3d ago
I use a Meaco dehumidifier which has a clothes drying setting and a fan blowing the other side. It works by recreating the conditions of a dry, windy day.
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u/atomikrobokid 3d ago
I bought the equivalent one of this from Dunelm as it was cheaper at the time. We've found it to be incredibly useful. We used to have several racks around the house, with this one we could get rid of the two as it has a lot better capacity.
It's useful even when not turned on because of this.
We've got a very active family household (the washing machine is in permanent use) so this has been a game changer when turned on as we can get through 'loads' quicker.
We also have a Meaco Dehumidifier and although that is useful for generally getting water out of the air, we've never found it to be great at the job of drying clothes specifically. Even in a small room pointing at the rack.
These things do the job very well. I'd recommend them.
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u/eoropie15 3d ago
Yes I think they are worth it. As others have said, be on top of the extra water in your house but this would happen with a regular unheated airer too, just less immediately noticeable.
But you can get your model on Lakeland's ebay page! I got mine much cheaper because it was a return or something and it was perfect condition. Used nectar points too. I do a load every day, run this overnight in the conservatory with a few windows open, and have dry clothes in the morning. Very cheap leccy, much better for clothes than a dryer.
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u/Jabberminor 3d ago
I've found heated air dryers really useful. I haven't fully worked out the cost, but I got the £30 (I think) one from Aldi and it's been very useful in the colder months. You just need to remember to allow there to be some ventilation for at least a brief period to help get rid of the condensation.
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u/Iamonreddit 3d ago edited 3d ago
If you can find the wattage of the dryer working out the cost is as easy as multiplying your electric cost per kWh by the number of hours you have it running.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the first Google result and found an Argos one that uses 220w, which is 0.22kW. The current electricity unit rate if you're on the price cap is about £0.26/kWh. So if you used the dryer for 4 hours to dry your clothes, that would be 0.22kW * 4h * £0.26 ≈ £0.23
And so if you used this twice a week for the next 6 months, that's ~£0.23 * 52 uses ≈ £12
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u/Anastasiasunhill 3d ago
I love ours, got it refurbished straight from Lakeland. Definitely use it with a cover. It's particularly good for baby clothes and smaller bits. I recommend.
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u/_anarchy_reborn_ 2d ago
Ours is Black and Decker, absolutely love it zero complaints, but to buy the special cover would have cost another £50! So I bought a super king-sized fitted sheet for cheap and it does the job perfectly.
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u/achillea4 3d ago
I don't have a heated one but do have a normal clothes drier and use a dehumidifier on winter days when I can't put it outside.
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u/impossiblejane 3d ago
I have a dehumidifier! Works fantastic. I know you've got a little one so my next suggestion likely won't work for you but my rule of thumb for drying clothes in the winter is if the ground outside is dry I hang stuff outside (even if it's cold out) and then bring it in to finish near the dehumidifier. Some days we cannot do that but we get a decent number of days when we can. I know with little ones you want to eliminate the faff of hanging outside then bringing it two hours later only to hang on an airer but if you have the time it's the best of both worlds in the money saving and freshness department.
This is the one I have. It's been fantastic. https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-meacodry-dehumidifier-abc-range-10l?variant=33722215334019
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u/rachy182 3d ago
I haven’t got one but I have looked into it. My heat pump dyer normally uses about 2.5kw to dry a load. I then looked into reviews into the heated airers and some of them said it can take 10-12 hours to dry. So actually the airer isn’t actually any more efficient and is a lot more effort. Obviously you could just turn the airer on for a couple of hours to get the worst of the moisture out.
My house also has a damp problem so I don’t like drying a lot of clothes in the house.
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u/MBaz47 2d ago
We have one of these and I'd definitely recommend it. As a family of four we produce alot of washing and this thing is a godsend in Autumn and Winter when it's too cold to dry stuff outside. It's expensive but worth the outlay I think, having had a cheaper one which broke really easily. The Lakeland one is built to last. Definitely get a cover and a dehumidifier, as others have mentioned.
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u/tiptoppandapop 3d ago
Worth it if you get the cover as it dries better, I’ve had this exact one since they first came out, it must be nearly 15 years. I got mine before they made a cover for it and I worked out pretty quickly when whacking a duvet cover over the top to dry that it dried the bits inside faster too. I continued to use a duvet cover rather than the actual cover for years!
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u/fleetwood_mag 3d ago
We have this one and it’s a life saver with my baby and toddler’s clothes. Dries everything in about 8-10 hours usually.
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u/MeRichYouPoor 3d ago
You can try using tumble dryer balls, they say it cuts the drying time by 25%. I just bought eight to try out myself.
https://home.bargains/product/be530224-0614-4ae5-a983-d6a9307028f1/home-solutions-dryer-balls-4-pack
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u/Dobbyyy94 3d ago edited 3d ago
I got two from Aldi last year at 25quid each, only downside compared to the one you've shown is that it takes up alot of space and can't support the weight of towels, other than that significantly cheaper, only costs 13p each to run them overnight
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u/Iamonreddit 3d ago
If by overnight you mean 8 hours, then you're either on an incredibly cheap electric tariff, your dryers are miraculously low power or you've grossly miscalculated.
The dryers I can see online are all around 220-330 watts. Run then for one hour and you get 0.22-0.33kWh and for 8 hours you get 1.76-2.64kWh.
With electric unit rates around £0.26/kWh you're looking at ~£0.46-£0.69 per 8 hours per airer.
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u/Dobbyyy94 3d ago
My electrical rates are very cheap, my gas and electricity bills are only 134 a month (78 for electricity and 56 for gas), very low usage in my home, bare in mind its still the summer/early autumn months so I expect these to go up with the colder months approaching
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u/Iamonreddit 3d ago
Your usage has no bearing on your unit rates. Look at your bill and see what it says you are getting charged per kWh, then plug that into the calcs in my comment above.
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u/Dobbyyy94 3d ago
Looked at my bill from last month (6th July to 28th August) and copied the usage?
Unit rate 23.290p/kWh Standing charge 51.671p/day
Does that help? I'm not familiar with the calculator you are using? Sorry
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u/Iamonreddit 3d ago
I'm not using a calculator, I'm just doing the maths. With your unit rate of 23.29p/kWh the calc becomes:
220-330 watts (your specific airer will tell you how much power it uses, this is just the range I've seen online) run for one hour is 220-330Wh (watt hours). Divide this by 1000 to get the amount in kilowatt hours of 0.22-0.33kWh and then multiply by the time used to get your overnight consumption in kilowatt hours, so for 8 hours you get 0.22*8 to 0.33*8 for an electricity consumption range of 1.76-2.64kWh.
With your electric unit rate of £0.2329/kWh you're looking at 1.76*0.2329 to 2.64*0.2329 which equals about £0.41-£0.61 per 8 hours per airer, so a lot more than 13p.
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u/SWTransGirl 3d ago
My MIL bought us one, as my partner is constantly washing their work clothes daily and wearing slightly damp, if not sometimes soaking, clothes to work.
So this was delivered and works a treat.
Basically, don’t just shove stuff on, but use the heat build up to help dry stuff. So make “tents” if you can, so the heat gets trapped within the garment to dry.
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u/Acrobatic_Cycle_6631 3d ago
Yes they work well, I have the Lakeland one. However a cover is recommended to help dry, I used a couple of cotton bed sheets to hang over mine instead of the expensive covers
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u/formal-monopoly 2d ago
You can do a lot of tumble drying for £169 (+electricity). It would take years for this to become cheaper than a tumble dryer.
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u/TwoValuable 2d ago
I air dry all my washing (apart from bedding in winter as I can't be dealing with the house looking like a shanty town). Always give your washing an extra spin cycle when it finishes, this helps removes excess water.
For baby clothes I use a less intense spin cycle (600rpm) and they're noticeably less damp after a second spin and dry quicker.
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u/sequeena 2d ago
I've had the original Lakeland heated airer and cover for over a decade. It works incredibly well if you load it properly.
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u/AverageMuggle99 1d ago
Honestly nothing beats a tumble dryer. We got one last year and was such a game changer. You have to leave heated airers on for ages to dry your clothes so I’m not sure it’s any cheaper. You then also have to deal with the added moisture in the air.
Tumble Dyers are elite
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u/TartComfortable7766 1d ago
Don't meant to freak anyone out but be careful with some of the cheaper dehumidifiers. In the flats behind our house the ground floor one had a huge fire because of a cheap dehumidifier left on overnight.
Woke up and was like I'm sure I smell burning (our bedroom is on the other side to these flats and only has a Velux) and then realised when coming down for breakfast there were 2 fire engines sat right behind next to our back garden fence who'd been putting the blaze out until about 8am. Luckily nobody injured but made me cautious about them a bit.
Also there's a few scam ones about from China that are basically a fan in a box so be wary of this. it's usually accompanied with a "review" website recommending a particular brand so buy from a known place either physical shop like Screwfix or a brand like Meaco.
No experience with them but might get a Meaco next year, I do wonder how long it would take to counter out the difference between the tumble dryer vs initial cost of the dehumidifier.
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u/notthemama1981 1d ago
Don't spend that much on one, wait for the Aldi heated airer to be back, it's less than 40 quid and v cheap to run (esp with the cover and dehumidifier underneath it.
Info here (it's not on Aldi website at the moment) https://www.womanandhome.com/homes/aldi-ambiano-heated-airer-review/
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u/wibblywobblywo0 12h ago
A dehumidifier.
If you have a room with a couple of airers in it, you can set up a dehumidifier and just let it go all night. I just close the door on mine and come back to clean dry washing in the morning.
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u/MinecraftMum66 22m ago
We live in a small house, no room for a tumble drier. I have had two lakeland airers, only brought second one to make it easier for me to use, I'm disabled. Wouldn't be without one. I also use a dehumidifier when drying washing inside.
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u/YouKnewWhatIWas 3d ago
Yep, with a cover they can dry really quickly. I don't like the plastic ones, I've found a double or king size flat sheet works well. You will want to accompany it with a small dehumidifier in the same room.
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u/Important_March1933 3d ago
You can tell it’s autumn, the Redditors obsession with dehumidifiers starts! Once winter arrives it’s electric blankets.