I tried out heated airers from high street shops, my winner costs 9p per hour to run and has loads of drying space
HEATED clothes airers are fast becoming a must-have appliance.
The best ones can save you both time and money when it comes to drying laundry.
That’s especially true since the cost of living crisis has made us all more conscious of how much we spend on heating and tumbled dryers.
These appliances can be game-changing and many sell out within hours of reaching shop shelves.
But can a hot clothes horse really dry your washing at a fraction of the cost of a tumble dryer? And all without the noise?
Lynsey Hope put some best-sellers to the test – here’s what she found.
Lakeland Dry:Soon Deluxe 3 Tier Heated Clothes Airer
- £179.99, lakeland.co.uk
- Cost to run: 9p per hour
Lakeland’s large heated airer can hold up to three loads of washing.
It’s quite a unit – but boasts an impressive 21m of drying space and it only costs around 9p per hour to run.
Even though it’s large, it’s wide, spacious design allows easy access to the drying racks and it has a timer, so you can set it to turn off when you are out if need be.
It was more efficient when used with the cover which does cost another £44.99 on top.
It’s a shame it costs nearly as much as a tumble dryer, but it’s a lot cheaper to run so it may be worth splashing out to keep bills down.
A great investment for large households.
- Drying speed: 10/10
- Value for money: 8/10
- Overall rating: 9/10
Beldray Heated Airer with Wings
- £52.99, amazon.co.uk
- Cost to run: 8p per hour
This device looks small but is an affordable airer that has enough space to handle 15kg of laundry – around one load – across 18 heated bars.
Very handy that it could be used with the wings both extended or collapse so it took up less space if you only had a small amount of washing to dry.
It’s quite long but not tall, so you don’t have washing constantly in your eyeline which was an issue with other airers.
It has a handy design for laying delicate items flat to dry. Drying time was reasonable, but it wasn’t as fast as those with covers.
I did have to force the brackets a bit when putting it together and worried it would break, but it held up ok.
A good space saving and budget option.
- Drying speed: 7/10
- Value for money: 8/10
- Overall rating: 8/10
Daewoo 3-tier Heated Airier with Cover
- £79.99, robertdyas.co.uk
- Cost to run: 6p per hour
The bars of this airer warmed up quickly to around 40C, which was hot enough to dry damp towels and socks in just a couple of hours.
It’s not as huge as some units if you are tight on space with a footprint of just 60 x62cm.
It only has around 11m of drying space, again holding around 15kg of washing.
This small load did still take over three hours to dry. The blue plasticky cover isn’t very nice and looks cheap.
I didn’t like it out in my kitchen. Overall I think its worth investing a bit more and getting something that dries clothes a bit quicker.
- Drying speed: 6/10
- Value for money: 4/10
- Overall rating: 5/10
Argos Home 3-Tier Heated Airer
- £105, argos.co.uk
- Cost to run: 7p per hour
Argos‘ model was quite flimsy. I didn’t quite open this correctly on first try and one of the rack clips broke off before I’d even had a chance to dry any clothes on it.
I would have expected better for the price.
It’s quite bulky too and even though it can hold 15kg of washing, clothes took days to fully dry even when I turned them regularly. Lightweight and easy to carry, but overpriced.
- Drying speed: 3/10
- Value for money: 3/10
- Overall rating: 3/10
Dunelm Silver Heated Airer with Wings
- £40, dunelm.com
- Costs to run: 5p per hour
Dunelm‘s arier is quite effective for a small heater. It boasts 12m of drying space and can hold up to 10kg of washing.
It’s only 220 watts so costs around 5p an hour to run, but clothes did take longer to try than on some of the bigger airers.
You can buy a separate cover which would heat up drying time. The design was also really useful for drying clothes flat.
It is a bit flimsy looking. But for a space saving, affordable option or one to two person households, it’s not bad.
- Drying speed: 5/10
- Value for money: 6/10
- Overall rating: 6/10
Swan 3 Tier Heated Clothes Airer
- £119.99, shop.swan-brand.co.uk
- Cost to run: 10.1p per hour
One of the biggest you can buy with 21.5 metres of drying space. It’s a sleek, space-saving design and dried clothes quickly and efficiently.
It’s big enough to cope with everything from delicate garments to larger items like towels and bedding.
It has safety features to prevent overheating. It’s more expensive to run than some of the smaller models but it was the fastest to dry clothes.
The frame was a little flimsy. In fact one bar of mine was a little bent on arrival. But overall I was very happy and would recommend.
- Drying speed: 10/10
- Value for money: 9/10
- Overall rating: 9/10
Asda Silver Heated Winged Clothes Airer
- £40, asda.co.uk
- Cost to run: 6p per hour
The cable on this Asda gadget was a little short. You had to position it quite close to a plug socket to get it working.
Clothes also took quite long to dry even when I adjusted them regularly.
It’s a good size and could hold a reasonable amount without causing an eyesore. It also folds up quite small for storage.
- Drying speed: 6/10
- Value for money: 7/10
- Overall rating: 7/10
How to compare prices to get the best deal
JUST because something is on offer, or is part of a sale, it doesn't mean it's always a good deal.
There are plenty of comparison websites out there that’ll check prices for you – so don’t be left paying more than you have to.
Most of them work by comparing the prices across hundreds of retailers.
Here are some that we recommend:
- Google Shopping is a tool that lets users search for and compare prices for products across the web. Simply type in keywords, or a product number, to bring up search results.
- Price Spy logs the history of how much something costs from over 3,000 different retailers, including Argos, Amazon, eBay and the supermarkets. Once you select an individual product you can quickly compare which stores have the best price and which have it in stock.
- Idealo is another website that lets you compare prices between retailers. All shoppers need to do is search for the item they need and the website will rank them from the cheapest to the most expensive one.
- CamelCamelCamel only works on goods being sold on Amazon. To use it, type in the URL of the product you want to check the price of.