This laundry drying must-have has turned my head from using a dryer for good – here’s why

I have always had a love-hate relationship with dryers. While I have used them in the past, the high temperatures and eye-watering running costs always leave me on edge – that’s why I have fallen in love with the benefits of heated airers.

A heated airer does what it says on the tin. It is a clothes airer that warms up, plugging into a wall outlet and using a small amount of electricity to gradually – and importantly safely – dry clothing indoors.

Here, I delve into whether or not heated airers are any good, how they work, and why I love mine for drying clothes indoors.

Do heated airers work?

The short answer is yes, heated airers work so you can reap the benefits of air-drying laundry no matter the weather outside. Rather than heating your clothes in the best clothes dryers, you hang items over the airer rails and allow the airer to heat up slowly.

Yes, it takes longer than a dryer, however it costs significantly less and is more gentle on your clothing, helping to make clothes last longer.

The benefits of heated airers

1. It costs less than a dryer

The main benefit of a heated airer is, by far, how it easily saves money at home in comparison to a dryer, especially in my two-person household.

After working out how much it costs to run a heated airer and how much it costs to run a dryer, I found that the heated airer easily came out on top. My heated airer came out as costing just a few cents per hour, as opposed to my old dryer's few dollars an hour, resulting in a significant cut in energy bills. The airer's timer also meant that I could set the drying time to however long I needed, rather than have the home heating left on all day.

Although I have to use my heated airer for longer than a dryer to dry my clothes completely, the price still works out lower overall and there are some great tips to make a heated airer more efficient too, including hanging a large fitted bedsheet, available in king sizes at Walmart, over the top to trap the heat.

2. Protects my clothes

While using a clothes dryer when I was living in university dorms was convenient, I was always aware of the damage they were doing to my clothes. I certainly noticed that my clothes didn't look or feel as good after repeatedly being dried by a dryer in comparison to drying on a washing line or my heated airer.

With a heated airer, on the other hand, I never have to worry that I am going to shrink a new sweater. Plus, it makes laundry smell better by speeding up the process, avoiding musty odors and mold growth, especially when paired with the best dehumidifier, placed strategically nearby.

While I admit that a heated airer can dry things a little unevenly, with smaller items often drying a lot quicker than bulkier sweaters, for example, it was easy enough to pull the dried items off as I walked past and drop them into the laundry basket (I use a folding basket, like the Joseph Joseph folding laundry basket, from Wayfair, to save pace) to give the other things more space to dry. This is a small price to pay for such a good saving, I think.

3. It is more environmentally friendly

I always have my eye set on eco-home improvements, so it was nice when this smaller and far more affordable eco-friendly addition came along.

Using a heated airer rather than a dryer is one of the best ways to be sustainable at home by lowering your electrical usage and emissions.

An unexpected benefit of a heated airer was that it forced me to do slightly smaller loads of laundry than I used to. This meant that I wasn't making the very common washing machine mistake of overloading the drum to get laundry done faster and made me more mindful about what I wash and how often I wash certain garments.

This large gull-wing style heated airer, from Wayfair, offers you lots of space for bulkier items, should you need it.

4. It is easy to store

While a dryer tucks underneath a counter, a heated airer folds flat to be safely stowed in small nooks and gaps around your home, such as down the side of a fridge or inside a cabinet. As a result, they make organizing a laundry room a breeze. Plus, without a dryer, you have more space under a counter for cabinets, creating more space in a limited laundry room storage ideas.

Need to make use of vertical space to save space? Using three to four of these extra-strong Command Wall Hooks, from Walmart, will help you mount your airer to a utility room wall to keep it off the floor. Each hook holds up to three pounds of weight.

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FAQs

How long does a heated airer take to dry laundry?

The time it takes to completely dry clothes on a heated airer will depend on the size and power of your airer. On average, however, lighter pieces will take four or five hours, with heavier pieces such as jumpers taking up to ten.

You can speed up your heated airer's drying time by covering the airer with a large sheet which will trap the heat in and speed up the drying process.

Can you leave heated airers on overnight?

Heated airers are generally safe enough to leave turned on overnight, with many appliances having a built-in timer function and health controls. Because of this, they are better for drying clothes overnight than a dryer.

Whether you leave your airer on at night will be down to personal preference and the type of airer you own. Consult the user manual for details about overnight use, and perhaps consider only leaving the airer on for a few hours when you go to bed using a timer, rather than leaving it on for a full eight hours unattended, to be on the safe side.

If you decide to make the switch to save money, be sure to avoid some common heated airer mistakes to avoid accidentally increasing costs or creating a fire hazard in your home.