The best heated airers and drying pods dried small loads in a comparable time to tumble dryers; the worst took over six hours. Energy use Rather than heated rungs, this variation on the heated airer features a 70C fan. It circulates hot air around your clothes, which are encased in a tent-like, ventilated outer cover. This means it dries clothes faster than other airers. To find the very best heated clothes airers for your home, our experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute start by timing how long each dryer takes to preheat. They then wash and dry various loads of laundry, including clothes and bedsheets, and time how long it takes until each load has finished drying. Some look like a tower, which typically affords more drying space for the room they take up, but they can be less accommodating of larger items such as dresses, towels and bedsheets. While heated airers use less electricity per hour than a tumble dryer, they take longer to dry the clothes. So, if you're drying big loads regularly, it will cost you more to run a heated airer annually than a tumble dryer.

Key specs – Open dimensions: 152 x 71.5 x 45cm (HWD); Closed dimensions: 152 x 71.5 x 45cm (HWD); Drying capacity: 10kg of clothing; Weight: 4.6kg; Guarantee: 3 years; Wattage: 1,200W Heated bar clothes airers use (as the name suggests) heated bars to dry clothes, with each one acting like a mini radiator. Metres of Drying Space - It has 21 metres of drying space spread across 3 tiers for all clothing types and full load capacity. Heated airers can look pretty same-y but this John Lewis option stands out from the crowd thanks to one small thing: shoe dryers. If you’ve been caught out in a storm and had to stuff your shoes full of old newspapers of kitchen towels to dry them, only to find them still slightly soggy the next day, this is for you. We found that there wasn’t a lot of difference between the heated airers when it came to their energy consumption, with the models we tested using between 0.09 kilowatt hours (kWh) and 0.91 kWh – that’s between two and 23 pence of electricity an hour.Compared to a tumble dryer, however, the story is a little more nuanced. If you have small amounts of washing that can fit on a heated airer in one go, then there are savings to be made when compared to condenser tumble dryers. Due to the wardrobe-like design, you can hang shirts and uniforms inside on clothes hangers, and this results in far less creasing than standard heated airers and clothes horses. Underneath, there’s a second rail for other items, and this provides enough capacity for around 12 items of clothing.

This fan-powered heated clothes airer circulates warm air within its zip-up cover to dry washing in super fast times. Heat-up times are also worth considering as they can extend the drying time if they take a while to get to temperature. We’ve listed how long each took on test below. Is it safe to leave a heated airer on? per hour for 200W dryers and 9p per hour for 300W dryers, approximately. This is based on the energy price cap of 30p per kW/h since July 1 2023, although prices will vary according to your tariff. Drying pods are essentially big hair dryers for clothes, using a fan and heating element to blow hot air through the clothes hanging inside a pod. Another option for speeding the clothes-drying process is to run a portable dehumidfier in the same room. Dehumidifiers can shorten drying time by 25 percent, while also reducing damp and mould in the home.

What Mumsnet users say

Just like its Heated Cabinet product, Dry:Soon’s Drying Pod uses a fan heater to warm its enclosure. The main difference here is that the Drying Pod is a far more compact alternative, so is ideal for those looking to save space at home.

Our team of reviewers tested a host of bestselling heated clothes airers to compile this guide. We compared assembly and set-up, design, ease of use, performance, capacity, energy efficiency, and price point to find the best heated clothes airers for various needs and budgets. The heated airer was tested on its ability to dry clothes, bath towels and bedding. The clothes were dried laying flat on the shelf, draped over a single heated bar and on the hanging rail. The airer was also tested on how easy it was to set up, use and put away afterwards. About the author Manufacturers don’t recommend leaving any electric heated products unattended but in practice, this is how most people use them. Most come with timers and thermostats to choose lower temperatures for longer drying periods. How much do heated air dryers cost to run? We took each airer's capacity into account to also calculate the cost of drying a large cotton load. The best heated airers cost as little as 6p per hour to run, while the most costly came in at around 31p an hour. StabilityRunning at 300w, it costs 15p an hour to use at current prices. It’s tall enough for hanging long items like trousers and towels, and the adaptable rungs mean you can lay up to six jumpers flat for speedy drying. My colleague Debora Robertson swears by it as the best way of drying bras and Sally Hughes of laundry experts Kair recommends it to make delicates last longer.