‘All the items are dry by the morning and the house smells of fabric conditioner. It also takes the morning chill off the room without any condensation issues, so win-win for me!’
With the wet and chilly days of autumn approaching, finding ways to dry laundry without resorting to the energy-guzzling tumble dryer can be a challenge. The days of putting clothes out to dry in the sunshine will soon be behind us – but hanging them up indoors can contribute to issues such as condensation, damp and mould if not done properly.
One solution that many households swear by as an alternative to driving their energy bills up with regular tumble dryer use is a heated clothes airer – and Lakeland has slashed prices on some of its bestselling models in an end of season sale. Costing 8p per hour to run based on average electricity unit cost, the retailer claims – compared to around 65p for a standard tumble dryer – these airers help to speed up the process of drying garments indoors.
Lakeland is offering up to £30 off selected models, ranging from compact three-tier designs for smaller homes to larger options capable of holding up to 15kg of wet washing. The most popular buy is the Dry:Soon Deluxe 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer, which is on offer for £169.99 down from £199.99, reports Yorkshire Live.
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The Deluxe 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer offers 21 metres of drying space across 36 heated bars, meaning it can hold two loads of washing at once, according to Lakeland. This improved model has a convenient front-loading design to make hanging up the washing easier, as well as a built-in timer that can be set anywhere between one and 12 hours so users don’t have to remember to turn it off.
Made with a lightweight aluminium frame, the Dry:Soon Deluxe 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer is built to be easy to move around, and folds down to just 8cm deep so it can be stored away when not in use instead of taking up space in the home. Lakeland recommends pairing it with a cover to speed up the drying process, with a cover bundle also available for £214.98 reduced from £244.98.
Get the Dry:Soon Deluxe 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer
The Deluxe 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer offers 21 metres of drying space across 36 heated bars, meaning it can hold two loads of washing at once.
Elsewhere on the high street, the top-rated option at Argos is the Argos Home 21m 3 Tier Heated Airer, which has also seen its price slashed from £105 down to £78.75. Recommended by 89% of shoppers who have reviewed it, this airer has a digital timer and a drying capacity of 15kg.
And over on Amazon, one of the bestselling buys is the Oypla Electrical Extendable Heated Clothes Airer, which has a budget-friendly price tag of £29.99. Earning an average rating of 4.2 out of five stars based on more than 1,000 reviews, this option has adjustable wings to provide additional drying space as needed.
The Lakeland clothes airer has earned more than 300 five-star reviews from shoppers on the Lakeland website. One praised: “Game changer for drying clothes. No more wet washing all over house. Neat and efficient.”
Another said: “The airer is really good value and we have really had our money’s worth out of it already. Light and easy to move/store efficiently, dries clothes at little cost versus tumble driers, and is especially useful for items unable to be tumble dried or when weather doesn’t allow outdoor drying.”
A third reviewer fed back: “Bought this years ago from Lakeland and it’s still working and doing a great job in our damp climate. I only use this in winter. Dry my clothes at night and in the morning it’s all dry.”
Some customers felt that its design had room for improvement, however, with one person commenting: “I was really disappointed that the length of the power cable was so short. If your power socket is halfway up the wall as mine is, the control panel will be flush up against the wall and therefore inaccessible.”
While a different customer remarked: “Easy to put up, a little fiddly to arrange items on, as you want to try to get things flat and spaced out, but I find it does an excellent job in around 8-10 hours.”
Meanwhile, someone else shared a more positive experience: “I love mine! I put all my non-tumble drying items on it, put the cover on and leave overnight. All the items are dry by the morning and the house smells of fabric conditioner. It also takes the morning chill off the room without any condensation issues, so win-win for me!”
Back at Lakeland, smaller households seeking a more compact option can get the Dry:Soon Mini 3-Tier Heated Airer, which is on offer for £114.99, making it the cheapest of the heated airer models. Meanwhile, the standard size Dry:Soon 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer is reduced to £139.99 in the retailer’s sale.