Winter. It’s that cold time of year where you layer up to keep warm, your heating costs go through the roof, and drying clothes becomes a pain in the butt! Unless of course you have a tumble dryer and can afford to run it, then lucky you, I’m in envy. But for most of us, we try and keep everyday costs down. We only turn the heating on when absolutely necessary and for the much part, we’re obliged to turn it on just to dry clothes through winter.
For us, back when we lived in our old house (only four months ago, actually) we didn’t even have heating. We had two storage heaters upstairs which we never used (and I mean never) and a gas fire downstairs. When we first moved in, we had a flimsy clothes dryer, you know the ones I mean, the ones that fall over when they’re full. It was almost like a puzzle, how to balance washing on it so that it stays standing. I’m not kidding when I say clothes took over a week to dry. No joke. And then when they finally did dry, they smelt aaaawful. That kind of dank fusky smell, eurgh! We tried all sorts, and found our best option was balancing this precarious clothes airer in front of the gas fire whilst on. Not a safe plan of action, I highly un-recommend! But what more could we do? Thinking this was the only way to dry clothes, I set about looking for a good-standing less precarious airer that wouldn’t fall into the fire, and then I found this… A heated clothes airer!
Powered by electric, it costs less than 3p an hour to use! And it works. I leave clothes on this overnight and by the morning they’re dry. That’s roughly around 12hours I’d say. It looks nicer than you’re average clothes airer and it’s much much more sturdy. Even more sturdy than normal clothes airers that don’t fall over when full. The way it works it pretty simple, each individual rung is heated, so overall that’s 24 individual rungs heating your clothes (and that’s just the small size). It’s collapsible for easy storage and can be halved in size for small loads. I often find the more washing that’s on there, the faster the clothes dry. I think the more clothes, the more warmth is trapped and each warm item up helps to warm the next. I’m not sure if that science works, but I’ve also heard other people recommending covering it with a sheet to help speed up the drying process too. But it’s just brilliant!
I’ve had this for about 3 years now, and I recommend this to everyone. It has gone up in price since I bought it (boo!) and whilst it is fairly pricey, it pays for itself in the long run. This airer comes in two different sizes, the one I have is the smaller size, then it also comes in a winged style, and there’s a wall-mounted one too. These range in price from £76.99 to £92.99. I virtually never do a full load of washing, so the smaller size is perfect for the two of us, but for a family I’d definitely go for the larger size. Personally, from a house with no central heating, it was a god-save! But even now, living in a house with heating, it’s still much more cost-effective for us. Why heat the whole house unnecessarily when you could just heat what you need? It’s especially good for those times when it’s not cold enough to turn the heating on, but too cold for your clothes to dry naturally. This is one of the best practical purchases I’ve made, it’s just so useful! Of course, this can also be used without the heat as a standard clothes airer too, for our household that means 24/7 constant use, the washing just never ends!
You can purchase these from Lakeland, I link it here.
No Comments