"Have you had your heating on yet?" — this phrase could well go down as one of the most asked questions of 2022. With energy prices soaring and the cost of living becoming an increasingly difficult struggle for many, most of us have been trying to postpone putting on the central heating for as long as possible.
But with tumble dryers also swallowing up cash, it leaves the problem of drying our washing. You might still get the odd day where it's nice enough to hang it outside, but generally we're heading for shorter, wetter days. With that in mind, a reporter jumped at the chance to try out Lakeland's Dry:Soon Drying Pod.
Having seen people raving about it in various money-saving forums, it's an alternative to the heated airers that are also being snapped up. This thing looks — and is — completely different. If you want your clothes dried faster, with fewer creases too, then this could be the one for you.
Emma Gill, from the Manchester Evening News, says it's easy to assemble, taking her less than five minutes. The device is a tripod shape at the bottom with a fan and a pole going up the centre with smaller arms branching off. It all fits inside a zip-fronted fabric cover.
The arms are designed to hold hangers so your clothes are actually hanging up while drying. And with warm air up to 70 degrees Celsius circulating, it's quicker than you'd think.
The added bonus is it makes the room warmer, too. Within minutes of starting, Emma said: "I had to take my jumper off as I was getting too hot. A rarity these days, but I wasn't complaining."
She added: "I put one load of laundry in it, including thicker jogging bottoms, school trousers and even jeans, and in two hours they were dry. There was the odd little damp patch when I turned the fan off, but the room stayed warm enough to finish them off completely in about half an hour."
Those two hours cost her around 60p on her energy tariff — 30p an hour. While that's more than other heated airers, those are on for a lot longer, so the cost works out around the same.
Emma said: "It's not something you can use for a big load — it holds up to 12 items on hangers — but I hung a few things over the arms too." Another bonus is that what you do hang up appear to need little, if any, ironing.
However, condensation was a slight issue, no doubt because of the speed at which the clothes dried, meaning a window needed to be slightly ajar. "But even then the heat from the pod still kept me warm," she said.
The Dry:Soon range has, according to reports, sold in the thousands over the last decade and in October 2022 the retailer saw a 72 per cent increase in sales of the Drying Pod, compared with the same month last year. It has become so popular there is now a product limit of two per household "due to unusually high demand".
The one Emma tried cost £99.99 and can be ordered online here, but it won't be available for delivery until at least December 6, its website states. A larger version was added this year, with a larger, square frame. That one cost £129.99, with stock expected to be available from today (Monday, Nov 7).
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