As we’re battling through the cost of living crisis, we’re all clutching at money-saving straws in an attempt to make us feel better about the fact that a pack of butter costs £9 and our gas and electric outgoings have never been higher.
Like much of the UK, until the costy livs first reared its ugly head, I wasn’t fully aware of the cost of running each appliance at home. Then, after being hit with extortionate bills and through-the-roof prices left, right and centre, my bank account and I both realised the time had come to get clued up on how to rein in energy usage as much as possible.
Here on the ES Best desk, we’ve been hearing that a heated clothing airer is the most energy efficient way of drying your clothes - bar using a bog standard airer that, unless your heating is switched on, acts more as a vessel that holds perpetually damp clothes, only until they need to be rinsed in the washing machine again.
You can forget turning your heating on just to dry your washing or using a tumble dryer that guzzles both energy and money - and actually damages your clothes in the process. Instead, you can run a handy heated airer for literal pennies, which will leave your laundry dry and unmutilated by the harsh, uninhabitable conditions of the dryer.
So, being the inquisitive product-testers that we are, we jumped at the chance to try out Dry:Soon’s Deluxe 3-Tier design, to see if it really lives up to the hype.
Specifications
- Size when packed down: Height 132cm, Width 74cm, Depth 10cm
- Full size when constructed: Height 132cm, Width 74cm, Depth 70cm (or 35cm for one half)
- Capacity: Holds 15kg of wet washing on 21m of drying space across three tiers
- Cost to run: £0.14 to run for 3 hours to dry two loads of washing (based on my current tariff)
- Length of cord: 100cm
Size
When the box arrived, at first glance I was rather concerned about how this seemingly large appliance was going to fit in our relatively small London flat that’s already at capacity when it comes to floor space.
Once unpacked, though, it looked much more compact than expected - especially when packed down with a slim depth of only 10cm. Next to our rather tired-looking metal design that’s seen its fair share of wet laundry, whilst it looked both bulkier and taller, it seemed much sleeker and more modern, at the same time.
Coming from someone who’s notoriously bad at any form of DIY or handiwork, I could just about handle the simple act of folding the six shelves into place. When it’s fully constructed, it’s a relatively large unit at 70cm across, 74cm wide and 132cm tall.
The good news is that if you, like us, are used to drying your clothes in a narrow hallway, you can erect half of the airer so it measures only 35cm across instead.
Functionality
After you’ve spent minimal time setting it up, using it is just as easy - simply plug it in and you’re good to go. The plug cord is on the shorter side at 100cm, so unless you’ve a large enough spot next to a power source available, it looks like you’ll need to invest in an extension lead.
You can set both an automatic turn-on and turn-off time. Whilst the latter is useful because it means you won’t rack your bills up any further than necessary, I can’t think of any situation when the former would be helpful unless there’s an automated way to hang up wet clothing - but I’ll be sure to keep this piece updated if I have a sudden moment of enlightenment.
Once you’ve loaded it up with your damp wares and turned it on, you can sit back and enjoy the smell of freshly washed laundry filling your home. After roughly three hours, everything will be dry, with some things, like bathroom towels or the waistbands of jeans, taking a little longer - but that’s expected.
Our top tip? You should invest in the brand’s cover, too. Not only does it speed up the drying process by trapping the warm air in for longer, saving both time and electricity, but it also zips up to the perfect size to cover the airer when it’s not in use. Better yet, you can roll up the sides to check on your clothes’ drying progress, and there are two slots in the top for the carry handle, so it remains portable at all times.
Verdict
Whilst it’s a slightly bulkier size than our current airer, the fact that we can now dry two loads of laundry quickly for less than £1 means it’s an appliance that we’ll certainly be recommending to others to save on time, money and energy. You can henceforth refer to me as Peter Bevan, The Money Saving Expert (is that title taken?).
