Heated clothes airer/dryers

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stevetiler

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Hi all,
Anyone use a heated clothes dryer ? Trying to find alternatives to the tumble dryer and was wondering if these are any good ?
Do they cost much to run ? Any recommendations ?
Thanks
 
I heard good things about these but the wife took one look and decided the tumble drier was less hassle, she doesn’t understand or care about electric usage.
 
personally just buy a nice decent dehumidifier and pop your clothes on standard rails and use a spare bedroom.
as long as once the clothes are fry you let the unit take the extra moisture out of the air its all good.
 
It depends what you have already, if you have a tumble dryer it's not too difficult to find the cost of drying a load of washing, with a smart meter read out its easy.
Then factor in the capital cost and running cost of an alternative and see when the break-even point is.
A modern ( non-condensing tumbler is not all that expensive to run.
Alternatively go the old-fashioned way and get a creel hanging from the ceiling ( my pal has two ) and dry overnight
 
troutfisher said:
It depends what you have already, if you have a tumble dryer it's not too difficult to find the cost of drying a load of washing, with a smart meter read out its easy.
Then factor in the capital cost and running cost of an alternative and see when the break-even point is.
A modern ( non-condensing tumbler is not all that expensive to run.
Alternatively go the old-fashioned way and get a creel hanging from the ceiling ( my pal has two ) and dry overnight
Click to expand...
We have a heat pump dryer that is very efficient though the initial cost was high. Given the price of electricity over the past couple of years I think it was a good buy.
 
troutfisher said:
Alternatively go the old-fashioned way and get a creel hanging from the ceiling ( my pal has two ) and dry overnight
Click to expand...
Agreed.

We use a folding rack that cost less than £10 about 30 years ago. Works fine and nothing takes much longer than 24 hours to dry. Duvet covers, pillowcases and tablecloths stay in the washer/dryer and come out ready to fold and put in the storage rack.
When I was working, I didn't know quite how much fun I was missing... :tumbleweed:
 
Not sure if they are worth it. Towels for example are much softer tumble dried, and these heated dryers are £100+. That could be 100-300 washes at a guess to recoup the initial cost. Plus if you have central heating on, a normal dryer should get them dry and you are heating house too.
 
We looked long and hard at these but in the end bought a meaco low energy dehumidifier instead

A load of machine spun clothes contains about 2 litres of water. A heated rail will get that out of the clothes and into the air where it will make your house more humid and feel colder.

A dehumidifier in a smallish room dries a load in about 4 hours. It's sub 300w so uses about 1kw per load. That's 7.5p overnight.

In the morning, open the door and it reduces the humidity in the rest of the house slightly instead of increasing it.
 
JonathanRyan said:
We looked long and hard at these but in the end bought a meaco low energy dehumidifier instead

A load of machine spun clothes contains about 2 litres of water. A heated rail will get that out of the clothes and into the air where it will make your house more humid and feel colder.

A dehumidifier in a smallish room dries a load in about 4 hours. It's sub 300w so uses about 1kw per load. That's 7.5p overnight.

In the morning, open the door and it reduces the humidity in the rest of the house slightly instead of increasing it.
Click to expand...
Which model did you get Jonathan?
I have an old Meaco which has been fantastic and am thinking about getting another...
 
stevewestern said:
Which model did you get Jonathan?
I have an old Meaco which has been fantastic and am thinking about getting another...
Click to expand...
We've just replaced our old 25l one with this Meaco model and so far it's been excellent, with quite a powerful laundry mode.
stevewestern said:
Which model did you get Jonathan?
I have an old Meaco which has been fantastic and am thinking about getting another...
Click to expand...
We've just replaced our old 25l with this Meaco model and so far it's been excellent, with a powerful laundry mode.
 

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There is different types of dehumidifier, there's the air-con type and there's the Desiccant type. First one is very efficient in normal room temperature, but its ability to pull water drops as temperature drops. Second one only uses heat, consumes more electricity, doesn't work well in hot rooms but works down to very low temperature.

I wanted one that works in the cold conservatory and compatible with smart plugs for home automation. So I bought this one:
Do washing overnight on cheap tariff, hang washing in the morning. Dehumidifier runs with excess solar and overnight cheap tariff. Everything is dry the next morning.

It also keeps my conservatory between 50-70% humidity, depend on level of excess solar production. I use Home Assistant to decide when to turn it on based on solar and humidity.

So consider where you'll put it.
 
beyond the blue said:
We've just replaced our old 25l one with this Meaco model and so far it's been excellent, with quite a powerful laundry mode.

We've just replaced our old 25l with this Meaco model and so far it's been excellent, with a powerful laundry mode.
Click to expand...
That's the one we have. Cannot fault it on the few days we use it.

We have a beast of a dehumidifier in the basement that is plumbed in and set to come on at a certain level of humidity. Not suitable for upstairs as it is kinda loud but it does a hell of a job. I got it at auction for about £25 i think.
 
cambsno said:
Not sure if they are worth it. Towels for example are much softer tumble dried, and these heated dryers are £100+. That could be 100-300 washes at a guess to recoup the initial cost. Plus if you have central heating on, a normal dryer should get them dry and you are heating house too.
Click to expand...
I have to agree that tumble dried towels are so much nicer than crispy air dried ones. Shirts almost don't need ironing too (in my case they totally don't, but then I figure that my face is so old and wrinkly now that my shirts just reflect that..
 
We are just starting our second year of using a heated airer.
It is a bit of a faff compared to a tumble drier, but is certainly cheaper.

Whether it is worth it will depend on your lifestyle I guess, but for us these are the pros and cons that I can think of.

Cons
  • Slower and less convenient. Takes time to load up and much slower to dry. 2 was loads per day is possible but 1 is more realistic.
  • Takes up fair bit of space, and when you can only do a single load a day it can become a permanent fixture.
  • Still use tumble dryer for towels, bed sheets and the occasional rush dry.
  • Increases the humidity within the house, though this has not led to any issues for us that we didn't have before.

Pros
  • Much cheaper to run.
  • Cloths are less likely to need ironing.
  • Wash loads are sorted and put away quicker compared to the jumbled mess that comes out of the tumble dryer.
  • Effectively extending the life of our tumble dryer which has had several repairs over the years.
  • Reduces the need for central heating. As I work from home most days I have it set up in the room where I work and throughout winter can avoid having the central heating on during the day.
 
I bought a CB type whip Ariel and just take the wet clothes for a spin up the motorway .really efficient no idea whether it dries the clothes as there all gone by the time I get home .. so just buy nice dry new ones o_O :p
 
Don't get those closed hanger type with a heater+fan at the bottom. Yes, it tries cloths quickly, but all the moisture goes into the surrounding room.

We have it, used it a few times. See room humidity shoot up. Tried using it with windows open, only helps slightly.

As we head into winter, removal of excess humidity is more important than drying cloths. Got to think of your whole house as a system, drying laundry is only a small part of it.
 
We choose the days to wash according to the weather and finish off the drying using a wooden concertina rack and as long as the items are not wet stand it in the hall by the radiator, otherwise in the conservatory. Sometimes a 15 minute spin in the dryer is needed to finish off but not often. As mentioned in the previous post ,I wouldn't be drying wet clothes in the house.

I tested our appliances re power usage by watching the speed/rate of the electricity meter wheel and the spin dryer uses more electricity than any other appliance bar the kettle which seems to match it .
 
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