Best heated clothes airers to save time and money

Our testing reveals the best heated clothes airers, drying pods and heated drying racks from popular UK brands and retailers such as Lakeland's Dry:Soon models, Argos, Dunelm, Minky and more.

We've tested 20 heated clothes airers, and for each one we've gone the extra mile to save you time and money. We measure drying speed and running costs, assess which are the most stable and easiest to put up and down, how much washing they can hold and which have the most drying space for the amount of floorspace they take up.

As well as six Best Buy recommendations that stood above the rest, we've found a fantastic Great Value option for less than £80.

The heated clothes airers we tested

The biggest brands and the most popular heated clothes airers are listed below.  

Only logged-in Which? members can view the best heated clothes airers and drying pods from our tests.

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Beldray Round Heated Clothes Dryer 

Most recently tested September 2024

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Dimensions HxWxD 149 x 67 x 67cm

Need to know 7.2 metres available drying space (18 medium T-shirts); 1,000W; 3.5kg weight; 150cm cord length; 10kg maximum load weight

Black+Decker 63099 Three Tier Heated Clothes Airer

Most recently tested July 2023

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Dimensions HxWxD (D folded) 140 x 73 x 68cm (10cm)

Need to know 17.2 metres available drying space (24 medium T-shirts); 300W; 5.5kg weight; 157cm cord length; 15kg maximum load weight

Dry:Soon Deluxe Three Tier Heated Clothes Airer

Most recently tested September 2024

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Dimensions HxWxD (D folded) 133 x 74 x 70cm (8cm)

Need to know 20.5 metres available drying space (36 medium T-shirts); 300W; 5.9kg weight; 132cm cord length; 15kg maximum load weight; also available with a cover at Lakeland

Dry:Soon Drying Pod

Most recently tested July 2023

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Dimensions HxWxD 146 x 62 x 62cm

Need to know 4.8 metres available drying space (12 medium T-shirts); 1,000W; 3.1kg weight; 180cm cord length; 10kg maximum load weight

Dry:Soon Foldable Heated Airer

Most recently tested December 2023

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Dimensions WxDxH (H folded) 62 x 34 x 150cm (28cm)

Need to know 2 metres available drying space (5 medium T-shirts); 600W; 4.9kg weight; 150cm cord length; 5kg maximum load weight

Dry:Soon Mini Three Tier Heated Airer

Most recently tested July 2023

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Dimensions HxWxD (D folded) 114 x 60 x 63cm (8cm)

Need to know 13 metres available drying space (24 medium T-shirts); 198W; 3.9kg weight; 130cm cord length; 15kg maximum load weight; cover accessory available at Lakeland

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Dry:Soon Three Tier Heated Clothes Airer

Most recently tested September 2024

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Dimensions HxWxD (D folded) 137 x 73 x 75cm (8cm)

Need to know 17 metres available drying space (30 medium T-shirts); 300W; 5.9kg weight; 132cm cord length; 15kg maximum load weight; cover accessory available at Lakeland

Dunelm Three Tier A Frame Heated Airer

Available from Dunelm (£100) 

Most recently tested December 2023

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Dimensions HxWxD (D folded) 135 x 66 x 73cm (140 x 66 x 7cm)

Need to know 17.6 metres available drying space (30 medium T-shirts); 330W; 5.5kg weight; 162cm cord length; 15kg maximum load weight

Dunelm Two Tier Heated Airer

Available from Dunelm (£75)

Most recently tested July 2023

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Dimensions HxWxD (D folded) 99 x 72 x 78cm (11cm) 

Need to know 13.7 metres available drying space (20 medium T-shirts); 198W; 3.7kg weight; 165cm cord length; 10kg maximum load weight

John Lewis Three Tier Heated Clothes Airer

Available from John Lewis (£100)

Most recently tested July 2023

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Dimensions HxWxD (D folded) 135 x 66 x 73cm (7cm)

Need to know 15.8 metres available drying space (30 medium T-shirts); 300W; 5.5kg weight; 140cm cord length; 15kg maximum load weight

Minky Sure Dri Four Tier Heated Clothes Airer With Cover

Available from Argos (£140), Minky (£159.99)  

Most recently tested December 2023

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Dimensions HxWxD (D folded) 147 x 74 x 71cm (16cm)

Need to know 22.9 metres available drying space, 20.3m of which is heated (37 medium T-shirts); 300W; 5.2kg weight; 169cm cord length; 20kg maximum load weight

Minky Sure Dri Heat Pod Drying System

Most recently tested December 2023

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Dimensions of heat pod HxWxD 28 x 33 x 17cm. Compatible with standard three-tier clothes airers up to dimensions HxWxD of 139 x 59 x 49cm   

Need to know Drying space depends on your clothes airer, typically 13 metres for a three-tier clothes airer (24 medium T-shirts); 850W; 4.0kg weight; 135cm cord length; maximum load weight depends on your clothes airer (typically 15kg for a three-tier clothes airer)

More heated clothes airers from our tests

Here's how the rest of the heated clothes airers from our test measured up, listed in alphabetical order.

Compare different methods of drying. What's the best and cheapest way to dry clothes indoors? And find out what our heated airers expert's answer is to the question: 'Are heated airers worth it?'

How we test heated clothes airers

Which? is a not for profit organisation and has been testing products and calling out rogue businesses for almost 70 years. 

In an increasingly chaotic world, filled with so-called 'experts', it's good to know that brands still can't buy their way onto our testing or influence what we write. We buy every product we test and we'll tell you the worst as well as the best heated clothes airers. 

Brands can't buy their way onto our testing. We select the the most searched-for heated airers and drying pods, and pay for every airer and drying pod we test. No freebies given here to influence what we write.

How we test and our testing results are also verified via a panel of our own research experts to ensure we're being thorough and fair when bringing you the very best heated clothes airers. 

We also regularly revisit the heated airers and drying pods on sale to see if there are any more popular models that need testing and when we find them we do so.

Find out more about how Which? isn't influenced by product manufacturers or retailers and how your support helps us to stay editorially independent.

Drying speed

• We dry a small cotton load on each airer, representing a week's worth of washing for one person.
• If the capacity of the airer is much smaller than our test load, we fill the airer up to its capacity.
• We weigh the wet clothes before they're hung up to dry, and then frequently reweigh and rotate the cotton clothes on each airer. 
• The heated airers are rated on how quickly the small load dries.
• We take each airer's capacity into account to calculate the drying time for a large cotton load, equivalent to the average load size used to calculate tumble dryer annual running costs in our tumble dryer reviews.

The best heated airers and drying pods dry small loads in a comparable time to tumble dryers; the worst take over six hours to dry a small load.

We recently update this test in response to new portable heated clothes airers that have very low capacities. It would take multiple uses of this type of airer to dry our cotton test load, and so they would automatically get a low score for drying speed. This isn't reflective of how these airers actually perform and are designed to be used.

To rate these low-capacity heated airers, they're judged on how quickly they dry a single cotton load that's the size of its stated capacity, rather than the size of the small cotton test load.

Energy use

• We measure the running cost per hour and total cost to dry the small cotton load.
• We take each airer's capacity into account to also calculate the cost of drying a large cotton load.

The best heated airers cost as little as 6p per hour to run, while the most costly come in at around 29p an hour.

We use the RS Pro energy meter (£31, from RS Components) to measure each airer's energy use.

If you're interested in measuring the energy use of your appliances, you can buy similar meters from popular retailers such as Amazon and Screwfix.

Stability

We use a force gauge to determine how much force is needed to topple over each heated airer, and the flexibility of each airer's bars.

All heated airers are stable enough to hold a full load of washing, but some are more flexible and easy to topple than our top recommendations.

Ease of use

• We score each heated airer on how easy it is to carry, assemble and dismantle.
• We also rate how easy it is to fit different sized of clothing items on each airer.
• We measure the volume of each airer when folded up, so you know which take up the least amount of room when not in use.
• We also measure the total drying space and volume of the airer, so we can let you know which ones give you the most drying space without taking over an entire room in your home.

Save money on your bills and cut your carbon footprint: try our free Home Energy Planning Service. 

Are heated airers cheap to run?

They may be convenient, but do heated airers use a lot of electricity? Our tests found they use significantly less of it, on average, to dry clothes when compared with drying pods:

• 37p for heated airers vs 55p for drying pods (for a small 2.15kg cotton load).
• 85p for heated airers vs £1.73 for drying pods (for a larger 5.7kg cotton load).

For larger loads, you can reduce the running costs even further with our Best Buy heated airer recommendations, which cost 61p on average to dry a large load, compared to the 94p of all the other heated airers we've tested.

While heated airers use less electricity per hour than a tumble dryer, they take longer to dry the clothes. So, if you're drying big loads regularly, it will cost you more to run a heated airer annually than a tumble dryer.

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Are heated clothes airers worth it?

It depends on the amount you need to dry and how fast you want it to dry. But heated clothes airers do dry your clothes faster than air-drying indoors.

If you already have a tumble dryer and are thinking of making a swap, it will also depend on what type of tumble dryer you already own.

How long does a heated airer take to dry clothes? The heated clothes airers we tested typically took between four to seven hours to dry a small (2.15kg) cotton load. The drying pods we tested took on average two hours to dry a small (2.15kg) cotton load. For thicker items, such as jumpers, these times will be longer.

It's also worth noting that the speeds we've found assume you'll regularly rotate and move around the wet laundry - these products are not very effective at drying the areas of clothes not in contact with the heated bars. So if you leave your washing undisturbed, they'll take much longer.

A typical drying pod will do a cotton load in a couple of hours, and a tumble dryer will take anywhere from one to three hours to do a big load of laundry. It's faster than air-drying indoors, but a heated clothes airer is still the slowest of the three.

Can heated clothes airers save you money? Our testing found heated clothes airers will cost about half as much money to run as a drying pod.

Compared to a tumble dryer, however, the story is a little more nuanced. If you have small amounts of washing that can fit on a heated airer in one go, then there are savings to be made when compared to condenser tumble dryers.

For example, drying three small (2.15kg) cotton loads a week will typically cost around the same as the average tumble dryer, but this saving increases to £27 a year if you compare it exclusively to condenser tumble dryers.

But the savings shrink dramatically for larger laundry loads, where you'd need to use the heated airer multiple times to dry a load that could fit in the tumble dryer in one go.

• Small household with small amounts of washing? A heated clothes airer could save you money. From our tests, it will cost around £57 a year to dry three small cotton loads a week, compared to £83 for a condenser and £100 for a vented tumble dryer.
• Large household with lots of washing? Tumble dryers are the best balance of speed and cost. The annual running cost is £61 a year on average to dry three large loads a week. According to our calculations, it would cost around £130 to dry the equivalent amount on a heated airer we've tested. The annual costs of condenser and vented tumble dryers are similar to this, but they will dry your laundry faster than the clothes airers. 
• If you have a heat-pump tumble dryer, stick with it. They are just as efficient and cost effective as heated airers for small loads; and for large loads, the average annual running cost for a heat-pump tumble dryer is £48, which is much less than the £130 average for a heated airer.
• Drying pods are costly, but may be what you're after. You won't make any savings – in fact, you could pay significantly more over the lifetime of the product compared to a tumble dryer or heated clothes airer. But if you want to occasionally dry items almost as quickly as you can in a tumble dryer – and you don't own one or can't have one installed – a drying pod could be the answer.

Cut your laundry costs by up to £156 with our money-saving advice

Why you should never dry clothes on your radiator

Radiators can seem a handy option, but drying your clothes on them could end up being more expensive than you'd think. Watch our video to find out more.

Types of heated clothes airer

There are two main types of heated clothes airer: heated bar clothes airers and drying pods. Both work very differently.

Heated bar clothes airers use (as the name suggests) heated bars to dry clothes, with each one acting like a mini radiator. 

Some look like a tower, which typically gives more drying space for the room they take up, but they can be less accommodating of larger items such as dresses, towels and bedsheets. 

Others resemble a typical clothes horse, often with foldable wings for extra drying space. They have a larger middle section, which is good for bigger items such as jeans and bedding, but overall have less drying space than tower models.

Drying pods are essentially big hair dryers for clothes, using a fan and heating element to blow hot air through the clothes hanging inside a pod.

They dry clothes faster than heated bar clothes airers but typically have smaller capacities. You'll be able to hang dresses and jeans in them, but bedsheets and duvets are a no-go.

Best tumble dryers and best washer-dryers

Is a heated clothes airer with a cover better?

Heated clothes airers are often sold with covers, or you might see advice online suggesting you drape a bedsheet over the airer to speed up drying times. 

But from our testing, we've found that these are fairly ineffective. We didn't notice any improvement in drying times with a bedsheet in place, and when we used the plastic covers that were supplied with some of the airers we tested, we actually saw drying times increase.

Moisture was unable to escape from underneath the plastic cover, creating a very humid environment that slowed down how quickly the clothes dried. 

Find out the best and cheapest way to dry your clothes indoors.

Do heated clothes airers cause condensation?

In a word - yes. Drying wet clothes releases the moisture into the air and, unless you have means for catching it or letting it out of the house, it will build up and could lead to damp problems.

Open a window in the room where you're using the heated airer or drying pod, or use a dehumidifier.

You can also buy covers for heated bar clothes airers, which will minimise how quickly the moisture is released – but, as we explain above, our testing found that they significantly slow down drying times.

Check out the best dehumidifiers to control that condensation and best window vacs to remove