BLACK+DECKER BXAR0002GB Extendable Compact Clothes Airer, Cool Grey, 7.5M Drying Space

Product Information

The heated airer was tested on its ability to dry clothes, bath towels and bedding. The clothes were dried laying flat on the shelf, draped over a single heated bar and on the hanging rail. The airer was also tested on how easy it was to set up, use and put away afterwards. About the author We took each airer's capacity into account to also calculate the cost of drying a large cotton load. Reviewer Laura Cooke lives in a four-bedroom house in Sussex with her husband and two kids, aged four and six.

Easy to use, it arrives assembled, simply fold out, plug in and switch on. Ideal for winter months as a perfect alternative to outdoor drying. Features and Benefits The longer they take to dry items, the more they’ll ultimately end up costing, but even if you use them to start the drying process, they should make a noticeable difference to your laundry pile. Heated bar clothes airers use (as the name suggests) heated bars to dry clothes, with each one acting like a mini radiator. Running at 300w, it costs 15p an hour to use at current prices. It’s tall enough for hanging long items like trousers and towels, and the adaptable rungs mean you can lay up to six jumpers flat for speedy drying. My colleague Debora Robertson swears by it as the best way of drying bras and Sally Hughes of laundry experts Kair recommends it to make delicates last longer. Another option for speeding the clothes-drying process is to run a portable dehumidfier in the same room. Dehumidifiers can shorten drying time by 25 percent, while also reducing damp and mould in the home.

What we like

Our team of reviewers tested a host of bestselling heated clothes airers to compile this guide. We compared assembly and set-up, design, ease of use, performance, capacity, energy efficiency, and price point to find the best heated clothes airers for various needs and budgets. 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.

But do heated airers use a lot of electricity? Our tests found they use significantly less of it to dry clothes when compared with drying pods. Just like its Heated Cabinet product, Dry:Soon’s Drying Pod uses a fan heater to warm its enclosure. The main difference here is that the Drying Pod is a far more compact alternative, so is ideal for those looking to save space at home.

The best heated airers and drying pods dried small loads in a comparable time to tumble dryers; the worst took over six hours. Energy use Due to the wardrobe-like design, you can hang shirts and uniforms inside on clothes hangers, and this results in far less creasing than standard heated airers and clothes horses. Underneath, there’s a second rail for other items, and this provides enough capacity for around 12 items of clothing.

Others resemble your 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. Manufacturers don’t recommend leaving any electric heated products unattended but in practice, this is how most people use them. Most come with timers and thermostats to choose lower temperatures for longer drying periods. How much do heated air dryers cost to run? 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. 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. Key specs – Open dimensions: 152 x 71.5 x 45cm (HWD); Closed dimensions: 152 x 71.5 x 45cm (HWD); Drying capacity: 10kg of clothing; Weight: 4.6kg; Guarantee: 3 years; Wattage: 1,200WHeat-up times are also worth considering as they can extend the drying time if they take a while to get to temperature. We’ve listed how long each took on test below. Is it safe to leave a heated airer on? This fan-powered heated clothes airer circulates warm air within its zip-up cover to dry washing in super fast times. We paid for every airer and drying pod we test, and don't accept free samples, so you can have complete confidence in our recommendations. Drying speed The DriBUDDi can also hold more washing, offering space for 18 coat hangers as opposed to the Dry:Soon Drying Pod's capacity for just 12 items. Both models require clothes to be spread out evenly so that the weight of the washing is well distributed for stability, but when clothes weren't well positioned, we found this model the more stable of the two on its feet. per hour for 200W dryers and 9p per hour for 300W dryers, approximately. This is based on the energy price cap of 30p per kW/h since July 1 2023, although prices will vary according to your tariff.