We took each airer's capacity into account to also calculate the cost of drying a large cotton load. But the savings reduce 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. 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 We used a force gauge to determine how much force is needed to topple over each heated airer, as well as the flexibility of each airer's bars. We selected the heated airers and drying pods from the most searched-for brands and popular UK retailers.

Heated clothes airers we tested typically took between four to six hours to dry a small (2.15kg) cotton load. 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. 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. As much as a bit of heat helps speed up the drying process, so too does a bit of open air, which is why you get the best of both worlds in this winged design. Admittedly, the Minky Wing takes up some space when it’s opened and loaded up, but the lightweight airer folds compactly and neatly for easy storage. There’s also the option of using the airer folded flat without the wings, for smaller basketfulls of washing. Costing less than 4p per hour to run, it’s also impressively economic with its electricity usage. Altogether, the airer offers a total drying space of 12 metres and comes with its own cover designed to retain heat.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.

The best heated airers cost as little as 6p per hour to run, while the most costly came in at around 31p an hour. Stability You might also be interested in our radiator airers. They hook over the top of the radiator and protrude outwards with a number of rails on them, so you can hang things in the direct heat of the radiator while still allowing air to pass through them. Hanging clothes and towels directly on the radiator doesn’t give you that air flow, so these hangers are a great idea. 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 The best heated clothes airers are perfectly safe, and can even be left overnight, though many of the better ones have built-in timer modes too. Having said that, you'll probably want to be mindful of having small children in the same room, as the bars on the airers themselves can be quite hot to the touch, so having them set up out of the way will always be best. How we choose the best heated clothes airersCan 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.