Now that drying clothes outside is less of an option and the increased cost of living means many of us want to lower our energy use, we've set out to find the quickest and cheapest way to dry clothes indoors.
We‘ve dug into the running costs of tumble dryers, dehumidifiers and heated clothes airers – plus washer dryers, drying pods and heated towel rails – and found that it depends on a number of factors, including the amount of laundry you wash.
- Air drying your clothes will always be the cheapest method – it's free, after all – but this can take many, many hours or be impossible as the weather gets worse.
- If you have lots of large laundry loads, a tumble dryer will always be the most efficient and convenient option, but there's one type of tumble dryer that's better than the others for minimising your electricity use.
- Alternatives such as a heated clothes airer or dehumidifier might be a better option for some.
Read on to compare and find what’s best for you.
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Tumble dryers
The tumble dryer is a staple in many family homes. There are four main types:
- vented
- condenser
- heat pump
- gas.
Vented dryers are often the cheapest to buy, starting from around £200 for a decent model, but they have higher running costs. At the other end of the spectrum are heat pump tumble dryers; their annual running costs are much lower, but they're much more expensive to buy – usually £500-700.
The latest tumble dryers adapt running times and settings depending on the laundry type, dampness and load size – in theory getting your clothes dry as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Pros
- Fast: We've tested tumble dryers that dry quickly, at 14 minutes per kg of laundry, whereas some take a more leisurely 40 minutes per kg. This works out as one to three hours to dry a big pile of clothes. Even with these differences, tumble dryers remain the fastest method of drying indoors.
- Low running costs (heat pump tumble dryers): It costs about £68 a year to dry three big loads a week with a heat pump dryer, which is much cheaper than the other types of tumble dryer and other methods for equivalent load sizes. It would cost about £163 to dry the same amount with a heated clothes airer we've tested.
- Low effort: Simply put in your clothes, press start and forget about it until the tumble dryer’s program has finished. For extra convenience, a smart tumble dryer allows you to monitor and control it using your smartphone.
- Capacity: If you regularly need to dry family-sized loads, or large items such as duvet covers and towels, a tumble dryer's big capacity is another plus. Some can hold up to 11kg – more than you can fit on a heated clothes airer in one go.
Cons
- Expensive to buy (and some to run): Most of the Best Buy tumble dryers we’ve tested cost more than £500, but there are cheaper Best Buys from £160 upwards. The running costs for a non-heat pump model are also higher: vented dryers can cost around £250 a year to run and condensers around £170. Having said this, if you do big loads of laundry that would require multiple uses of a heated clothes airer, drying in a condenser or heat pump tumble dryer is still likely to be the cheaper way to dry your clothes.
- Risk of clothes damage: Some clothes, for example delicate items such as bras and tights, aren’t well suited to be tumble dried. They run the risk of shrinking or degrading.
- Risk of damp: A vented tumble dryer needs to be placed near a wall vent or window so you can poke the hose outside, venting away the humid air. Condenser and heat pump dryers have a condensation unit to capture moisture, but our tests have found that poorly made ones lead to humid air leaking out. This increases the risk of damp and mould developing.
Our verdict
If you have large loads to dry, multiple times a week, a tumble dryer will always be the best option for you. Go for a heat pump dryer if you need to buy one, as it's significantly cheaper to run and will save you money in the long run over other types of tumble dryer.
See our guide to the best tumble dryers for recommendations and expert buying advice, or keep your existing tumble dryer running efficiently with our tumble dryer tips and maintenance
Heated clothes airers
Heated clothes airers are currently flying off the shelves. If you’re able to get hold of one, they can be a faster way to dry your clothes inside than a non-heated clothes horse.
They look just like clothes horses, but use low power to heat the bars — essentially acting like mini radiators — to dry clothes faster.
Their low power means they’re relatively cheap to run (an average of 9p per hour for the ones we’ve tested). However, our tests have found that their lower capacities and longer drying times mean they won't always work out cheapest in the long run.
Pros
- Simple: There are no settings and you don't have to separate fabric types: you simply unfold the airer, load it up, plug it in and turn it on.
- More consistent than air drying: Lots of factors affect how long it can take to dry on an unheated clothes airer, including room temperature, humidity and ventilation. Because of this, drying times vary broadly from around four hours to 24 hours or more. While these factors also influence how long it takes to dry clothes on a heated clothes airer, the heated bars go some way to giving a more consistent drying time. Our tests found heated clothes airers typically take between four and five hours to dry a small cotton load.
- Cheaper to buy than a tumble dryer: Heated clothes airers start from around £40 for a standard size, although if you want to go for a giant multi-tiered model be prepared to pay around £200. While this isn’t peanuts, it's still much cheaper than most Best Buy tumble dryers.
- Cheaper to run with small loads: If you can regularly fit your load of laundry on the clothes airer in one go, then a heated airer could save you money in the long run compared with vented and condenser tumble dryers. For example, drying three 2.15kg cotton loads a week (about a quarter-filled tumble dryer) will cost £62 a year for the average heated airer we've tested. This is about £50 less than doing the same with a condenser tumble dryer.
Cons
- Slower than tumble dryers: Even drying synthetic clothes in a well-ventilated, warm room on a heated clothes airer can take longer than it would for the slowest tumble dryers to complete the same task. However, heated clothes airers are much faster than air drying your clothes.
- More expensive to run with big loads: If your laundry pile is high, and you'd need to use a heated airer multiple times to dry one load, then a tumble dryer will be more cost effective. We calculate it would cost £160 a year for the average heated airer we've tested to dry three large loads a week. A heat pump dryer will typically do this for £68, and a condenser dryer for around £170.
- Space required: Even though all the heated clothes airers we've tested fold away handily are fairly straightforward to set up, they can be a bit of a headache if you live in a smaller property. Most models we’ve tested will also struggle to fit larger items on them, such as jeans or dresses.
- Risk of damp: The moisture coming off your clothes doesn't just disappear, which is why ventilation is so important when drying indoors. Avoid using your heated airer in a room with little or no air circulation, as the moisture will often collect in the corners of ceilings and invite mould to grow.
Our verdict
If you can’t have a tumble dryer installed, then a heated airer is an alternative for faster and more consistent drying times than simply air drying. Plus, you can save a bit on running costs if you tend to wash small loads of clothes that can fit on the heated airer in one go.
Otherwise, a tumble dryer will more than likely be quicker, cheaper and more convenient for you.
Best heated clothes airers — discover which we've found are the best combination of being quick to dry and cheap to run
Drying pods
Drying pods are essentially big hair dryers for your clothes. They use a fan and heating element to blow hot air through hanging clothes inside a pod.
Pros
- Fast: They dry clothes much more quickly than a heated clothes airer. The ones we’ve tested took an average of two hours 20 minutes to dry a small cotton load. Most tumble dryers will still be marginally quicker than a drying pod, though.
- Relatively cheap to buy: Most drying pods cost less than £100, which is cheaper than a tumble dryer. It's more expensive than the cheapest heated clothes airers, though, which start around £50.
- Better suited to larger garments: We found in our tests that larger items, such as jeans and dresses, are much easier to fit into a drying pod than on a clothes airer. A tumble dryer still takes the crown for capacity, though.
Cons
- You have to dismantle them, rather than folding them up: This makes them a little trickier to set up and put away than heated airers.
- Small capacity: Most drying pods only have enough room for 12 to 18 garments. If you have large loads of washing, and therefore need to use the drying pod multiple times, your electricity bills will start to climb rapidly.
- Expensive to run: Heated clothes airers typically draw between 200 to 300 watts of power, whereas the heated fan of a drying pod typically draws 1,000 watts or more. The average drying pod we've tested costs 36p an hour, four times more than a heated airer. It's this combination of small drying capacity combined with higher hourly running costs that means you'll be watching that smart meter whizz round.
Our verdict
You could pay a significant amount in running costs if you use a drying pod as the main method to dry your clothes. However, if you don't have a tumble dryer and want something that will gets the job done in a similar amount of time, a drying pod might be worth considering.
Best drying pods and heated airers — discover which pod was the cheapest to run in our test
Dehumidifiers
A dehumidifier not only helps to dry your clothes more quickly, it can also help to deal with the moisture that evaporates into the air.
There are two types of dehumidifier:
- Refrigerant (also known as compressor) dehumidifiers condense warm, damp air via a cold surface into a water storage tank.
- Desiccant dehumidifiers work like a sponge, using an absorbent material to extract water from the air. Desiccant dehumidifiers work better than refrigerant types in colder temperatures.
Both types have some models with a specific laundry setting, which whacks the fan speed up to maximum, recreating the conditions you'd have outside on a warm, breezy day.
Usually, you'd need to open a window when hanging clothes indoors to allow moisture to escape, but when using a dehumidifier you should close windows so damp air outside isn’t drawn in.
Our Best Buy dehumidifiers start from £150 - but you can get ones from £50. Our tests have found that the cheapest models tend to struggle to get the job done.
Pros
- Multipurpose: If your home has high humidity or your bathroom has poor ventilation, a dehumidifier can deal with these as well as speeding up the drying process.
- Gentle drying: As they don’t use heat, dehumidifiers shouldn’t cause shrinking or damage fabrics.
- Fights damp: The unique advantage of using a dehumidifier over other methods of indoor drying is that it also lowers the risk of damp and mould forming, as dehumidifiers actively keep condensation at bay by lowering the overall humidity in the home.
Cons
- Water tank: As with condenser and heat pump tumble dryers, you’ll need to empty the water tank once it’s full. Some dehumidifiers can be set up for continuous drainage if you have access to a drain hose outlet.
- Relatively noisy: While the noise isn't awful, dehumidifiers are louder when running than a heated clothes airer.
- Running costs vary: The average running cost for Best Buy refrigerant dehumidifiers is 9p an hour. This is the same as the heated airers we’ve tested. However, while all the heated airers we’ve tested cost this amount (plus or minus a few pennies), the range of running costs for Best Buy refrigerant dehumidifiers is wider: 5-14p. If you opt for a desiccant dehumidifier, these costs can be higher still. Some models of this type run at 650 watts, costing about 22p an hour.
Our verdict
If you have damp or mould issues, poorly vented bathrooms, and don’t want to exacerbate things by drying clothes indoors, then kill all these birds with one stone and go for a dehumidifier.
Best dehumidifiers — top buying advice to get the right type and size for your home
Washer-dryers
Unlike tumble dryers, washer-dryers come in one type: condenser. They use condensers to remove moisture from laundry and, as they double up as washing machines, there's no need to empty any water tanks. Waste water simply drains out the same way as it does during wash cycles.
Pros
- Space-saving: Washer-dryers remove the need for a separate washer and dryer, making them a realistic option if space is tight and you need your laundry washed and dried in a hurry.
- Minimal effort: With the ability to combine wash and dry programs, what went in dirty will come out both clean and dry. Doing laundry doesn't get simpler than this.
Cons
- Smaller capacities for drying: The drying capacity of a washer-dryer is around half the wash capacity, so if you've got a 7kg-capacity washer-dryer, you'll only be able to wash and dry 3.5kg of washing in one go. This is less than you could do in a dedicated tumble dryer of the equivalent size. You could take half of your washing out and run two separate drying cycles - but that's both inconvenient and more costly.
- High energy use: Our tests have found washer-dryers to be quite high on energy use. The washer-dryers we've tested cost around £120 a year on average to dry your clothes. This is nearly twice the running costs for a heat pump tumble dryer. If longer drying times don't bother you, a heated airer would cost less than a washer-dryer to dry a similar load size.
- They're expensive: Combining your washing machine and tumble dryer comes at a price. You can find a Best Buy tumble dryer for around £399, but the cheapest Best Buy washer-dryer at the time of publishing costs £600. We haven’t yet found a washer-dryer that's eligible for our Great Value recommendation, but we have found five Eco Buys that cost less to run than your average washer-dryer.
Our verdict
If space is too tight for a tumble dryer, and the slower drying times of a heated airer make you shudder, then a washer-dryer combo might be the most convenient option for you. Just know that the smaller capacity and running costs mean it isn’t the cheapest option.
Best washer-dryers — get the best model for you and your budget
Heated towel rails
Radiators can start overheating if you put clothes on them, which is one of the reasons (see more below) why it's not recommended that you do this.
However, heated towel rails are radiators specifically designed for drying fabrics. They will heat to the temperature you set them at, even if you cover them with an armful of damp socks.
You can get gas and electric models, but if you want to dry your clothes in the summer without also heating up your home, it's best to get an electric version that you can control separately from your central heating.
Pros
- Quick: As with every drying method, the type of fabric and level of dampness will largely dictate the drying time, but in most cases cranking up the heat on your towel rail will dry your clothes in nothing more than a few hours.
Cons
- Small capacity: Most heated towel rails only have room for a few towels, certainly not enough space for a full washing machine load.
- Expensive: If the towel rail is connected to your central heating, you’ll be adding to your gas bills every time you keep the heating on longer than you usually would because you’re waiting for clothes to dry. If you opt for an electric radiator it’s your electricity bills that will take the hit. The amount will depend on the wattage of the rail, but a typical 1-kilowatt towel rail will cost on average 34p an hour to run.
- Risk of damp: Just like all indoor methods of drying clothes, ventilation is important to avoid damp. Hopefully your heated towel rail is located in a bathroom, which most will already be equipped with a vent or extractor fan to handle the steam from showering.
Our verdict
Towel rails could be useful if you already have one for quickly drying larger items, such as towels, or speeding up the drying process on damper garments.
However, the cost and limited capacity mean for full loads of laundry it’s better to use an alternative primary method for indoor drying.
How to save money on your heating bills this winter — top tips for cutting energy bills
Why you should never dry clothes on your radiator
Radiators can seem a handy option for drying your laundry. You'll likely have them in your home already, so popping your clothes on your radiator could seem like a simple and easy way to save money.
But in fact, drying your clothes on your radiator could end up being the most expensive option of all.
- Radiators work to establish an ambient temperature in your home. If you switch the heating on and set it to 20°C, your radiators will work to pump out heat until your home is at that temperature.
- Putting cold and wet laundry on your radiators will make your clothes act as a barrier between the heat your radiators give off and the temperature of your home. Your radiators will think your home is the temperature of your clothes.
- This will make the radiators work much harder than they need to, as they'll ramp up the heat to try to remedy such a drop in temperature.
- This can cause your heating bills to rise. You might end up with dry clothes, but you'll also end up with a colder home and bigger energy bills.
If you need help managing your finances during the cost of living crisis, try our free My Money Health Check tool for a list of expert money-saving tips.
All prices are correct as of November 2022. Running costs assume an electricity cost of 34p per kWh. Annual running costs based on estimated use.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/whats-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-dry-clothes-indoors-aVcs74u56Gk8