This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
The weather for hanging your laundry outside is officially behind us. But thankfully, I’m still managing to keep on top of my laundry just fine thanks to one game-changing household appliance.
Despite there being just two people living in my household, the laundry basket does seem to fill up at a rapid rate. But even though winter is upon us, there have been days over the last couple of weeks where I’ve been able to get through two loads of laundry in the same day, and still find room in the house to hang them to dry.
The Black+Decker 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer has plenty of room to hang loads of laundry out, and leave it toasty and fresh within hours, and ready to wear again the next day.
READ MORE: £25 heated pod stops damp clothes and it’s 50% off at Argos for Black Friday
READ MORE: ‘Perfect’ dehumidifier now almost half-price ‘dries clothes in a matter of hours’
It boasts three tiers with 10 long racks on each tier, ensuring there is room for all your t-shirts, trousers, towels, and plenty of underwear and socks. Best of all, a handy switch on the frame of the drying rack turns the airer’s heated feature on, distributing a gentle but powerful heat throughout the appliance.
Not only does this help speed up the clothes-drying process, but it also means that when you take your clean clothes off the rack, they feel nice and warm when you put them on – and with temperatures having plummeted recently, I’ll take all the extra warmth I can get.
What’s more, the Black+Decker Clothes Airer is a much more cost-efficient way of drying clothes than using a normal drying rack, and especially compared to running a tumble dryer (which we don’t own, anyway). The brand claims that the heated airer costs just 9p an hour to run.
By comparison, a tumble dryer can cost anywhere from 80p to £1.60 per hour to run – so you can really notice the savings on your energy bills.
And when you’re done with drying your clothes, the Black+Decker Heated Airer simply folds flat for easy storage, so you can tuck it away in your laundry room or under the stairs without it taking up any extra space.
The drying rack would usually cost you £155 from Amazon, but now for Black Friday, it has been reduced to 42% off, bringing the price down to just £89.99, and saving you a total of £65. This makes the airer cheaper at Amazon than at Dunelm, where it is currently priced at £100.
I also couple the heated clothes dryer with this Pro Breeze 12L/Day Dehumidifier, to help control the moisture levels in the room as the clothes are drying. It’s super-quiet to run and offers high or low running speeds, depending on how quickly you want to get the humidity levels down.
A handy LED light display also lets you keep track of the moisture levels in the room, so you can set your preferred humidity and let the machine do its thing to maintain it. What’s more, it has a handy, 24-hour timer feature, so you can set the dehumidifier to automatically turn off after a certain amount of time – a godsend if you’re going to be out and about, or are simply likely to forget.
The Pro Breeze Dehumidifier is also currently on sale for Black Friday, down from £139.99 to £114.99, saving you £25.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a more budget-friendly way to dry your laundry quicker, you could try this Beldray Heat Unit and 3-Tier Airer Cover, which is now reduced from £50 to just £25 at Argos.
Using it is a breeze: simply hang your clothes on your usual airer (up to 3 tiers high), position the little heater pod underneath, and zip the 145x65x55cm heat-resistant cover around the dryer, sealing in the heat to dry clothes faster, whilst also ensuring too much moisture does not fill the room.
But back at Amazon, the Black+Decker 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer has garnered an overall customer rating of 4.2 stars out of five, from nearly 2,000 reviews.
One small inconvenience that I would note personally about the airer is that the heated element doesn’t come with a timer option – it is just one switch to turn the heat on or off. This may be a concern for those who don’t want the heat to be on their clothes for too long, but who may forget to switch the airer off.
And some Amazon customers appear to agree with me, as one commented: “Have had this for a month now and it’s doing its job, however I expected this to have a timer eg. 3-6-9h for automatic turning off. How hard could it be? If you forget it on at night half of the energy is wasted.”
However, one happier customer said: “My favourite ever purchase from Amazon. High utility item in my household where I don’t have a tumble dryer, especially in the London winters. Dries your clothes in 2-3 hours.”
And another added: “Works really well. Lightweight but sturdy enough when in use. Lots of hanging space in a square profile. On-off switch is at the bottom of one of the legs. Heats up quickly, very effective and a trustworthy brand. Costs very little to run.”
