I never thought about a ladder heated clothes airer, but this is a bathroom essential

The Dry:Soon Heated Towel Airer isn't quite like any other heated clothes airers on the market. It's perfect for drying towels in your bathroom as well as for smaller loads of laundry. I'm sold.

Traditionally, the best heated clothes airers have been measured against how well they bear the brunt of your big laundry loads, but that’s not always what you need. If your towel rail is too small or draining your utilities, it’s worth investing in the Dry:Soon Heated Towel Airer.

I’ve been using this in my bathroom, as well as to supplement my main heated airer. When I have a few small bits to dry, this demands minimal room and doesn’t take up too much space. I've done the maths on how much heated airers cost to run and it's pennies. This is a no-brainer.

Specifications

Unboxing

Whilst the Dry:Soon arrived in a small, slim cardboard box, this was actually the most frustrating to assemble of all the heated clothes airers out there. You can see in the picture that this has long feet, but these need to be screwed into place with some special tools. Therefore, you’ll need to have your toolbox handy and your motivation levels high to get using this straight away. I, unfortunately, didn’t, so I’ll confess that I was using this without any feet for a whole week before I could sum up the handywoman inside me to fit the feet on. 

Aside from that, the rest of the packaging was easy to dispose of and this looked nice and slim. I wouldn’t begrudge it some space in my bathroom — and that’s saying a lot.

Who would it suit?

The Dry:Soon has really been designed for towels and use in the bathroom. If your heated towel rail only works when the central heating is on, this is a great way to stop your towels from staying damp while the heating isn’t running. It’s also generally useful for any extra towels or small laundry loads that you do. I found myself putting a lot of gym clothes on it for a quick dry as well as small towels and blankets. Top tip: your dryer doesn’t have to just be for wet clothes. You can put pyjamas and blankets on it so that when you go to use them, they’ve been gently warmed.

As you might have guessed, this won’t replace your main heated airer, but it’ll be a great helping hand around the house. Or, if you live in a really small space, it’ll also be a handy way to enjoy the benefits of a heated airer, without needing to make space for a big one.

How easy is it to use?

Once I had screwed on the feet, using the Dry:Soon was easy. There’s a button tucked in the inside of the ladder that lets you choose either two or four hours before the ladder will automatically turn off. This is great for your utilities as well as for fire hazards. The rungs generally run at 50 degrees, so you won’t need it on for any longer. It can do the job of almost all tasks in four hours. Which brings me on to the results and my in-person tests. 

Normally, I run all heated clothes airers through a light load, medium load, and heavy load of washing. However, this maxed out in capacity at 2.7m of space, which is just shy of a light load, so I switched up my tests. I put a load of towels on the heated airer, a mini wash, and then another load of clothing. 

Given that the Dry:Soon boasts six rungs, I thought I would be able to get six towels dry on it. However, that was wishful thinking. This could dry three large towels in two hours, but if I put more on, they were really hard to get properly dry, even after four hours on full heat. That’s enough for a small family, or to cater to some overflow from your normal towel rail, but it’s important to note that this has limited capacity.

Now, I know that the Dry:Soon isn’t designed for light laundry loads, but it flew through drying my gym clothes, a hand-washed jumper, and general clothing that I had lying around. In fact, it was one of the fastest heated clothes airers to get my pieces of clothing cupboard dry.

The greatest difficulty that I had in using this was that I don’t have plug sockets in my bathroom, but I wanted to use this for drying towels. I ended up keeping this on the landing, plugged in, near the bathroom. It didn’t make for the most attractive decor, but when it wasn’t in use, I put it out of the way. 

What is it like to store?

This isn’t really designed to be stowed away. Instead Dry:Soon opted for a design that would be compact enough not to need to be disassembled. Whilst this is slim, small, and inoffensive in a bathroom, the feet do stick out a little. In fact, they measure 12 cm. You’ll want to find a little nook where you can store this ladder. I have a gap between my sink and bath, but you might have a cupboard. 

How does it compare?

It’s unfair to put this up against tower heated clothes airers and pod airers, since they’re the main event and this is more of a support act. It does, however, have some crossover with one of my favourite heated airers, the Aerative Portable Dryer Hanger. This works by drying clothes one item at a time, so it’s much smaller scale than the Dry:Soon. However, it’s faster and much more versatile: I dried shoes, shirts, and heavy jumpers in record time. 

I feel like a broken record saying this again, but the Dry:Soon ladder has a very specific use. It’s great for your towels in the bathroom and small loads. If you take small to the extreme and wash just one item, get the Aerative. If you know you often have little batches of washing and damp towels, go for the Dry:Soon.

Should you buy it?

I’ll say it one last time (and then I’ll stop, I promise), this is the perfect compliment to an overcrowded towel rail and small washing loads. Anything more will need a substantially bigger clothes airer, but this is nifty to have around for small jobs. 

How we test

At woman&home, we have a standard process for how we test heated clothes airers. I've spent months drying sheets, jumpers, tops, and more on the best heated airers on the market. 

Before a review comes to you like this, I'll have used it in my own home. I unbox it, making notes on the packaging, parts, and assembly. Then, I'll put different loads of washing, from jeans to cottons, and woolly knits, timing how long it takes to get each garment to cupboard dry.

Once I'm satisfied that I've got a good idea of how long the heated airer takes to dry clothes, I'll move on to storage. I test out different storage spaces around my home so that you get a good idea of where you can put your heated airer. 

After that, I'll do a comparison between the heated airer that I've tested and similar models on the market. I often look for a more expensive and a less expensive model, so that you know whether you're getting good value for money.

After that, I'll give you a judgement on whether this heated airer is worth buying. I'll say who it suits and who it doesn't. I'll always aim to cover all bases because I want you to be able to make an investment that you consider money well-spent.