Dunelm's A Frame Heated Airer is a game-changer for saving space (and money) at home

The Dunelm 3-Tier A Frame Heated Airer can dry your clothes and shoes in double-quick time with half the budget of most other models. I put it to the test in my home.

If there’s a place to look for affordable yet effective heated airers, it’s Dunelm. Their models have been steadfast in securing spots in buying guides for the best heated airers and their A Frame Ladder Airer is no exception.

With three tiers and a shoe rack, this versatile yet affordable airer covers all bases. I’ve been using it for the last month and it’s safely secured a space in my home.

Specifications

Unboxing

In spite of its size, the Dunelm A Frame Ladder Airer is surprisingly light. This means that even though the box takes up a fair amount of space, it’s easy to move around and very slim. Inside, there’s almost no extra packaging, just the ladder. It’s great news for your recycling bins and even better news for the planet.

Getting started and set up doesn’t even require instructions. You can plug it in and press the switch and then you’re ready to get doing the laundry. There’s no excuse not to.

Who would it suit?

This is the perfect heated airer for small homes with reasonable drying demands. The A shape makes this more compact and less imposing in the room compared to traditional tower airers. So much so, I didn’t mind tucking this into a corner of my room and carrying on with my normal day-to-day life. You sacrifice a little capacity, but with washing for just one or two people, I didn’t find that I needed more.

It’s also rare to find a heated airer with foot racks, especially around this price, so if you’re often washing trainers, shoes, and gloves, this will be a godsend. I trail run often and end up sticking my trainers in the wash a lot and this has been the best heated airer for getting my trainers dry within the day. I don’t know what I’ll do without it.

What is it like to use?

The Dunelm A Frame Ladder Airer is very straight forward. It opens up like a ladder, the shelves click into place and then there is a switch at the bottom of the leg that lets you turn the airer on. There isn’t a timer or different heat settings — this is certainly on the crude side control-wise — but it warmed up within five minutes.

I run three different tests on every airer that I review: a light load (2.5kgs), a medium load (5kgs) and a heavy load (10kgs). The Dunelm A Frame Ladder Airer excelled on a light load. I had thin cottons and sportswear on this for two hours and they were easily cupboard dry.

The medium load just about fitted on, here I had heavier cotton t-shirts and jumpers. Again, these were dry relatively quickly. Some of the thicker parts, such as hoods and cuffs needed a little longer wrapped around the bars, but within 4.5 hours, they were just about ready to pack up.

My heavy load posed more of a problem, based purely on space. I had a whole week of washing, including towels and heavy jumpers. If I crammed everything on, it fitted, but without much overlap. The clothes were dry within the day and the thick bed socks and trainers that I put on the glove holders were dry too. This is a reasonable result, especially from a cheaper, smaller heated airer.

Storage

No heated airer is non-existent, but this makes storage easy. The whole Dunelm A Frame Ladder Airer flattens, like a ladder, so you could slot it at the back of a laundry cupboard or in a laundry room. You’d need to leave it stood up, which means your cupboard must be tall, but it’s light enough that I don’t think you’d struggle to carry this up and down stairs.

How does it compare?

I really like the design of the Dunelm A Frame Ladder Airer, but it’s not the only one of its kind. John Lewis makes an almost identical model, which does feel more robust. Reviewers praised the shoe feature and speed at which it dries clothes, but the timings are almost identical to the Dunelm. The general consensus seems to be that the John Lewis model takes the edge for quality, so if you’re happy to spend a bit more money, it might give you some extra life. However, my experience with Dunelm’s heated airers has been overwhelmingly positive, so I would stick with theirs and pocket the extra money.

If you’re put off by the lack of capacity and you’re willing to make some more room in your get, the Dry:Soon 3-Tier Heated Airer is a great alternative. This is robust, speedy, and the heated airer that I ended up investing in after all my tests. It doesn’t have a space for drying shoes — a feature I genuinely miss — but it can dry a heavy load and smaller loads at least half an hour quicker than the Dunelm. You’ll also get timer settings and plenty of other neat features to enjoy.

Should you buy it?

If you’re shopping on a budget and you want a neatly designed, compact heated airer for the family, you really can’t go wrong with this. Dunelm has done it again.

How we test

At woman&home we have a series of tests that we put every air purifier through. I wash three loads of laundry, a light, medium, and large wash and time how long my clothes take to dry. I use different materials and clothes and will often end up repeating the tests for a month. I like to get the clearest idea possible on how easy the heated airer is to live with. I make notes on everything, but if you still have questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

You can find out more about how we test heated clothes airers on our dedicated page.