Is Aldi's heated clothes airer worth the money?
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As a Shopping Editor, I browse through a lot (and I mean a lot) of products every single day.
This ultimately leads to random weekly WhatsApp messages from friends and family asking me what the best deals are, or if there's a product they need to know about.
Apparently in 2021, I went on quite a bit about heated clothes airers, as on Christmas morning I opened a very big box, which turned out to be Aldi's £39.99 Easy Home Heated Airer.
It had been kindly gifted to me by my mum for two reasons: firstly, I'd kept going on about it topping our bestselling list and secondly, she was fed up of coming to my flat to find every chair, doorway and radiator covered in washing.
If you haven't heard about the wonder that is a heated clothes airier, it's designed to be a practical and efficient way of drying your washing thanks to its heated bars - and Aldi's is the most affordable on the market.
John Lewis and Lakeland's designs, which have been around for a good few years, retail for £100 and above, so it's no surprise that Aldi's under £50 design caught many people's attention and now has over 600 reviews, with the brand having to constantly re-stock it.
Is Aldi's heated airer worth the money?
I've been using Aldi's heated airer for over a month and I have to say, I can now understand what all the heated airer hype is about.
Firstly, just as an airer it's great, as it is huge and can fit a whole load on easily (a lot more than my usual standard three-tiered airer).
Low on storage space? I feel you, in fact my first thought when I opened the massive contraption was, where on earth am I going to put it?
But the (surprisingly very lightweight) design neatly folds down and fits in the thin space down the side of my washing machine in the airing closet.
As for the heating part, it definitely took some getting used to.
To begin with I'd pile all my laundry on the toasty bars and check back every hour or so.
I quickly discovered that for longer items, such as trousers, it was optimal if you rotated them like a rotisserie chicken, so that they dried evenly and you weren't left with any damp spots.
However, for things such as socks and underwear they'd be dry in a flash.
To help even out the drying, the airer does also come with a fabric cover, which you put over it to quicken drying time - and that definitely did help.
My favourite thing, however, is how effortlessly it express dries bedding.
Simply slot the pillow cases through the bars and then throw the duvet flat over the top and it will be dry in under half the time as usual, same goes for towels. For that alone, it's worth it in my book.
Plus, with energy prices rising, the heated airer (which costs around 6p to 8p per hour to run) also manages to act as a nice little way to add some extra heat into the lounge without having to turn the heating on.
Just one useful tip if you do end up buying it: read the instructions before use. My sister did not, proceeded to put her silky pleated skirt on it and now it has new, fetching bar-like detail across it.
All in all, if you're in need of a new airer, you might as well go for Aldi's under £40 heated version, which can give you the best of both worlds.
