Heated Airer vs Dehumidifier: Which Should You Buy First?

A heated airer is essentially a fold-out clothes airer with gently warmed rails. Clothes draped over the bars dry in 3–6 hours instead of the day or two an unheated rack would take, and there's no tumble-dryer drum to shrink your jumpers.

The running cost is the headline figure. Most heated airers draw around 220W, which works out to roughly 6–10p per hour at current UK electricity rates — about 15p for a full load. A condenser tumble dryer running the same wash costs you roughly £1, so an airer pays for itself within a couple of months of daily use.

They're also silent, fold flat against a wall when not in use, and don't change the humidity of the room in any meaningful way (which is also their main downside — see the dehumidifier section below).

A dehumidifier tackles the root cause of indoor moisture rather than just speeding up drying. It actively pulls water out of the air and collects it in a tank, which keeps walls, windows and fabric furniture dry enough to stop mould forming.

That makes it the right first purchase if you've already got streaming windows, musty smells or black spots in corners. A decent 12L compressor unit running 4–8 hours a day at 50% RH costs around 3–7p per hour and pays for itself in lower heating bills (dry air feels warmer at the same temperature).

Most modern models also have a laundry mode — fan on full, target humidity dropped — that dries a load of clothes in 3–4 hours while protecting the whole room from the moisture they release.

If you can afford both, run them together: clothes on the heated airer, dehumidifier running in the same room with the door closed. The airer dries the fabric from the outside; the dehumidifier removes the moisture as fast as it's released.

The ideal setup is the MeacoDry Arete Two running in the same room as the BLACK+DECKER airer with its cover on. The dehumidifier's laundry mode works with the airer to cut drying time to 3–4 hours while keeping humidity safe.