As energy bills increase and we head into another cold and wet winter, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find heated airers in stock in most stores.

By drying clothes through heated rails, an electric airer can save you hundreds of pounds a year on the cost of running a tumble dryer, and it’s kinder to delicate clothing at the same time.

The Easylife XL heated airer can hold an impressive 15kg of washing, which is ideal if you have a large family; a job that results in grubby uniforms, or you wash a lot of sweaty sports kit. This model is significantly bigger than other popular heated airers, such as Lakeland’s popular dry:soon drying pod, which can only hold 12 items on hangers.

With an impressive 21m of heated drying space, the rails can be adjusted to lay flat items, such as delicate sweaters, and long items such as maxi dresses and trousers. As everything is draped over rails rather than spun in a tumble dryer, there are fewer creases, which means less need for ironing. That’s something to tick off the to-do list.

According to information available on the Easylife website, the XL heated airer costs just 10p an hour to run, but the question I wanted to answer was how long does it take to dry clothes? It will cease to be an economical option, and lose practicality points, if it takes significantly longer than a tumble dryer.

Read more: Best heated clothes airer

How we tested

I tested this airer’s 15kg capacity by doing several loads of washing and then attempted to fit them all on the airer at the same time. I washed a variety of items, including a delicate maxi dress I wore to a ball, my husband’s work shirts, Lycra sports kit and muddy school uniform, and tried to arrange them over the airer’s three tiers of rails.

I dried Lycra sports kit, muddy school uniform and a delicate dress (Zoe Griffin)

With four children, I normally iron a lot of school shirts, so I wanted to test if drying my clothes on rails would indeed mean less ironing. I tried out the timer function, first setting it for two hours, to see how dry the items were after that time. The next time I used the airer, I tried the four hour timer and compared the difference.

Easylife XL heated airer

Weight: 4.6kg

Power supply: Mains powered

Cable length: 1.5m

Size: 147.5cm (H) x 72cm (W) x 67cm (D)

Guarantee: Two years

Maximum load: 15kg

Design

The first thing I noticed when opening the box and tipping out the components was the lack of separate parts. Pleasingly, this airer is already assembled. All you have to do is fold it out and plug it in.

I liked that it is mounted on wheels rather than on a flat base, too. If I’m having other kids around for play dates, I need to be able to move my laundry fast, to ensure it doesn’t get dirty again. The wheels mean I can steer it out of harm’s way rather than having to lift it up and carry it somewhere. The wheels also mean I can move the airer one-handed, which is useful if I’m carrying something else, such as a toddler, cup of tea, dirty nappy or other random household mess, in the other hand.

For such a large item, it’s incredibly light. Information provided by the brand specified that it weighed 4.6kg, which is not much for an airer with 30 heated rails.

All rails are made from strong lightweight aluminium, which is non-corroding and made to last. Although it comes with a two-year guarantee, this airer looks like it will last a lot longer.

Drying power

It’s a lot simpler to use an Easylife XL heated airer than it is to use a tumble dryer. While a tumble dryer has a whole dial full of heating and drying options, the Easylife airer just requires powering on at the mains and the setting of an auto-drying time.

The timer has two options – two hours or four hours, and it will automatically shut off after those times (for safety reasons and to avoid overheating). Fire safety wise, I feel more confident using this in my home than I do a tumble dryer, because dryers have far more elements that could malfunction and start a blaze.

Using the Easylife XL heated airer, you’re looking at two hours for shirts and four for denser items. Given that the airer costs just pennies to run, compared with pounds for a tumble dryer, I’d say it was significantly more convenient, cost-wise, to use the airer.

Space

The Easylife XL heated airer is a tall item, measuring 147cm, which means it’s bigger than all my children. Thankfully, it’s very stable, supported by four side castor beams, which gives me reassurance that, should any child jump on it, the airer and the clothes will survive.

The wheels can be locked in place, so there’s no danger of any child using it as a toy horse. It does take up more width than some other heated airers – such as the Lakeland dry:soon drying pod – but that’s because it has five times as many clothes-hanging options.

If you want an airer that can hold 15kg of laundry rather than 12 items, you have to accept it will take up more space. But that’s not to say it’s super bulky. It has a cuboid shaped design, as opposed to some dryer’s winged shape, which means it can be left in a corner and forgotten about until your clothes are dry.

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The verdict: Easylife XL heated airer

The Easylife XL heated airer is incredibly easy to set up and use out of the box. I liked how it had enough height to perfectly hang one of my most glamorous maxi dresses. My husband appreciated me taking better care of his Lycra sports kit, which in the past has become thin and transparent after frequent (but inadvisable) tumble dryer cycles.

If you find yourself doing at least one laundry load a day, the size of the Easylife XL makes for a practical drying option that doesn’t rack up fuel bills.

Although I’ll still be using the tumble dryer when I want to dry things fast, the Easylife XL heated airer is a great extra option – especially for those items that can’t be tumble dried. Its lightweight, easy-to-wheel design makes it ideal for busy households too.

Want to power through the ironing pile? Read our review of the best clothes steamers that get the chore done