Recently, I spent a long weekend in a cabin in Oregon where one of the best (and most useful) features of the space was in the bathroom. It wasn’t the Toto toilet or the rainfall shower head, but another luxury: a shiny chrome towel rack that, to my surprise, quietly warmed my bath towels.
Enchanted by this device, I experimented with a wet swimsuit, which I left draped over its bars for a day. I returned to find it warm and dry enough to pack away, as if it’d spent a day basking in the sun on a clothesline.
This electric towel warmer, which fended off the perpetual damp of the Pacific north-west in November, hails from another very damp place: the UK. And recently, another, spiritually similar appliance has been surging in popularity there: heated clothing drying racks.
Inexpensive to buy and easy on your electrical bill, they have the potential to save money and reduce your carbon footprint. But do they make sense in America? For the right type of consumer, absolutely – as long you understand their benefits and pitfalls.
At a glance
Best for high capacityTors + Olsson X Frame
$157.69 at Walmart
Best for a tight budget Maas & Bath Heated Drying Rack
$139.99 at Maas & Bath
Best for small spaces SHARNDY Electric Heated Drying Rack
$369.99 at Amazon
What is a heated drying rack?
It’s exactly what it sounds like – a metal rack that plugs into the wall and gently heats up so that the clothing and fabric you drape upon it dries. “It takes two to four hours to dry most items on a heated airer, although on very cold or wet days it’ll take longer,” Jane Hoskyn, a consumer journalist based in the UK who tested this product for the Guardianin 2024, says in an email. For an American audience so used to the convenience of a standard tumble dryer, this sort of thing may seem like going backwards, but it makes sense for the UK for a variety of reasons.
First, most British homes come with combination washing-machine dryers, usually tucked under a counter in the kitchen where one might find a dishwasher. And if you’ve ever had the privilege of trying to use one of these contraptions to dry clothing, you’ll learn what British people have known for years: they’re not great at that task.
Second, the UK has been experiencing an energy crisis since 2021, when electricity prices began climbing to eventually become among the most expensive in Europe. According to the House of Commons Library, Britons pay an average of 37 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity, while Americans pay about 17 cents, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Enter the heated clothing racks, which began flying off shelves during the crisis, with one retailer reporting a 51% increase in sales in 2023 alone. When the Guardian tested 17 of them in 2024, we struggled to obtain even samples because they were so often sold out.
This recent British infatuation deserves a closer look, even if you have a working electric drier in your capacious American McMansion.
Why you might consider a heated drying rack
Above all, a heated drying rack uses substantially less electricity than a tumble dryer.
According to a representative from Black and Decker, a manufacturer, a heated clothing rack costs, on average, $0.06 of electricity per hour, in comparison with your standard tumble dryer, which comes in at an average of $0.48 per hour. Even though you may need to run the rack longer, the total cost to dry a load of clothes still comes out lower. If you live in a household where the piles of laundry are seemingly endless, it adds up.
Emily Kemper, the vice-president of the energy efficiency program consultancy CLEAResult, suggests it’s impossible to say exactly how much you can save. “There isn’t a single, reliable dollar or energy-savings figure that applies across households, because outcomes depend heavily on how the product is used,” she said in an email. “In most US homes, heated drying racks are better thought of as a supplement, not a replacement, for a tumble dryer.”
Financial benefits aside, consider the longevity and condition of your wardrobe. “They can be gentler on clothing,” Kemper says, “which may help extend the life of certain fabrics.” If you’re already following the labels on your hand-washed underpinnings and waiting days for them to air dry, a heated drying rack can expedite the process and eradicate the residual dampness that never seems to go away in the winter.
Heated drying racks can also bring down the noise pollution in your home. “They tend to be quieter than traditional dryers,” Kemper says. With no moving parts, heated drying racks eliminate the tumble of the dryer that makes your house shake, your baby wake up, or your downstairs neighbors fume.
Who are they best for?
Before you trot off in search of a heated drying rack of your own, consider the actual needs of your household and your relationship with laundry. Kemper suggests that this product is best for very specific situations: “People living in small spaces, single-person households, or those looking for a quiet, low impact way to dry a few garments at a time.”
For families with a ton of laundry, they can still make sense as an addition to your standard washer-dryer setup, for delicates or just drying a few things with ease.
The size of your home also matters. According to Hoskyn, the larger size of American homes makes for a welcoming environment. “In my experience US family homes have more floor space than UK homes, and that makes them suitable for heated airers,” she says. “Most airers have a fairly sizable footprint (a few feet square), and that can be a squeeze in a little UK terraced house.”
That said, they can still make sense in cities such as New York, where only 34% of apartments have in-unit dryers, according to a study conducted for Gothamist by the rental platform StreetEasy. In apartments without a dryer, a heated clothing rack could potentially cut down on unnecessary trips to the laundromat.
A heating drying rack can also help prevent the mildew-y stink that comes from fabric left to naturally air dry in damp weather. “The biggest problem with winter air drying in the UK is that it takes so long you risk your laundry developing an odor,” Jessica Furseth, a lifestyle journalist based in the UK, told me in an email. “Britain is a very damp island and we have problems.” While not everywhere in the US wrestles with the same climate, a heated rack accelerates drying enough to make it a nonissue.
Just remember that all that water needs somewhere to go. “Because these devices release moisture into the surrounding air, they should be used in well-ventilated spaces,” Kemper says. “The rack itself isn’t a substitute for good airflow or moisture control in a home.”
Where (and how) to get one
Because this is a relatively new and underutilized appliance category in the United States, options for drying racks are slightly more limited than in the UK. The considerations for what to look for when weighing a purchase, according to Kemper, sound a little bit like common sense: “Factors like wattage, drying capacity, power supply, built-in timers, or automatic shutoffs, and overall stability all matter.” After testing 17 different racks, Hoskyn has some more specific guidance. “The main thing I’d look for is a large drying area,” she says. “I’d also look for ease of folding away, perhaps a timer, and low running costs, of about 20 cents [an hour] or less.”
And, of course, keep a realistic outlook on what a heated drying rack can really do for you. “Understanding that these products are designed for light, occasional loads – not bulk laundry – can help set realistic expectations,” Kemper says,
If you’re ready to take the plunge, here are a few models that are available in the US.
For high capacity
Tors + Olsson X Frame
$157.69 at Walmart
$179.99 at Amazon
This rack takes up just under 4 sq ft , yet offers 38 linear ft of hanging space, and folds up so it can be tucked away when you don’t need it.
For a tight budget
Maas & Bath Heated Drying Rack
$139.99 at Maas & Bath
Ohio-based Maas & Bath’s drying rack weighs under 10 lbs and heats to toasty 131F to purge the moisture from even heavy linens.
For small spacesSHARNDY Electric Heated Drying Rack
$369.99 at Amazon
This Amazon offering comes with a shoe rack and is on the smaller size, making it well-suited for a mudroom or garage.
The Guardian
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