The drying gear you do not need

Every category has products that exist because they sound like they should work. Here is our list for this one, with the reasoning, so you can disagree with it if your situation differs.

1. Mini thermoelectric dehumidifiers, for laundry

They are genuinely useful in a closet, a cabinet or a small RV. They are not useful for drying a laundry load: a washer load releases two to five pints of water, and a unit with a 35 oz tank and a 40 W element is not going to move that overnight.

The tell is on the listing. If it publishes a tank size instead of a pints-per-day extraction rate, it is not a laundry device. What size dehumidifier covers what is.

2. Moisture-absorber tubs and hanging bags

Calcium chloride absorbers pull a small amount of water out of the air in a confined space and then need replacing. In a closet or a caravan they have a role. Against the several pints a laundry load releases in an open room, they are not a comparable order of magnitude.

3. Fabric softener, for air-dried towels

It coats fibers to make them feel soft and, on towels, reduces the absorbency that is the entire point of a towel. Air-dried stiffness comes from a lack of agitation and from detergent residue, so adding another product to be rinsed out addresses neither cause. Less detergent and an extra rinse works better and costs nothing - see air-drying without stiffness.

4. Oversized drying covers

A cover is a genuinely good idea, sized correctly. A 110 inch tent over a 40 inch rack has 70 inches of dead air that has to be warmed for no benefit, which makes the whole thing slower rather than faster. Buy the height that matches your rack - covers and tents has the detail.

5. Anything sold on a temperature instead of a wattage

Half the heated racks on the US market publish a surface temperature range and no rated wattage. A temperature tells you the rack will not scorch a shirt. It tells you nothing about the running cost, which is what people buy a heated rack to find out.

That is not a reason never to buy one, but it is a reason to prefer the one that publishes a number - see the best heated drying racks.

6. A second rack, before a fan

If your problem is speed rather than capacity, a second rack does not fix it - two racks of laundry in the same still room dry at the same slow rate as one. A fan at about 15 cents a load roughly halves the time. Buy the fan first.

What to do instead, all free

1. Run a second spin cycle. Free, takes minutes, and removes water that would otherwise take hours to evaporate.
2. Space every garment so none touch. The single biggest factor in drying time, and it costs nothing.
3. Move the rack to the warmest room you are already heating. You are paying for that heat either way.
4. Open a window while drying, in any weather where it is bearable.
5. Take the load down as soon as it is dry, so the humidity stops and the smell never starts.

Related reading

• How to dry clothes faster indoors - the full ranking, free steps first.
• How we pick - why we are willing to say a category is not worth buying into.
• The gear that makes air-drying faster - what we do recommend, and in what order.