Lakeland's new Dry:Soon Tri:Mode 3-Tier Heated Hub is the only heated airer to keep up with my family's never-ending washing – but it comes at a price

Heated airers have come out of seemingly nowhere to quickly become an almost-essential piece of household kit. And it’s easy to see why: they’re energy-efficient, get laundry dry faster than their non-heated counterparts and they don’t tend to shrink your clothes like a tumble dryer can.

Lakeland leads the field in the best heated clothes airers with their Dry:Soon range. I was lucky enough to get a preview of this particular model – Tri:Mode 3-tiered heated hub – before it launched at the Lakeland press show. I knew immediately it was going to be a hit so, as a seasoned product-reviewer, I was keen to test the Tri:Mode 3-tiered heated hub out in a real-life situation.

The heated hub can be put up in a cube shape, with three arms on two sides. Or you can go for a more compact mode, with just one side of the arms up. Or – and here’s what’s clever – you can fold out the two halves into the “wall mode”. It then becomes a bit like a heated wardrobe.

In a nutshell

This upgraded, flashier heated airer from Lakeland has a lot of great features, such as temperature control, a timer, and even a remote. It offers plenty of drying space and is energy efficient.

However, there are a few design flaws to be aware of before you click “add to basket”. If you’re having trouble justifying the price tag, you might be better off with the Lakeland Deluxe Three-Tiered airer.

Lakeland Dry:Soon Tri:Mode 3-Tier Heated Hub review

Specifications

• Cable length: 150cm
• Number of settings: 6 timers settings, 7 temperature settings
• Number of modes: 3
• Max load: 30kg
• Drying space: 22.5m
• Weight: 13kg
• Dimensions: Compact mode: 70.5 x 43 x 152cm H. Standard mode: 70.5 x 72 x 152cm H. Wall mode: 137.5 x 37.5 x 152cm H
• What’s in the box: main frame, sub frame, two baskets, two covers, remote, cord with plug.

Unboxing, setting up and first impressions

The heated hub is a hefty delivery – inside the very big initial box are three further boxes. They’re all cardboard boxes to go in the recycling – but way too big to keep inside if you have to wait until recycling day.

It quickly becomes clear that I’m going to have to construct this airer like a flatpack piece of furniture. During the unboxing, I’m immediately struck by how robust the frame is – it’s very solid (and heavy). Having previously slightly bent my Lakeland Deluxe 3-tier heated airer from dragging it around a bit (I don’t advise dragging your airer around by the way), I could see the heated hub wasn’t going to suffer the same fate.

It was a bit of effort to put it together and required two adults to get the sub-frame mounted and locked into the bottom frame. It was at this moment I realised that the top shelves aren't heated – it’s the lower two shelves that are heated, and the hot air created from them rises to air the laundry on the top shelf.

The heated hub comes with a remote and LED control panel that shows you the time and temperature of the airer. This is a significant upgrade from my aforementioned (slightly bent) 3-tier heated airer that came with a timer, but no remote and certainly the heating wasn’t adjustable.

The covers are much more heavy duty too – they velcro onto the frame, and have an inner pole to stabilise them, along with vents to allow for better airflow around your laundry.

Using the Lakeland Dry:Soon Tri:Mode 3-Tier Heated Hub

No one likes their domestic chores to take hours, so I was keen to see how much the heated hub lightened my load.

First up, how quickly do the bars heat up? As you can control the temperature, for the sake of argument I tested this on the hottest setting – 60º. I was impressed with how quickly the lower bars started warming – of course the top bars stay cool at all times. It was less than a minute and they were already warm.

In my house we go through a lot of washing. Three kids and two adults create mounds of laundry daily it seems.

When I put a full load on the heated hub it took around eight hours to dry the clothes. I could fit around 22 items of clothing on the airer at once – allowing for room around each garment so the air could properly circulate.

But I had to turn the garments over halfway through and rotate. Even then, thicker items such as sweaters on the top bars felt a little damp.

I also tried a load of knitwear – I had a bunch of Christmas jumpers to wash before I stored them away. The heated hub took ages to dry these. I had to remember to switch on the airer again, as it auto shuts off when the timer is up and the longest the timer can be on is eight hours.

This is to stop the airer overheating, so is great for peace of mind. They took about a day and a half to dry, allowing for the periods of time I forgot to switch the airer back on again.

The testing period went over six weeks, with a lot of laundry dried in that time. The weather conditions varied, so did my central heating usage. This did impact how quickly my washing got dry. I didn’t use any additional appliances like a dehumidifier during testing. But I did keep my window open a little bit, to prevent moisture from building up in the room.

What I did notice, in comparison to my poor old three-tier heated airer, is that when the heated hub is in wall mode it is much slower. This is because the back is uncovered, allowing hot air to escape. I found this a real shame, as I loved the wall mode.

When the heated hub is in cube formation, it’s a significant obstacle in my bedroom, meaning I have to squeeze past it every time I go to bed. It’d be fine in a spare room or utility room – but as the heated hub is so heavy, you don’t want to be moving it from room to room often.

Storage and maintenance

In my opinion, you wouldn’t want to be shifting around the heated hub from room to room too often. It’s quite heavy and bulky. You can fold it flat and store it against the wall. It’s worth noting that the covers don’t zip over it for storage like you get on the other Lakeland three-tiered airers, and the covers themselves take up a significant amount of space too. In my opinion, this airer is better suited for people who keep their airer up for long periods of time.

I loved the control panel – it’s responsive, easy to use and understand. It’s also conveniently located halfway up the airer, with a cutout on the cover so it’s easy to access. The remote makes it even easier to use – but I did need to see the control panel while using the remote, to check what I was setting the airer to.

Energy usage

I tended to run this heated airer for eight hours a day, which cost me 48p per day – £3.36 per week if I ran it every single day. It might be helpful to do a quick comparison. I also own a heat-pump tumble dryer, which is extremely energy efficient.

This costs 49p to run for one cycle on my current energy tariff. The tumble dryer gets everything dry without me having to rotate laundry myself, or hang it up.

However, not all clothes can do in the tumble dryer and the heated airer gives me total peace of mind. Compared to a standard tumble dryer – i.e. not a heat-pump tumble dryer – an airer is more energy efficient.

How does it rate online?

Reviewers online like how robust this airer is in comparison to older models, but as I highlighted above many found it disappointing that the cover doesn’t cover the back of the unit when in wall mode.

Some people also noted that they didn’t realise the top bars don’t heat up, and felt that this meant the items on the top rack don’t dry very quickly.

How does it compare to other models and predecessors?

I already owned the three-tier airer from Lakeland and I would say the heated hub wins in terms of build quality, ease of use and durability. I really liked the feature of being able to control the temperature, and the remote is a handy feature.

However, I found that it took longer to get similar loads of washing dry compared to the Deluxe three-tier airer – particularly in wall mode, where the back was open. I also found the boxes that come with it slightly superfluous. I wasn’t sure what I was meant to be doing with them.

Lakeland does a range of heated airers, including the Deluxe three-tier with cover bundle that is currently on sale for £244.98. This is £100 less than the heated hub, and they do broadly the same job.

The Dry:Soon range also takes in a mini version, and a standard version of the three-tier airer at Lakeland. There are also models that attach to walls and a heated winged airer in the range. They all tick slightly different boxes and which is best will depend on your individual needs.

Elsewhere, John Lewis does a three-tiered airer that comes in a pyramid shape. It doesn’t include a cover, and has less drying space, but it’s also £69 so significantly cheaper.

Dunelm also does a heated airer that is perhaps a “dupe” for the Lakeland Dry:Soon standard three-tiered airer. It claims to hold 15kg of washing, which is half that of the heated hub. However, it’s £95 – but the cover is sold separately (£16).

Should you buy the Dry:Soon Tri:Mode 3-Tier Heated Hub

I honestly scratched my head at this one, because it is a lot of money and I think there are a few significant design blindspots here. And there really shouldn’t be when you’re spending £350 on an appliance.

Having said that, I loved the wall mode feature – the flexibility of the modes is unmatched. As is the sturdiness of the build is also very impressive – the heated hub is easily the most robust airer I’ve ever come across. And I did rate the temperature control feature.

So yes, you should buy this heated hub if you have enough space for it to be up semi-permanently and have a lot of laundry to do regularly. But I would bear in mind it’s not the fastest or even cheapest way to get laundry dry.

About this review, and the reviewer

Zoe Phillimore

Zoe is a freelance journalist and content strategist with almost – gulp – 20 years of experience. She's worked for the BBC, STYLIST, Marie Claire, heat, Wallpaper*, InStyle, The Sunday Times Style, Ocado, Christie's and more. Zoe started product reviewing in 2021, and has since tested around 1,000 products to find the best.

She now regularly writes about home appliances, interiors and sleep for a range of media – what she doesn't know about gadgets and mattresses isn't worth knowing.

You can find more information on how we review products at Ideal Home here. For this review, the Dry:Soon Tri:Mode heated hub was tested by Zoe Phillimore, an Ideal Home reviewer and freelance journalist.

To understand the ins and outs of this heated clothes airer, Zoe swapped her usual Dry:Soon three-tier heated clothes airer for the Dry:Soon Tri:Mode heated hub over the course of six weeks. During this time, she used it for everyday laundry, to assess its overall performance, design, and accessories.

With this information in tow, she could then determine whether the Dry:Soon Tri:Mode was worth the price tag. It’s also worth noting that while Lakeland's Dry:Soon Tri:Mode was sent to Zoe, this in no way impacted her fair and impartial review of the model.