Dry:Soon vs Duronic CA30: heated airer cost 2026

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects our recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. See how we make money.

The Lakeland Dry:Soon 3-Tier and the Duronic CA30 both draw 300W, so both cost 7.9p an hour to run at the October 2026 price cap of 26.32p per kWh. On running cost they tie exactly. The difference is what you pay up front and how long the maker stands behind it: on 8 November 2026 the Dry:Soon was £20.00 dearer at £119.99, but it comes with a three-year guarantee against Duronic's one year.

Neither maker gives you a running cost you can check. Lakeland's own page says the Dry:Soon "costs just 8p to run", with an asterisk and no footnote to say per what, or at what rate. Duronic says "around 6p per hour" for the CA30, worked at a 20.35p tariff that is not what most households pay this winter.

The verdict, 8 November 2026

Same 300W rating, so the same 7.9p an hour at 26.32p per kWh. A load costs the same on either airer: about 64p in a typical room on our heated airer model, nearer 48p under a cover in a warm room.
Price on each maker's own shop: Dry:Soon £119.99 (was £159.99), Duronic CA30 £99.99. Gap £20.00.
Guarantee: three years from Lakeland, one year from Duronic. That is £40.00 per guaranteed year for the Dry:Soon and £99.99 for the Duronic.
Buy the Dry:Soon at £119.99 if you want it to last. Buy the Duronic if your loads are heavy, since its frame is rated to 30kg against 15kg, or if £20 matters more than two extra years of cover.

Side by side. Ratings and sizes from each maker's own page, manual and Amazon UK listing, read 8 November 2026; prices from each maker's own shop the same day. Costs at 26.32p per kWh.
	Lakeland Dry:Soon 3-Tier	Duronic CA30 BK
Rated power	300W (Amazon listing; Lakeland's own page gives no wattage)	300W (manual, Duronic shop and listing)
Cost per hour	7.9p	7.9p
Running cost the maker states	"8p to run", unit and rate not given	"around 6p per hour" at 20.35p per kWh
Price on the maker's shop	£119.99 (was £159.99)	£99.99
Guarantee	3 years (Lakeland)	1 year (Shine-Mart Ltd, Duronic's trademark owner)
Cost per guaranteed year	£40.00	£99.99
Drying space	21m across three tiers	36 heated bars across three tiers; no length in metres given
Maximum load	15kg	30kg (5kg per wing)
Folded depth	8cm	15.5cm
Size as stated	73 × 75 × 137cm	147 × 73.5 × 70cm open
Cover included	No, sold separately at £35.99	No

Prices and specs last checked by Look Into on 8 November 2026 · next check 1 January 2027 · how we picked

Why the running cost is a tie

An hour costs wattage times hours times the unit rate: 0.3 kW × 1 hour × 26.32p = 7.9p. Both airers are rated at 300W, so the hourly cost is identical, and so is the cost of drying a load.

What changes the cost of a load is not the airer but the room. Drying 3kg of washing means evaporating about 1.74kg of water, and that takes at least 1.22 kWh however you do it. That is the evaporation floor from our heated airer guide: 32p a load at today's rate, and about 4.1 hours of running at 300W before any airer could possibly be done. Real airers lose heat into the room, so they run longer.

Cost of one 3kg load on either airer at 26.32p per kWh, using the efficiency bands from our heated airer guide. These are modelled, not measured.
How well the heat is kept in	Energy per load	Run time at 300W	Cost per load	Five loads a week for a year
The floor, no heat lost (not achievable)	1.22 kWh	4.1 hours	32p	£83.49
Good: covered airer, warm room	1.84 kWh	6.1 hours	48p	£125.91
Typical	2.45 kWh	8.2 hours	64p	£167.66

Duronic's manual puts drying time at 4 to 8 hours, which sits inside that range. Lakeland does not give a drying time on its page.

The asterisk with nothing under it

Lakeland's product page for the Dry:Soon 3-Tier says it "costs just 8p to run vs 65p for a standard tumble dryer*". We read the whole page on 8 November 2026, with every section expanded. There is no footnote for that asterisk, no wattage, and no word on whether 8p means an hour, a load or a day. The 300W figure comes from the Amazon listing, which Lakeland itself sells through.

If 8p is meant per hour, it works out to 26.67p a unit, close to the current cap. If it is meant per load, it cannot be right: even with no heat lost at all, a 3kg load needs 1.22 kWh, which is 32p. A per-load cost of 8p would need electricity at about 6.6p a unit.

Duronic does say what its figure rests on, which is to its credit. Its listing and its own shop both say the CA30 costs "approximately 6p per hour" based on a 20.350p per kWh tariff dated 3 June 2026. The arithmetic is right: 0.3 kW × 20.35p = 6.1p. The rate is not. At the October cap the same hour costs 7.9p, so the claim reads about 23% light for anyone on a capped tariff this winter.

The bundle that costs more than its parts

Neither airer comes with a cover. A cover keeps the heat around the washing, which is what moves a load from the typical row in the table above towards the good one. Lakeland sells its Dry:Soon 3-Tier cover separately at £35.99.

It also sells the airer and that same cover together as the "Dry:Soon 3-Tier Heated Airer and Cover Bundle", at £164.98. Bought separately on Lakeland's shop on 8 November 2026, the two came to £155.98. The bundle was £9.00 dearer than its parts, because the £40 saving on the airer alone was not carried over to the bundle. Lakeland's page shows two end dates for that saving, 9 November in one banner and 30 November in another, so check both prices before you choose.

Whether the cover pays for itself depends on your room. On our model, going from typical to good saves 16p a load, so £35.99 comes back after about 224 loads, which is a little under a year at five loads a week. That is an estimate from modelled bands, not a measured saving.

What the guarantees cost per year

Lakeland's page states a three-year guarantee on the Dry:Soon. Duronic's CA30 manual gives a one-year guarantee from Shine-Mart Ltd, which owns the Duronic trademark, valid in the UK. Divide each price by its guaranteed years and the Dry:Soon costs £40.00 a year of cover against £99.99 for the Duronic. If the Dry:Soon goes back to £159.99, that becomes £53.33 a year, still well under the Duronic.

A guarantee is not a lifespan. Neither maker publishes an expected life for its heating bars, so this is the price of the years each one promises to fix, not a forecast of how long either will last.

Which one to buy

Buy the Dry:Soon 3-Tier if you can get it at £119.99. You pay £20 more for two extra years of guarantee and an airer that folds to 8cm deep. If you want the cover too, buy the two separately rather than as the bundle while the airer's own saving runs.

Buy the Duronic CA30 if you dry heavy loads such as towels and bedding, since its frame is rated to 30kg against the Dry:Soon's 15kg, or if the airer will not be used enough to make a longer guarantee worth paying for. It costs exactly the same to run.

How we worked it out

Method, inputs and limits. Every source below was opened on 8 November 2026.
Item	What we did
Electricity rate	26.32p per kWh, the Ofgem cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026, direct debit, Great Britain average, no VAT on electricity this quarter. Standing charge left out because it is paid whether the airer is on or not.
Power	300W for both. Duronic states it in its manual, shop and listing. Lakeland's own page gives no wattage, so we used the 300W on the Amazon listing sold by Lakeland.
Cost per load	The efficiency bands and the 1.22 kWh evaporation floor from our heated airer guide (3kg load, spin class C). Because both airers share a wattage, the bands apply equally to both.
Prices	Each maker's own shop, read 8 November 2026: Lakeland £119.99 for the airer, £35.99 for the cover, £164.98 for the bundle; Duronic £99.99. Amazon showed £119.97 and £99.99 the same day.
Guarantees	Lakeland's product page (three years) and Duronic's CA30 manual (one year).
Rounding	Pence rounded once, at the end of each sum.

What this comparison could not check

We have not used either airer. How quickly each dries a real load depends on the room and the washing, so every per-load cost here is modelled.
Whether the bars run continuously. Both airers heat to a set temperature; how often they cycle off in a warm room is not published.
What Lakeland's 8p refers to. The page gives no footnote, and we have reported that rather than guessed.
The CA30's drying space in metres. Duronic gives a bar count, not a length.

Today's Amazon prices

These boxes pull Amazon's live price when you load the page, so they can differ from the figures above, which were read on 8 November 2026. Look Into earns a commission if you buy through them; it does not change the verdict.

Dry:Soon 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer Electric Indoor Drying Rack | 300W 3-tier heated electric airer providing 21m of drying space for 15kg of laundry; folds flat to 8cm for storage.

As an Amazon Associate, Look Into earns from qualifying purchases. Product prices and availability are accurate as of 8 November 2026 4:47 pm and are subject to change.

Duronic CA30 BK Electric Heated Clothes Airer, 300W 3 Tier, Foldable, Black | 36 Rails, 6 Washing Pegs, 30kg Capacity, Indoor Laundry Drying Rack, Clothes Horse, Garment Dryer For Delicates, Small Spaces

As an Amazon Associate, Look Into earns from qualifying purchases. Product prices and availability are accurate as of 8 November 2026 4:47 pm and are subject to change.

The two airers

Longer guarantee

Lakeland Dry:Soon 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer

7.9p an hour at the October 2026 cap on its 300W rating. 21m of drying space over three tiers with thermostatically controlled bars. Folds to 8cm. Three years of guarantee from Lakeland.

The catch: no cover in the box, and Lakeland's own page states a running cost it never explains.

Cheaper to buy

Duronic CA30 BK Heated Clothes Airer

7.9p an hour at the October 2026 cap on its 300W rating. 36 heated bars over three folding tiers, a 30kg frame rating, bars at 45 to 55°C and six pegs. The only one of the two that says what tariff its running cost uses.

The catch: one year of guarantee, and it folds to 15.5cm, nearly twice the depth of the Dry:Soon.

Look Into earns a commission on qualifying purchases made through the Amazon links above, at no extra cost to you. It never changes the arithmetic.

Common questions

Is the Dry:Soon cheaper to run than the Duronic CA30?

No. Both are rated at 300W, so both cost 7.9p an hour at the October 2026 cap of 26.32p per kWh, and a load costs the same on either.

What does Lakeland's "8p to run" mean?

Lakeland's page does not say. It carries an asterisk with no footnote. If it means per hour, it matches a rate of about 26.67p per kWh. It cannot mean per load, because even a perfect airer needs about 32p of electricity to dry 3kg of washing at today's rate.

Which has the longer guarantee, Dry:Soon or Duronic?

The Dry:Soon. Lakeland gives three years; Duronic's manual gives one year.

Is the Dry:Soon airer and cover bundle good value?

Not on 8 November 2026. The bundle was £164.98 on Lakeland's shop, while the airer at £119.99 and the cover at £35.99 came to £155.98 bought separately, £9.00 less.