These slightly rude-looking boot dryers use silica gel beads, rather than electricity or heat, and are held together by an outer shell that looks not unlike a banana guard…
By Richard Fincher
As a regular inhabitee of places with boot dryers, I found the concept of dragging these around a little pointless. Until, of course, I went somewhere they hadn’t turned the dryers on. Next trip, the Drysure Extremes were in the bag. I’ve only used these in indoor rooms and a garage so don’t know how effective they’d be in the boot of a car overnight.
I ended up using them in ski and walking boots, always overnight, and the ski boot liners were completely dry in the morning – although when I left the inners in the shells there was some damp. Best always to take the liners out.
Truly sodden walking boots still had a damp exterior by morning. The bags need to be re-activated if you’re drying something as wet as those walking boots. You take the inner silica oxide-filled bags out of the banana-shaped plastic case and either put them on a radiator or apparently pop them into an oven at 100 degrees for a couple of hours.
On suggesting the latter I found Mrs F to be against using the cooker to reactivate ‘stinky ski boot dryers’. “Does it smell of haddock after fish pie?” I retort. But no dice – the Drysures are relegated to the radiator.
These are easily packed (because they fit in your boots, doh), they dry without being plugged in and can be used for all kinds of footwear. The Drysure Extreme pair are currently in my wellies after someone left them out in the snow…
RRP: £30
More information: drysure.co