SectionHiker.com Backpacking Gear Reviews and FAQs 
The DryGuy DX Forced Air Boot Dryer is a life-changing product that I wish I’d discovered years ago. When you hike and ski as much as I do in winter (4 to 5 days per week), it’s hard to get your boots dry before you need to use them again. This boot dryer does that job in about 60 minutes and prevents them from stinking to high heaven, which is an added domestic benefit that I know my wife appreciates
This DryGuy is basically a blow dryer for shoes, boots, and gloves. This model has four blowers, for want of a better term, that channel 105F degree air into boots, shoes, or gloves that you place on top of them. This temperature is cool enough that it won’t harm your footwear or gloves. If you want, you can also run the unit without any heat and just blow dry items at room temperature.
Two of the blowers come with extenders that are designed to dry tall boots with a high cuff, like my winter hiking boots. All of these are 400g insulated boots that soak up a lot of sweat when I hike in winter. The same holds for my XC ski boots.
One of the first things I do when I get home after a winter hike or cross-country ski is to take my boots off, put them on the dryer, and initiate the drying process. The DryGuy has a timer that will run the unit for a maximum of 3 hours at a time. I usually set mine for 60 minutes and forget about it. It has a fan that generates about as much noise as a humidifier and we can’t hear it in the room next door. When I need to use my boots again, they’re ready to go. And that’s all there is to it.
Recommendation
Before I got The DryGuy DX Forced Air Boot Dryer, I dried my insulated winter hiking boots in front of my woodstove, which usually took up to two days to dry through. I had a couple of pairs of winter hiking boots that I rotated between so I’d always have a dry pair ready to go if I hiked on back-to-back days. While that was a hassle, the real motivator to invest in a boot dryer was my wife. She was completely appalled by the moldy smell of my winter boots. The DryGuy completely eliminated that area of conflict. My boots don’t smell like anything anymore and she’s quite happy with the end result. Now she bugs me about other stuff. :-)
So if your winter boots take too long to dry or your boots smell awful, I recommend you invest in a The DryGuy DX Forced Air Boot Dryer. You’ll wonder why you didn’t try one sooner.
Disclosure: The author owns this product.
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Amazon USUsed $59.96$109.99$94.74ViewAmazon.com Price: $94.74 (as of 04/19/2024 11:23 GMT-0400) Details
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REI$110.00View
We have a couple similar appliances. They’re great for downhill ski boots, too. Downhill liners get wetter than you might think.
I also use mine to pre-warm cycling shoes and gloves before a winter ride.
Another useful tip – If you take the towers off, you can often put a (large enough) boot over two shorter posts and double the airflow.
I bought the “Travel” version a couple of months ago and am stunned by how well it works: it comes with both AC (wall) & DC (cig liter) plugs, and I throw it in the car so even my downhill boots are dry by the time I get home (~2hrs) from the ski hill!
Shaking some Desenex anti-fungal athlete’s foot powder or a similar product into boots and shoes also helps with the smell. Whatever you use needs to have an actual anti-fungal active ingredient, not just cornstarch to absorb moisture.
Also great for us cyclists – start a winter ride with warm shoes and gloves
I’ve used a similar drier for the last 20 years. It never gets turned off. My work boots are on it every night, summer or winter. Nothing like a nice warm boot any time of the year.
Use mine (“Maxx” a little less expensive on Amazon, but looks identical but in white.)
Anyone used the 5-finger glove attachment? Many gloves are very hard to dry thoroughly, like gore-tex, Thinsulate, etc.
The link takes me to a pair of boots, not a dryer.. ?
Try it again
Hope I’m not too far out of bounds, but one time I thought about one of these for drying out those Platypus 2 litre water bottles with the 3/4 inch opening at the end of a hiking trip. Instead,cut microfiber(Sham Wow) in approximately 2 1/2″ strip and longer than the bladder so it can hang out the opening about 3 or 4 inches. After cleaning the bladder, shake out excess water, curl up the microfiber, insert in bladder opening all the way to bottom and let excess hang out the top. Set upwright, and like magic moisture is wicked out in about a day.To speed things up, swish out the bladder with rubbing alcohol (couple of capfulls).
I have a “4 boot drier” like that and a very compact, foldable 2 boot drier that I take on ski trips wh3e my buddies an I rent a condo.
BUT, you can avoid the problem by wearing 3 mm closed cell neoprene divers’ socks over thin polyester liner socks and this VBL keeps boots dry. Same can be said of nitrile gloves worn under insulated gloves.