After years of working as an alpine ski instructor, I can tell you that one thing will make you cold faster than anything else on the mountain. Wet boot liners.

It’s amazing how much sweat builds up and gets trapped inside ski and snowboard boots. After a couple of long days on the slopes, you can actually have standing water in your boots. Of course, this leads to issues with odor, heat retention, and overall grossness.

Fortunately, there’s an easy solution.

Today we’ll take a look at some of the top ski and snowboard boot dryers out there. I’ll help you decide what to look for, what to avoid, and how to buy the right one for your needs. Let’s get right into it!

Best Ski & Snowboard Boot Dryers

	PEET Multi Electric Shoe and Boot Dryer	DryGuy DX Forced Air Boot Dryer	MaxxDry Heavy Duty Boot Dryer
Capacity:	2 pair (gloves or boots)	2 pair (gloves or boots	2 pair (gloves or boots)
Type:	Warm air	Heated/forced air	Heated/forced air
Portable:	No	No	No
Timer:	No	Yes	Yes
Rating:	4.7 / 5.0	4.8 / 5.0	4.7 / 5.0

For more of my ski gear recommendations, have a look through these popular Outside Pursuits guide links: Ski Boot Bags, Ski/Snowboard Travel Bags, Ski Tuning Kits.

Quick Answer: The 7 Best Rated Ski Boot Dryers & Heaters

1. PEET Multi Electric Shoe and Boot Dryer
2. DryGuy DX Forced Air Boot Dryer
3. MaxxDry Heavy Duty Boot Dryer
4. Sports Accessories Dry N’ Warm Footwear Dryer
5. PEET Electric Shoe and Boot Dryer and Warmer
6. Kendal Shoes Boots Gloves Dryer SI-SD06G
7. PEET Power Cell Shoe and Boot Dryer

Our reviews of the top rated ski and snowboard boot dryers with our comparison table and buying guide will help you choose the right one.

Ski Boot Dryer Reviews

#1 PEET, Multi Electric Shoe and Boot Dryer

Moisture buildup in heavy boots, shoes, gloves, and mittens is always an issue. This solution can help with your ski and snowboard boots but also many other items for the hunters, hockey players, and outdoor workers in the house.

Using heated air to move moisture out of your garments, this boot dryer is safe on almost all materials. It has two sets of upright dryer pedestals. Each one can accept an attachment for either boots or gloves.

Unlike many forced air dryers, this one just warms the air and lets the natural rising heat do the rest. That means it’s quiet and efficient on electricity.

I would recommend using one pair of dryer arms for your boot shells and one pair for your liners if applicable. Liners are definitely more important than shells when it comes to drying though so if you have more than one pair of boots, prioritize liners and you’ll be able to dry two pairs at a time.

While it’s not super portable, you can take down the dryer arms but don’t expect it to fit in your carry-on luggage.

#2 DryGuy DX Forced Air Boot Dryer

DryGuy landed what is possibly the best snowboard boot dryer on our list. This one has all the extras to get the job done right and it still comes in at a great price that’s hard to beat.

Boots, shoes, or gloves are all fair game on this dryer. Two of the four vertical tubes come with extensions so you can adjust for taller boots or garments.

You can purchase additional extensions if you want to dry a second pair of boots. Plus, they’re designed nicely so that the rounded tube endings can force warm air in all directions to dry the boots.

Despite the affordable price they still loaded it up with tons of features. I like that the dryer has a switch for warm air (105 degrees F) versus room temperature air in case you’re worried about sensitive garments. Additionally, it features a dial timer (3 hours) so you can set it and forget it.

This is an awesome, flexible choice that’s great for do-it-tasks in an active household.

REI Amazon

#3 MaxxDry Heavy Duty Boot Dryer

If you’re like me then you might not always be the most gentle with your gear. While the design and features share heavily with some others on our list, the boot extensions are best-in-class.

Features include a switch for hot/forced air which shares the same 105 degrees F heat rating as others on our list. Also included is a standard 3-hour timer.

So, if that’s the case, what’s different? On this dryer, the standout feature is, in fact, the boot stand. Optionally, reinforced tubes can be slid over the dryer tubes.

These extension tubes are shaped to hold ski and snowboard boots while maintaining enough room for airflow to reach the toes of your liners (where the most moisture is).

Thanks to the great design of these extension tubes, this one might be the best ski boot dryer on our list.

#4 Sports Accessories Dry N’ Warm Footwear Dryer

Don’t have room for a full free-standing boot dryer? This option is portable, inexpensive, and helps get those boots dried out on the fly.

Using a wall plug, some cords, and two heated tubes you can have your boots back to dry overnight. Insert the heating dongles into your liners, plug them in, and let the heat dissipate any moisture.

By putting out a light amount of heat these boot dryers force moisture to evaporate and move out. It’s not a fast process, however. You’ll need to give your boots time to dry overnight for the slower convective drying to work.

Pro Tip: Take your liners out of your boots to greatly improve drying effectiveness.

These are definitely in contention to be the best ski boot heaters on our list. Maybe their only real drawback is that they’re slower than forced air.

#5 PEET Original Electric Shoe and Boot Dryer

If you’re looking for a tested, proved, and effective boot dryer for all the single snow bums out there, look no further. This single-pair boot dryer is affordable and efficient.

We looked at another version of the PEET dryer earlier. Unlike that one, however, this dryer has only what you need and nothing extra. It’s among the lowest-priced options on our list but it does its job extremely well.

There are only two drying tubes but each one comes with great boot-shaped inserts right out of the box. No timers or settings to adjust – just plug it into the wall and let it run for 3-8 hours. It takes in air near the bottom, warms the air, and lets that warm air rise naturally into your boots or liners to dry them silently.

This would be my go-to pick for those on a budget, without a lot of space, or individuals who only need to dry one pair of boots (looking at you, single people).

#6 Kendal Shoes Boots Gloves Dryer

This dryer really can do it all. In fact, it might be the most capable boot dryer on our list. That comes with a few compromises, though. Let’s check it out.

There’s a ton to love about this dryer. It’s adjustable for high/low temperature. There’s a set and forget timer so you can go do your thing while it works. You can dry boots, gloves, or shoes as well!

So, what are the drawbacks? It has to be wall-mounted. The unit mounts up on a wall in your house and uses removable extension tubes that run down to your boots to dry them. Because not everyone wants a big boot dryer permanently mounted on the wall, it might not be the perfect choice for everyone.

However, if you’re a regular skier, biker, hiker, or outdoors person who is always coming home with wet boots, gloves, or gear then this is definitely the route to go!

#7 PEET Power Cell Shoe and Boot Dryer

Similar to the Dry N Warm product we checked out earlier, these operate with two small heating elements that plug directly into the wall. They’re small, lightweight, and totally silent.

While they’re not as fast as forced air dryers, these heaters make up for it in portability and storage. If you don’t want a boot dryer stand sitting around the house all the time, you can easily wrap these up and store them anywhere out of sight when not in use – or throw them in your bag to travel.

I think PEET did a good job making them look good and all the cord connections are reinforced for a long lifespan. Thanks to the rounded, tapered design you can easily drop them into the bottom of your boots, plug them in, and be on your way.

These are by far the best portable ski boot dryers on our list for price, form, and function.

Boot Dryer / Heater Comparison Table

How to Choose the Best Ski & Snowboard Boot Dryers

Capacity

When I worked as a full-time alpine ski instructor, we had boot dryers built into our lockers. Hundreds, if not thousands, of boot dryers just ready to go all the time.

Of course, most of us don’t ski or snowboard often enough to need something like this. So, instead, we need to decide how much capacity we reasonably need for drying our gear.

Before you buy enough dryers to handle every pair of boots in your household, stop to think. Many of the forced air dryers can dry boot lines in 1-3 hours. This means over the course of an evening one dryer can probably dry two or more pairs of boots.

If you’re using an ambient heat dryer, like the PEET Power Cell then you’ll need one per pair of boots. They usually take the entire night to dry out liners and boots so you can’t rotate them to speed up the process.

On our list, we have multiple boot dryers that feature 2-pair capacity. That means you can dry 4 total boots or gloves at a time. If you really need to dry a lot of boots, these are the ones to look at. You should be able to dry boots and gloves for the whole family in the evening.

Dryer Types

On our list, there are three different ways that dryers can take the moisture out of your boots.

Forced air dryers use a blower to shove air down a tube and into your boots. Forced air dryers are very fast at removing moisture because they gather up the moisture and push it out of the boots constantly as the dryer runs.

Heated air uses warmth to help promote evaporation and convection. Forced air dryers can be improved with heated air and many feature adjustable on/off selectors for heated or non-heated air.

Ambient dryers use a heating element, dropped into the boots, to warm up the boot. This promotes evaporation and the warmth generated helps with convection to get the vapor to leave the boots. Ambient dryers are the most portable, smallest, and lightest.

Just remember that even the best dryers aren’t always perfect. Moisture trapped between your boot liner and the shell of the boot, particularly on ski boots, can be very hard to dry out. For this reason I highly recommend removing your boot liners before drying as often as you can.

This can be a pain in the butt, so removing the liners every couple of days should do the trick to make sure things fully dry out.

If you have the space, there’s no doubt that forced heated air dryers are the fastest and most effective of the options. They’re not always small or portable, though, so there are some drawbacks.

Portability

While we’ve already brushed this topic let’s look at a couple details.

Without a doubt the ambient heating element dryers like the PEER Power Cell are the best options for portability. If you’re flying to your destination they may be your only choice.

This also means that you’ll need enough of them. These dryers are slow so you’ll want one for each pair of boots. That also means you need access to enough wall plugs as well!

If all else fails and you just can’t find a good way to transport your boot dryer, there’s a fallback option. Take your liners out of your boots if possible and flip them upside down on a heater vent somewhere. Forced warm air leaving the heater vents in your hotel room or lodging will usually dry your shells or liners overnight without any equipment needed.

Boot Dryer Timers

I think timers are an awesome feature for boot dryers for two primary reasons.

First, electricity costs money and produces emissions. Therefore, using less of it is always better than using more. For that reason a timer on your boot dryer is a great choice so you can set it and go to bed. It will turn itself off after a while and your boots will be dry and ready for the morning.

Second, heated boot dryers are always a small heat/fire risk. Electrical components with heating elements have historically been the culprits in many house fires. Therefore having your boot dryer turn itself off instead of running constantly pumping out heat all night, long after your boots are dry, is a solid call.

Most boot dryers with timers are within similar price ranges to many competitive models often lacking them. It just makes sense to opt for the timer option on forced heated air dryers.

FAQs About Ski Boot Dryers

Q: Do boot dryers really work?

A: Yes. Boot dryers really do work.

As I’ve said throughout the article, there are ways to help them work better.

Maybe the best tip I can give is to occasionally take your boot liner out to dry the shells and liners separately. You’ll be amazing how much moisture can remain trapped between the liner and shell even after a few hours on the boot dryers.

If you suffer from cold feet on the mountain, there’s a real good chance that moisture buildup in your boots is a major part of the problem. Get a dryer, dry your boots. Boom!

Q: Do boot dryers kill bacteria?

A: Yes. And no.

Boot dryers are not designed with specific bacteria controlling features. There is no ultraviolet light or purification built into boot dryers.

However, any bacteria that can’t survive the dry conditions created after the boot dryers have removed moisture may die as a result.

So, in a way boot dryers can kill bacteria. It’s really a side effect of the drying process though and not a direct design feature of boot dryers.

Stinky boots are just a problem. I can tell you after skiing 100+ days a season for years, boots get stinky even after lots of drying.

If you suffer from stank boots, try a generous splash of odor controlling powder like Dr. Scholl’s Odor-X every time you take them off. Then, put your boots on the dryer. This combination is what I used for years and it works great – dry boots and odor powder are the one-two punch.

Q: Can you leave a boot dryer on all night?

A: Sure you can.

Really, the intelligent question to ask is, “is it a good idea to leave a boot dryer on all night?” I think the answer to that is, “probably not.”

Electrical devices that emit heat as a product are always a danger for electrical fires. Sticking something that makes heat into a confined space made of flammable material probably exacerbates this potential issue.

Will every boot dryer cause a fire? No. Have any caused fires before? I don’t know, but it seems probable.

In all likelihood you’ll never have an issue, and most dryers are designed to be left on all night. All it takes is one manufacturing or wiring defect, however, to change that in a hurry.

Look for boot dryers with built-in timers or use a piggyback timer in your wall plug to help shut the machine off after a few hours if you’re worried about it.

If you don’t lose sleep thinking about it, then just let it run all night.

Q: Can a boot dryer catch on fire?

A: Of course it can.

Will yours? Who knows!

I can’t sit here and say in good faith that it won’t catch fire. However, the likelihood is extremely slim!

Like any electrical appliance, particularly ones designed to generate heat, an electrical fire is always a possibility.

If you want to reduce the risks associated with any potential electrical fire you can:

Run your boot dryer while someone is awake in the very rare case it begins to smell hot or smoke. If you have to run it while sleeping, use a timer to shut it off after a bit.

Q: Are boot dryers bad for boots?

A: Boot dryers are not bad for boots.

Boot dryers are really good for boots! Moisture and bacteria can decrease the life of your liners. Boot dryers help get rid of these things and, therefore, they actually are good for your boots.

Now, that said, if you were to have a malfunction and overheat your boots you might damage them. Boot dryers are designed not to do this, however, but in the rare case something went wrong I suppose it is possible.

Author’s Expertise / Why You Should Trust Our Reviews

I started writing online for my own outdoor sports blog in 2010. Right out of the gate I landed opportunities to test gear for Road ID, Hydrapak, Wolverine, Helle Knives, Pearl Izumi, and GU Energy. Those were the days when growing a no-name blog was easy. Today niche blogging is a different story.

In 2012 I left Central Wyoming College with a degree in Outdoor Education and Leadership. Soon after, I was on a month-long expedition with the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Outdoor Educator Course which helps would-be outdoor guides ascend from “aspiring” to “inspiring”.

Between here and there I’ve participated in and spoken at length about outdoor pro-deal programs for companies like Patagonia, Smith Optics, Giro, Therm-a-Rest, Platypus, MSR, Columbia, and many more. I still work closely with tons of outdoor gear companies to review and analyze products. If you have a product opportunity you’d like to discuss, please review my guidelines and contact me here.

After several seasons of guiding backpacking trips and working as a certified Alpine Ski Instructor at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, UT for several seasons, I had to move on. As any educator will tell you – teaching doesn’t pay the bills very well.

In 2016 I began building my freelance writing career as readers and other bloggers reached out to me for help with technical outdoor sports content strategy for online businesses. Within weeks I was overloaded with requests for freelance writing and my new career blossomed.

2018 saw the launch of Hike With Less, my ultralight backpacking partnership program with Dustin Walker.

How We Researched

To come up with the best ski boot dryers and heaters, we researched a variety of sources for reviews such as REI, Backcountry, Moosejaw, EVO along with our own personal experience.

We also consulted online magazines for product research and reviews to get as much unbiased information as we could. To help weed out fake reviews we used Fakespot.com to make sure we only looked at genuine reviews.

With so much quality gear available, we had to narrow it down based on what we felt were the best options were for the price. The author, Casey Fiedler was a full-time ski instructor for Park City and The Canyons in Utah.

To help narrow down the selection he used his personal experience along with recommendations from fellow ski instructors.

After extensive research, we came up with our list to help you choose the right one for you.

Sources

Conclusion

If you’re getting on the slopes frequently, chances are good that you need a boot dryer. It doesn’t take long to build up moisture in your boots, but that moisture does take a long time to dry out on its own. That leads to cold feet and potential bacteria problems.

When you need to hit the slopes again in the morning and your boots are sweaty, you’ll be very glad you made the investment in your boot dryer. There are plenty of good options out there no matter what your needs are. Be sure to read the “how to choose” section for some tips before you buy.

Get those boots dry, warm your toes, and have fun on the mountain this winter!