As an alternative to getting shouted at for having muddy shoes on the radiator I designed and built my own shoe dryer.
It comprises a load of copper pipe, 22mm and 15mm joined with Yorkshire fittings (solder ring) and a couple of compression fittings to enable filling and dismantling. You need about 1m 15mm pipe and 200mm 22mm pipe. The heating comes from a 100w heating element for towel radiators and has a uk plug.
I added a variable time countdown timer plug adaptor that allows it to be ran for 15min / 30min/ 1 hour / 2 hour / 4 hour 8 hour.
TBH the heating element is probably a bit big but it was the smallest I could find and only cost £7.50. It cuts out on high temperature but is not variable.
The greatest difficulty I had was finding a way of fitting the element. It is 1/2″ BSP that needs to be connected to 22mm pipe. In the end I used a 22mm compression to 3/4″ BSP female with a 3/4″ to 1/2″ female reducer. I’ve since discovered that you can get straight 22mm compression to 1/2″ BSP female fittings but these are a bit specialist and not stocked by screwfix / toolstation/ plumbase/ wickes etc….
You can get 15mm compression to 1/2″ female BSP fittings but you would have to enlarge to the 22mm pipe (I wanted a bigger reservoir than the 15mm pipe offered)
I mounted it vertically using 22mm pipe clips screwed into a door frame. Could use a plank of wood and a hook in the wall if no door frame is available.
I’m off for a long weekend biking and will be planning a portable stand to plug in at the B&B shortly.
It dries a pair of completely sodden shoes in about 8 hours.
Costwise: £7.50 heating element, £16.00 for all copper fittings. £2.00 for the plug, plastic clips, PTFE tape = £25.50 + optional timer plug = £7.00. (I Had some spare copper pipe knocking around so it was quite cheap – if you are building a one-off the minimum 2m long lengths you have to buy may make it quite a bit more pricey)
Attached some pics and have plans/ weblinks and shopping list if anyone is interested.