Warm Boots

The time of year is coming when this idea will be very welcome indeed. Warm dry sea boots? What a luxury! As usual, Drew at Sail Delmarva shows us how to have them for a very minimal investment:

A few days ago I was following a thread on a sailing forum regarding how to best dry a pair of high-dollar leather and Goretex seaboots. Suggestions from experts ranged all over, but missed that most obvious answer; a boot drier. Perhaps this won't resonate with warm climate folk, but it should; I've seen enough mold and mildew in Florida to make it the state plant... if it were a plant.

I built this one15 years ago in an evening, for the specific purpose of drying wet snow gear, but it has certainly been used far more for rain soaked gear.

Even the most sodden boots, shoes, or gloves are dry, warm, and fresh in a few hours. Odor is eliminated, as there is no chance for anything to grow. Wet gear has a proper place, and space is conserved since less gear is needed. The materials came entirely from the might-need bin, but I suppose it could be built for $30 if everything were purchased. It could be made longer, for a larger family, with very little change in cost.

The fan provides just enough flow. A bit of flashing creates an internal baffle, directing all of the air flow over the bulb before it goes to the pipe outlets. A 60W bulb seems to provide just enough warmth, but a larger bulb or lamp-base heater could adapt the design to larger sizes. Hardware cloth keeps small fingers and trash out. Pipes could be made longer for sea boots. The unused pipes are plugged by dropping a large bolt in the hole, focusing the heat on a reduced number of holes. The weight is sufficient to keep it from tipping over.

• 110v computer fan
• ceramic socket with 60W bulb 
• box and switch
• a salvaged cord
• 3/4" lumber and some screws
• 3/4" PVC pipe stubs
• a bit of flashing and some hardware cloth
• paint

What would I change? I should have built it for 8 pipes (4 boots + 4 gloves) to better serve 2 people. I should have made the pipes just a little longer (no so much that it could tip over) and drilled a cross-wise hole near the end (so that they cannot be blocked if the boot is sitting on the end). But Jessica is off to college, so it's really just me playing outside, and it works quite well as it is.

I've been tempted to build something similar into the boat--it's really sweet to have warm, dry shoes in the winter--and perhaps I will if I start cruising more in the off season, now that school schedules don't matter.  Perhaps something that diverts warm, dry air from the mini-dehumidifier.