How to dry boots without a boot dryer
You do not need to buy anything to dry a pair of boots properly. You do need to avoid four specific shortcuts, all of which involve heat.
By Scooter M., Enthusiast. Published September 1, 2026.
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A box fan pointed at a pair of open boots dries them almost as fast as a boot dryer and costs nothing you do not already own. Everything a dryer does is warmth plus airflow plus somewhere for the moisture to go, and you can supply all three from a normal house. What you cannot safely supply is a shortcut, because every shortcut is heat.
Five methods, ranked
1. A fan, pointed into the boots (best)
Unlace, tongue forward, boots on their sides with the openings facing the fan. Low speed is plenty - you want continuous air exchange, not a gale. This is within an hour or two of a convection dryer overnight, and a box fan uses more electricity than a 36-watt dryer does, which is the only real argument against it.
2. Newspaper, changed at least once
Crumple loosely and pack lightly. Paper works by direct contact absorption and it is genuinely effective for the first hour, at which point it is saturated and becomes a damp plug. The failure mode is universal: people stuff the boots at 9 pm and leave the same paper in until morning, which slows the drying down rather than speeding it up.
3. Uncooked rice or silica gel in a bag
Boots and a large quantity of desiccant in a sealed bag or tub. It works, because it lowers the humidity of the air in contact with the leather. It is slow, it needs a lot of desiccant, and rice leaves dust. Silica gel packets - the ones that come in packaging - are better and reusable if you dry them out.
4. A warm, dry, moving-air room
An airing cupboard with the door open, a utility room with a vent, anywhere the air actually changes. The key is air exchange: a boot drying in a sealed cupboard raises the humidity in that cupboard until evaporation stops.
5. Time, and a second pair
The least satisfying and most reliable method. Atsko’s guidance for slow drying with minimal heat is two days for a thoroughly soaked boot, one for a partly wet one. If you have two pairs, you never need any of the above.
The four to avoid
- Radiator, wood stove, heat vent. Atsko: “Force drying - especially with heat - will cause leather to harden and shrink. In a few cycles, the boots are trashed.”
- Tumble dryer. Heat plus tumbling plus sole adhesive. Why it fails, in detail.
- Hair dryer on hot. A concentrated heat source doing the radiator’s damage in a smaller area.
- Direct sun on a hot day. Slower to do the damage, same mechanism. Moneysworth & Best specifically say not to dry in direct sunlight or heat.
The cheapest upgrade in boot care
A second pair of insoles. Rotate them daily and the footbed - the wettest, smelliest component in the whole boot - always goes in dry. It costs less than a bottle of deodorizer and does more.
When to give in and buy something
If you are drying boots more than about twice a week all winter, a convection dryer pays for itself in not having to think about it. At a published 36 watts it costs about $4.75 for a 90-night season - the cost is not the argument either way. The argument is that it is unattended and repeatable, and a fan and a stack of newspaper is neither.
What we would buy for this
Chosen from the same registry as our roundups, on published specifications rather than on testing we have not done.
Generic
Cedar block inserts
Loose cedar blocks for boots that a shaped tree will not fit - most of the moisture benefit, none of the shape benefit.
Skip it if: You want the boot to hold its shape - blocks do nothing structurally.
#ad We hold no verified live price for this product, so we show none. How this site is funded.
Superfeet
Superfeet All-Purpose Support High Arch
A structured insole you can pull out and dry separately, which is the single biggest drying improvement most work boots can get.
Skip it if: Your boots are already tight - a structured insole takes real volume.
#ad We hold no verified live price for this product, so we show none. How this site is funded.
Frequently asked
How do you dry boots fast without a dryer?
Unlace them, pull the insoles, and point a fan into the open throats overnight. That is within an hour or two of what a convection boot dryer achieves. Add an hour of newspaper at the start, then throw the paper away.
Does rice actually dry wet boots?
Yes, slowly, and it needs a lot of rice and a sealed container. It works by lowering the humidity of the air touching the leather rather than by contact absorption. Silica gel does the same job better and is reusable.
Can I put boots in front of a heater?
No. Atsko states that force drying with heat hardens and shrinks leather and that a few cycles will finish a pair of boots. Blundstone tells you never to use an artificial heat source. Airflow is safe; heat is not.
How long does newspaper take to dry boots?
Newspaper alone will not fully dry a soaked boot at all - it saturates within about an hour and then holds moisture against the lining. Use it for the first hour to pull out bulk water, then remove it and rely on airflow.