Boot Dryer (GORUCK Essentials) Review

I don’t know how I survived eight events with out ever having a boot dryer. My buddy Brian H told me about these during a 12 mile ruck and afterwards I felt like the dumbest person for never looking into it before. It makes perfect sense that someone would have invented this already and I’m glad that I finally have one. Boot dryers were created to solve one major issue that is difficult to solve… drying the insides of your boots.

The Issue

After training that involves water or any GORUCK event ever your boots will be soaked. How do you clean and dry out your boots? If you don’t dry them off somehow there’s a decent chance they’ll rot and get “special” inside. Most people who do GORUCK events ruck up once a week (or less) and do one or two events a year. Leaving damp boots to dry in a closet is a recipe for disaster.

The Old Way

After any wet training ruck or GORUCK event I had the following strategy: wash the boots in the tub then either put them in front of a heat vent or out on the patio in the sun. The heater would dry the outside very well but the inside would still be wet. It would also dry out the leather and I contribute that to breaking down my boots quicker. Leaving them outside would dry them out a bit more evenly but it was slower and I live in Seattle… we don’t get many sunny days.

The Boot Dryer Way

The foot dryer is this plastic thing that you put your boots over and you plug into the wall. It pushes warm air (not hot) into the boots over the course of hours. I usually leave it on over night and when I wake up in the morning the insides are dry. The boots are upside down through this whole process and any water in the outside drips nicely out the top. After a good night of this the boots are usually 100% dry in the morning.

Overall

Overall I’m so glad to have this boot dryer. I finally have a way to dry out my boots and ensure they’ll be good and dry for the next time I train or do an event. The boot dryer I bought was the MaxxDry SD Boot Dryer. It’s around $30 on Amazon with very good reviews. I bought mine locally for $25 so you can maybe call around for a better deal. The other good boot dryer on Amazon appears to be the PEET Boot Dryer and it has even better reviews than the one I have.