I prefer to dry my towels outside as it's cheaper and also they smell better, however with winter I always find it can be a headache. Drying them indoors can take a long time, so I try to dry them on the radiator, though I know it can cause condensation. In the dryer they are nice and fluffy, but can still still take a while and can be expensive if you are paying for the dryer. When towels smell damp and then dry hard, they aren't as pleasant so any other tips?
Dry them outside in the summer, or near your balcony/radiator if it's winter/rainy season. I would draw a string across two ends of the room, and just drape the towel across the middle. This maximizes the surface area so that the towel dries faster.
I dry all my laundry outside until the outdoor high temperature no longer makes it to 60. I find that below 60F things do not noticeably even begin to dry, even after 12+ hours, so at that point I have to use the dryer for sheets and towels. I do not dry my clothes in the dryer ever though because it is hard on them and makes them either shrink or just not last as long. I dry my clothing inside on a drying rack or hangers hanging from the door frame in the winter. Towels are very hard to dry indoors, they tend to make the entire apartment very humid and clammy and it's hard to air out that much moisture without leaving windows open for quite a while, which then drops the indoor temperature quite a lot.
My only suggestion would be to stop being cheap and dangerous and just take the towels to a laundromat and dry them properly. You do realize that you have to rub them all over your body, right? Even if I believed that dryers were hard on your clothes, that doesn't apply to towels. Stop wasting time and jeopardizing your health and home and just throw them in a dryer.
Perhaps a little harsher than I was going to go for, but essentially my thoughts as well. There are definite hygiene concerns to taking care of your towels in that way, not worth it in my opinion.
