barb - do you read the followups ??? 2 people have told you that it doesn't take much longer (if at all) for the condenser versions of that dryer to work than the vented one. You have stumbled upon a goldmine of info as the chances of someone haveing both models and you finding them are pretty slim and you've got 2. Now you're ignoring them or questioning their sincerity? One said your probably gonna have less dry time than your used to now. Anyway your just going to have to live with however long it takes to dry anyway if you want a condenser dryer to eliminate the humidity producing "box". Of course it's going to take longer toi dry somehing in humid Hawaii thne it will in dry Montana or airid Phoenix, but you just have to live with that. It'll apply to any dryer choice you make. Will you be able to notice teh xtra time, doubtful unless you sit and time the cycle, and then you'd obviously have plenty of time on your hands anyway, so as to make the cycle time moot anyhow! The euro's have timed dry and sensor dry. choose more dryness in sensor mode or increase the time = dry clothes. This is not new technology since a huge % of Europeans are highrise dwellers these types of units make sense for many. This design dind't just fall off the truck to dupe Americans in luxury condos. Cleaning the condensing matrix is a 15 min job tops if you use brushes. I spray mine down in the sink and it's about a 4 min. task. Unit is accesible from the front of machine, clicks in and out. Are you paying attention? The entire manual is readable at Bosch's website, why don't you give it a look. Heimert - the tube for the water on a condenser dryer drains from the dryer into the wastepipe for the washer. The OP's current setup is a bucket o/water attached to the dryer vent pipe. The water has to be there to trap lint. That whole shotin match just vents back into the condo.

gordonr, If there's nothing else I've learned during the course of my renovations, I've learned that everything ends up being more complicated than you expect. Once you open up the ceiling or the wall, there always seems to be something in the way of what you want to do. A floor joist where the tub drain needed to be, pipes where I wanted recessed lights to go, and now the recessed light over the tub is where it would make sense to run the duct. I can hardly wait to get to the kitchen renovation! I spoke with a rep in Miele's technical service group yesterday. Initially he was telling me he thought what I wanted to do entailed too long a stretch of duct - that it would reduce the performance of the dryer. I told him I expected that it would not be optimal performance, but what I was trying to determine was whether it would reduce it to the extent that a condenser dryer would have the same performance. He didn't seem to understand what I was getting at, so I gave an example: If the vented model has 15% better performance than the condenser model and the venting I'm doing reduces performance by 15%, then the condenser model would be generally equivalent, but if the vented dryer's performance is 50% greater, the same 15% reduction in performance would still mean the vented dryer was a better choice. I asked if he could give me any information about how much better the vented dryer's performance was than the condenser model and how much the venting I was considering would reduce the vented dryer's performance. At that point, he said he wanted to talk with one of the senior technical reps and put me on hold. When he came back, he told me that the dryer was rated for up to 60 feet (which I already knew) and that I should be fine with what I was planning on doing. He also told me that the sr. rep had indicated that having a condenser dryer in a closet could be problematic because it puts off a lot more heat than a vented dryer - you'd need a lot more air circulation into the closet with a condenser dryer. The closet I'll be putting the w/d into is 68" wide by 29" deep, so the extra heat and air circulation need may not have been as much of an issue for me as it might be for others with a more confined space. One learning that I took away from this: if you start to get the sense that the technical or customer service person you're talking to may not be as knowledgeable as you'd like, ask to talk with a senior rep. Like anywhere else, initial phone calls will be answered by more junior staff who will route the more complicated issues to more experienced staff. I've decided to go with a vented dryer, and now just need to decide between the Miele and the Asko. I'll let everyone know which one I end up with. Jan

It seems that all of Europe is moving away from vented dryers because they use more energy than modern heat-pump dryers. I was just trying to give a reason why Miele might have done away with offering condenser dryers in the US. I maybe should have said "It seems that all of Europe is moving away from vented dryers and traditional condenser dryers because they use more energy than modern heat-pump dryers." What you have heard about longer drying times, more heat output, higher energy usage etc. is true for all condenser dryers. Yes, "traditional" condenser dryers do use more energy... in comparison to the alternative the OP had in mind, which was a vented dryer. Seen as a whole, vented dryers get the worst energy efficiency rating according to the European Energy Label, though. Vented Dryer - C Rating Condenser Dryer - B rating Heat-Pump Dryer - up to A+++ Rating I will say that the system is a little biased because condenser dryers do blow a lot of hot, dry air into the room, which helps them to be seen as more energy efficient, while vented dryers suck heated air out of the house, which, in turn, increases heating costs for the home owner. Alex

Just dried a fairly large load of 4 cotton hoodies and 2 big towels. I washed them using Cottons Universal 120F, 3 Rinses and 1400rpm spin. I used about 2 TBS. of classic Original Scent Tide powder, 1/2 cap Bounce Bursts and a FULL cap of Spring Bloom softener. Before putting in the dryer, the load smelled absolutely amazing. Clean, fresh, soft and wonderful. Dried them using Minimum Iron Normal+. Took about 50/55 mins including an Extended Cooling Down. Open the dryer door....and there is that strange, herbal, old fashioned detergent scent with the faintest, slightest hint of something chemical (chemical scent always goes away with a min or less). I get a whiff of the Bounce Bursts, but absolutely NO Tide powder or Spring Bloom softener (a FULL caps worth). Crazy, right? What does the Condenser dryer do to scent? I can use Tide powder, Bubble Bandit powder, Tide TotalCare liquid, an all Stainlifter pod, Tide Free & Gentle pod, fabric softener, no fabric softener...EVERY load smells the same. It is "clean" and "fresh"...but why are none of my fav scents there?? Any Condenser dryer owners know? Thanks. I must say though with the Condenser dryer....EVERYTHING is soft, more fluffed than ever before, wrinkle free, smooth and looks and feels absolutely amazing!!! Wonderful actually!!