Dryers are common in central northern EU, anyway less than in the US/CAN. Mostly used as a back up solution in winter or when it's raining. Dryer vents are less common In southern europe dryers are getting common since last ten years. Vents here don't exist, so we have 90% condenser dryers. Residential gas dryers (rarities) have been banned by our latest severe codes for gas appliances/heaters/furnaces. Go figure miele discontinued its T 478 G i was about to buy. For the same reason french made washers with internal gas heater don't exist anymore. So no vents + no gas = condenser dryers = energy hogs. Heat pumps condenser dryers are the solution to cut power rates. They also draw half wattage than regular condensers : a regular condenser or vented euro dryer draws 2200 to 3300 Watt. Heat pump dryers draw max 1200- 1300 Watt. True that would be nice for you : 1200 W aren't a issue even @ 120 Volt. They have separate motors for drum and fan : they can even dry those fabrics one would never dare to put in a regular dryer, like cashmere and silk. There is a big BUT : the price, not a case they still are a niche product Basically they are a dryer with a internal A/C unit. Whatever brand you take they cost 1.5 X to 2 X than the average condenser model, 3X than vented models. Electrolux (badged as AEG, Zanussi and Electrolux) and BSH (Bosch and Siemens) cost around 1000 euro. Miele ones around 1500 euro. Whirlpool Europe hasn't yet made HP dryers. I don't ever mention swiss ones, cause swiss appliances have such prices that make Miele and Gaggenau seem bargains That said, dryer vents are common in north America, gas dryers - much more energy efficent than electric ones - are common too. Two good reasons to make heat pump dryers a huge market flop in the US/CAN

I have a condenser dryer and I love it. I was forced into buying one when or vent became disconnected at some point and was venting into the kitchen cabinets! Thank you DH-haha. Anyway, we decided to just get a condenser dryer rather than go to all the work of getting into the walls from the lower level to the main level to find and fix the problem. I had an Asko first and now have a Bosch. No complaints at all. Ours is located in an open area near my husbands workroom and not in a small laundry room. It does not cause us any problems as far as putting out too much heat, but maybe we just don't notice. It is easy to clean the condenser which I do every 4-8 weeks-should probably do it monthly, There are several settings for the amount of dryness one wants, but it rarely takes long since our front-loading Bosch washer spins the laundry practically dry anyway. No worries about lint stuck somewhere in a vent causing a fire either! ETA: cleaning the condenser involves pulling it out, running water through it to clear the lint, and replacing it. Takes me less than five minutes. Occasionally, I do get down on the floor to reach way back and clear any lint that might be in the back of the condenser space, but since I am now at the point of having difficulty hetting up and down, that is a rare thing. :-)

On the Little Giant condenser, you can enter supervisor level and there are 1000s of options, LOL. I have purposely set the moisture level to leave a tiny bit of residual moisture, since this is best for fabrics and is how most Europeans do laundry. But, besides some socks and underwear that are a cotton/bamboo blend, almost everything comes out perfectly dry, smooth and wrinkle free. A very strange occurrence with condenser dryers....when you open the door at the cycle end, and you remove laundry, items still feel kind of moist. By the time you fold them or hang them...they are dry. It is an odd moist to touch sensation that goes away very quickly!

@bigdogmom_pa The uber thread has almost all questions asked and answered, It's has over a thousand replies so it can be very intimidating to go through them all. Here are answers to your questions: TwinDos: You either like the smell of the detergent or you don't. Miele has an unscented version as well. Once the official bottles from Miele are empty you can use a funnel to refill them though the round port on the top of the cartridge. Just push down with a small funnel and refill with detergent of your choice. I would NOT use a thick, viscous liquid. I refill ours with Tide PurClean, but that is just what we like to use. Miele does NOT officially sanction doing this. They would prefer you buy all your detergent from them at their prices. If you refill the factory cartridges they will work for a while, but eventually the one way air vent, that lets air into the cartridge as detergent is drawn out, will clog. When this happens the cartridge will appear to be getting crushed. The solution is to remove the cartridge, depress the plunger in the spout and air will rush in. We use the cartridge until it is empty and then recycle it. Usually get 5-10 refills on factory cartridge before this happens. poking a hole in the top of the cartridge near the back side would also allow air in, but then it becomes a potential leak source. Detergent amount will depend on the hardness, or mineral content, of your water. If you have hard water more detergent will be needed. If you have soft water then less will be needed. This is sort of trial and error. I always recommend to new users of a Miele washer to buy some brand new towels that have never been washed before. Run a rinse cycle and note any bubbles that are present when you have CLEAN towels. This is what your final rinse should look like. Then wash the towels using Miele's lowest recommended amount. If you still see soap residue in the final rinse then lower it down 2-3ml. Rinse the towels until the water appears like when they were when new. Then do another wash. This is the BEST way to determine what your dose. You will most likely notice a lot of your clothes have residual detergent from poor rinsing of your previous washer. Maybe you won't and your previous washer did great, but many people think they are using too much detergent and turn it way down, when in reality they have a lot of built up residue in their clothes. That is why I recommend using brand new towels to determine your dose. Then you will know you have the dose set correct. READ THE MANUAL: Take the time between now and when the appliances arrive to download the manuals and read them cover to cover. You will know all of the options and have some ideas on what to try when they arrive. Knowing the capabilities will really help you get the best results. The "Normal" cycle is the EPA test cycle so there are some compromises when using it. The heater is used less and for a shorter time that all of the other cycles. If you have warm/hot water in your laundry room and it really is warm when it comes out of the tap then the Normal cycle will be fine for most clothes. Baby Clothes cycle is what I would call the "Cotton" cycle. It keeps the heater on until the set temp is reached and then maintains the temp. Rinses have a full spin in between to remove more detergent residue. The spins are longer, etc. etc. All of the cycles are useful. Read the manual and learn when to use them. I use single wash all the time when I wash my nicer dress shirts that I don't want to risk colors running on my whites shirts. That option is on the next model up from the one you purchased. Up to you if you think you would use that. The other missing cycle is Quick Intense Wash. That is on the next model up as well. We use that cycle a decent amount for lightly soiled clothes. There is a decent price jump between the model you selected and the next model up. Since the next model up has an extra recirculation pump used during the wash cycles there is a cost to have the pump and extra plumbing. If you put the washer and dryer next to each other the tops make a really nice folding table, clothes stacking area. Obviously this means the machines are closer to the ground if you set them up this way. As we get older it might be preferred to have the machines higher up and have a separate folding area. Use GOOD detergents if you want excellent results. Miele makes good detergents (Well they are made FOR Miele using a custom formula), but they charge for them. Tide, Persil and other top tier detergents are worth the money if you refill the TwinDos cartridges as the system will prevent you from using too much. This reduces your cost per cycle to the lowest needed and gets maximum performance from your appliances. That is my suggestion. Turn on the actual spin speed and water temp display in settings. This is much more intuitive than cold, warm, hot, or slow, medium, high. You will see actual temps for water 86F, 105F, 120F, etc. 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1600, etc. If you have other questions, feel free to ask, but keep in mind many of your questions and maybe some you have not thought of, have been answered in the big Miele thread.