Unfortunately, Electrolux, who aquired the AEG brand (for white goods such as washing machines etc.) way back in 1996 have systematically over the last 15 years destroyed the quality that AEG used to be renowned for. You will pay a fortune for this model yet you can get the same plasticy finish, the same open/close flaps that don’t line up and the same cheap components and build quality for about half the price with a cheaper brand. Remember we are talking of a 600 quid dryer here (The RRP is even higher)! As you have probably guessed I am disappointed, very disappointed. Last week I took delivery of this model after 18 faithful years of service by my old AEG dryer. The old one was metal, well built, sturdy, generally excellent quality. This model is not! It has many of the same parts as my old one but they have been replaced by cheaper versions. Metal retaining clips are now plastic, The heating area cover was heavy duty metal..now plastic. The door was metal now plastic… need I go on? OK I did not buy a Miele at twice the price but still this model is supposed to be at the higher end of the market. I think that the AEG/Electrolux group is off my list of suppliers now. I will try Bosch in future for a similar price. Now that I have I got that off my chest I should mention the good points. The dryer itself is actually very good. It works well, there are plenty of programmes. The controls take a little bit of getting used to and the manual is sparse and gives little useful info.For example you need to work out which programmes are low temp and which are not. It is not immediately obvious (unlike other models that have a button called low temp!). It seems to dry very well, each programme is tailor-made for the type of material and you can set the amount of residual humidity left in the clothes after drying. This is very useful if you like to iron dry your clothes as it makes ironing easier. Effectively each programme uses different combinations of drum rotation speed and temperature. Other options include the anti crease function that keeps the drum turning with a little heat after drying so as to prevent creases and the programmed start time. The programmable start time is good, but for some unknown reason you cannot use it with many of the programmes which sort of makes it useless!. This model is a condenser dryer so you don’t need to vent it outside. The air that is output is very dry, the condenser does a good job. A nice touch is that it comes complete with a drain hose, this means that you can drain the condensed water out into a water waste pipe (in my case the same one I use for my washing machine)directly so you don’t need to continually keep emptying the water collection unit. This model is very economical, using a heat pump rather than an energy hungry heating element. This makes it very efficient to operate as it uses about half the electricity of other dryers. Overall I would say that a lot of thought has gone into the concept, functionality and the design and the dryer works very well and is efficient in terms of energy, but unfortunately it has been let down heavily by the bean counters at Electrolux who prefer to use the cheapest components that they can find so as to save a few quid instead of making a quality machine that would have ultimately generated a large band of brand loyal customers. I will end by saying that if the components were of a slightly higher quality and if the build was better this would get 10 out of 10. I would also give it 10 out of 10 if it was 40% less expensive, but as it is, and with its current price tag I could only manage 5 out 10!
