Dries as it should but expensive for what it is.
Pros:
Looks cool.
Cons:
Lint screen not as effective as it should be at this price.
The Bottom Line:
The lint screen hard to use/ineffective. It needs a base or to be stacked at 7' or more. The base costs $200. Crazy. Below average for price, otherwise average.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I've had this dryer about a month and although it does its job just fine, I'm not sure it's worth the extra money.
There are a lot of dryers out there and as far as I know, they all just blow hot air through your tumbling, wet clothes. Why you should pay more for a "premium" dryer is beyond me unless it does something special or saves money or some such.
I only use the "timed dry" setting. There are a ton of settings (towel dry, normal, etc.) but they seem to be variations of the timed dry setting. I might be wrong, but I don't see much use for all those settings as all I need is the clothes to be dry and that takes time rather than settings.
I have the companion washer which I review elsewhere so this was the logical choice to have a matched set. In retrospect, I'm not so sure I needed a matched set as I think any dryer would do what this one does.
It certainly looks cool and modern. And it costs a lot for that, too. I paid about $550 after bargaining and discounting when I could have had a regular dryer for about $300.
What really got me on this dryer was that you're supposed to buy the "base", which is a 14" tall metal thing with a drawer in it. You really need a base with this dryer so you don't have to bend so low, so you'd probably need one with any dryer. However, the base on this thing is $200! And there's only one base that fits it, officially.
I was lucky and found 2 old bases that don't "fit" this dryer and just put them on the floor, covered them with plywood, and put the washer and dryer on top. The manufacturer does not recommend this.
You can stack this dryer on top of the washer if you have a 6' space and that should be free, installed. Still, you'll have the washer way low and need a base to raise it enough for you and that will make the monstrosity over 7' tall. Maybe you won't bend low, but you'll either need a step ladder or have to throw wet clothes up high to the dryer. And what about unloading? Yup, get that step ladder out.
The other thing about this dryer that is annoying is that the lint screen doesn't seem to work right. It's very hard to re-insert and I'm afraid I'm going to break it. Beyond that, I see lint accumulating beyond the lint screen. For a premium dryer, I expect it not to allow all that lint to accumulate in there. That was part of the point of buying a premium dryer. I blow it out with a computer key cleaner/air blower but I think I shouldn't have to do that for the premium I paid for this dryer.
You may be comparing this to the gas version of the dryer. I tried to buy that one but gave up. Gas is not popular anymore so you'll probably have to order it special and it will cost more than the electric version.
Beyond that, the gas version has to be installed by a licensed plumber (or do it yourself). To me, the aggravation of the gas version, plus the cost of gas lines, installation, etc, were more than I might ever have saved by using it.
All said and done, I'm not convinced that this dryer is all that much better than a cheap-o. It looks nice and it looks space age. Otherwise, well, for $550 you could dry a lot of clothes outside for free.
