Our discussion was about possible reasonings behind the supposed wait times introduced by a condenser dryer in said article. One hypothesized it was because of a more efficient heating element, which used more power. Also common wall voltage not in the US. I simply let them know that wall voltage for dryers is the same in the US as it is for them.
I also had no idea what you meant by "special" circuit.
There are plenty of appliances that require more than 120V, and operate safely at these voltages.
Do you live in a humid climate? I wonder if that impedes on the dry time at all (having to dry out the air before drying out the clothes drying in the air).
I've never used it (T-Shirt and Jeans programmer; oh so hip!), but there's an overnight delivery service for dry cleaning to my kids' daycare. Also thought that was pretty smart.
Most newer buildings being built (though those are hard to find, sometimes) always have a hookup available.
In my apartment hunting, I usually found that apartments which lacked a hookup were also built before it was a norm to have such a thing.
Seeing that American landry is almost entirely vented drying, a dedicated space of 30 square feet with an outside vent, sewer drain (and vent) and hot and cold spigot are nearly required. It's easy to see why so few old apartments have in-unit w/d hookup.
Very cool that these exists. I had no idea. But I'm just your typical stupid American.
However, it looks like they're about 3x the cost of a vented dryer.
And smaller capacity than vented ones.
> Ventless dryers also take longer to get your clothes dry. A vented dryer might finish a Normal load in about 45-50 minutes, but a condenser or heat pump dryer could run for an hour and a half. Want to dry a bulky blanket or comforter? You could be waiting more than three hours.
More insurance claims for water damage? When the washer/dryer set is owned by the renter than the renter's insurance will cover damages, vs the property owner.
Also, a lot of landlords will rent out washer/dryer sets to tenants for another monthly fee if they don't have their own to hook up.