I used Bosch, Electrolux (AEG) and an older Miele, the one I was given was a Siltal they all worked the same way......actually the air intakes to cool the condenser were placed in the front if I remember right the right one sucked the air and left one was the out-take.
I just do not know, perhaps is your AEG the bad one, but all vented dryers I used were faster....including the last I bought (Bomann, the worse vented dryer I have owned)
Regarding the smell....I just don't know, they all used to leave my clothes with that smell...
I always made sure the condenser was clean and I used to shower it every 3-4 loads...they always took forever and if in those situations I could have hanged outside I would have done it (vacation apartments in France and Switzerland, no clotheslines allowed), they always took up to 2 hours vs. the average 40-60 minutes of european vented dryers always for full 7kg loads I used in my life, american electric ones are way more faster than europeans also.
We have owned a Zoppas (same thing as a REX/zanussi) vented dryer for 13 years, then a whirlpool.... after whirlpool came the white knight (sold because too loud), then the Bomann that is actually down in the garage waiting for a new owner (selling it for 30 euros, paid 250, used 4 months).... actually I feel like I'm frauding someone by selling it as it is terrible.
Anyway
The Siltal condenser that was given to me was sent to the town damp after a year of sporadic use.....I could not stand it anymore, I still remember the first time I used it when our Zoppas went down.......it was suddenly given to me just for that reason from a family friend in Turin that moved abroad, when I told her our dryer abandoned us and I needed one quickly .
It was a thing that I still remember as if it was yesterday:
I was attending the first year of superior school (hotel and catering school) back then, I studied away from home and returned home just the weekends, my school as you can understand required an uniform, jacket, tie... a "classic dress" to attend regualr classes... well, I have been busy all the weekend so I could do laundry for the week just on Sunday, I was alone to do the chores like always been since then, 14 years old, just me and my sister, my mom was just passed away in that year....
I had so sister's laundry to do and mine that day.....I washed a load of sister's darks and around the 8:45 PM it came out the washer...so I started the dryer and started another white load in the washer, thinking it was quick like a vented one, well after 40 minutes I touched the laundry to check the dryiness point, it was still so wet... passed an hour, and it was less than half a little dry, I could not believe it.
The load finished to dry just about the 11:30 PM!!!!!
I had another white load to dry and the load included all my white shirts, undies towels etc all the stuff I needed for the week ...it was a big load with towels etc..well it came dry just after 3 hours and 20 minutes, at 2:50AM!!!!!!
I had to iron it as it was incredibly wrinkled, so I finished the ironing that night at 4.30 AM! Suitcase read about 5:00AM I had to leave to catch the train to the college at 5:45 AM. I didn't sleep that night just to do the laundry! I could not believe that dryer took that long!!! But I had to get this job done!
I still remember it so vividly and it was a shocking thing! Couldn't believe that a dryer could take so much and give such wrinkled items!
Despite I heard people who said their condenser dryers do the job in less time, this is what I personally experienced , all the ones I tried were incredibly long to dry, they never completed a full load in less than 2 hours, if found the Electrolux/AEg to be the faster among the ones I've tried, but never less than 2 hours, they certainly were not as long as the siltal but, anyway incredibly long for my canons...you just can't wait two hours! Also they gave lots of wrinkles too and the stink I mentioned.
No no no....before having to use one of them I would rather hang laundry all the time, this does not become a comfort anymore...at least I would not get wrinkles and stink.
[this post was last edited: 7/6/2013-16:34]