European Condensor Dryers....No Blowers....
In the seventies a lot of the combined washer dryers where condensor dryers but didnt have a blower to distribute a stream of warm air...
Manufactures such as Frigidaire and Miele offered top loading slimline automatics, others such as Ariston, Newpol, Eastham & Fagor offered standard front loaders, most had low spin speeds of 460 although the Miele had a faster spin the tumble dryer took over 2 hours to dry half the washload.
They simply used the water heater situated under the drum, this used to cycle on and off linked to a thermostat at the top of the outer drum.The cold water would trickle slowly through the drum intermittently and the steam would condense and be pumped out from the wash drain.
Bendix always offered the warm air blower machines with seperate warm air blowers, these machines really took off over here in the 80`s when Hoover & Hotpoint offered fast spin autos (1,000rpm) with a blower tumble dryer etc .
Very interesting how they work (well to us anyway!!!) the earlier full size condensor dryers used a lot more electricity due due the time the condensor took to dry the loads, I remember being in a test centre and using one of these dryers.....with a full load of towels spun at 1200rpm placed on a high heat setting, after 20 mins the clothes where steaming hot, we took them all out and shook them, steam all over the place but they dryed almost immediatly, whereas if the dryer had continued it would have taken over an hour extra to fully dry...
I think more work needs to be done on condensor dryers, very interested in the heat pump method form AEG...my old Servis 9lb vented dryer work on a low heat of 1.9kw and a high airflow....this world dry a full load of towels spun at 850rpm in 45 mins and very economical to use...