Appliance for drying laundry

Abstract

An appliance for drying laundry () comprises an appliance cabinet (), a laundry treatment chamber () inside the cabinet, and a drying air recirculation path () for causing recirculation of the drying air into/out from the laundry treatment chamber. The drying air recirculation path is at least partly external to the laundry treatment chamber. A drying air moisture condensing and heating system () located in the drying air recirculation path for dehydrating the moisture-laden drying air leaving the laundry treatment chamber and heating the dehydrated drying air before it re-enters into the laundry treatment chamber. The drying air moisture condensing and heating system comprises a first heat exchanger () and a second heat exchanger () of a heat pump (), and further comprising a drying air propeller () inside the drying air recirculation path and a Joule-effect drying air heater (), downstream the second heat exchanger, energizable for contributing to the heating of the drying air. The appliance includes a user interface () comprising a laundry treatment cycle selector () operable by a user for selecting a laundry treatment cycle, and a control unit () adapted to control the machine operation. The user interface comprises a command input means () operable by the user for imparting to the appliance an energization command to energize the Joule-effect heater. During the execution of the laundry treatment cycle selected by the user, the control unit causes the selective energization of the Joule-effect drying air heater based on the energization command imparted by the user.