Prior to owning this unit, I had a condensing dryer.  I thought I was stuck buying another condensing unit, until I found the GFD14ESSNWW vented 24-inch dryer. I even fixed my old dryer, thinking I'd return this GE unit, but it much nicer to have a vented unit: no water tanks or extra heat pumped into the living space. The unit is louder than my old dryer, and it sometimes will stop before the load is fully dry. It does have nice customizable features, if you have the patience to read the manual or the technical adeptness to figure it out on your own, but the average user will not easily understand how to use all the settings.