An appliance for
drying laundry (100) comprising an appliance cabinet (110), a
laundry treatment chamber (105) inside the cabinet, a
drying air recirculation path (245) for causing recirculation of the
drying air into / out from the
laundry treatment chamber, the drying air recirculation path being at least partly external to the laundry treatment chamber, a drying air
moisture condensing and
heating system (215,220,225) 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, wherein said drying air
moisture condensing and
heating system comprises a first
heat exchanger (215) and a second
heat exchanger (220) of a
heat pump (215,220,225,210), and further comprising a drying air
propeller (250) inside the drying air recirculation path and a
Joule-effect drying
air heater (255), downstream the second
heat exchanger, energizable for contributing to the heating of the drying air, wherein the appliance comprises a
user interface (121) comprising a laundry treatment cycle selector (305) operable by a user for selecting a laundry treatment cycle, and a
control unit (265) adapted to control the
machine operation, characterized in that the
user interface comprises a command input means (315) operable by the user for imparting to the appliance an energization command to energize the
Joule-effect heater, and in that during the execution of the laundry treatment cycle selected by the user, said
control unit causes the selective energization of said
Joule-effect drying
air heater based on said energization command imparted by the user.