Thanks for these thoughts. It's hard to measure environmental impact. But aggregate numbers say nothing about my individual dryer. Adding the risk that I will buy a dryer that will not last as long as my current one. There are many reasons the footprint is reduced in Europe that have nothing to do with home appliances. Industry/transport are the big numbers. And there are costs for putting appliances in landfills. The delta between my dryer and a new one might be rather small. Just because something is an improvement does not mean it's a big improvement. A new dryer in the US comparable to what I have is about $900. I don't think 8 years is quickly!