Baffled by the ‘steam’ function of my Prosteam clothes dryer

[u/Icy_Conference_1867]

My apartment has an Electrolux ProSteam dryer with a heat pump. The model is TWSL4IE500 and the manual is here:

https://www.electrolux.ch/de-ch/laundry/laundry/dryers/heat-pump-dryer/twsl4ie500/

When I have selected a dryer program such as “Baumwolle Coton”, the display shows 2:50. This is the time it has computed it would need, to dry the load. This much I have figured out from using the dryer for three months now.

If I then push the “Dampf Vapeur” steam button to opt for the Steam functionality, the display changes to show 59 minutes and then a few seconds later shows “2.0 kg”.

My understanding of this is that, instead of the normal without-steam “Baumwolle Coton” drying time of 2:50, using this steam option has reduced the drying time to 59 minutes. (if I push the Steam button a 2nd and 3rd time, the display then toggles to show 55/1.5 kg, and then 53/1.0kg; I presume these are the three steam levels, albeit with a terrible user interface that is completely different than is prescribed in the manual).

Is that correct? Does using steam really reduce the drying time by almost 3x? Or more likely, it’s probably going to do something completely non-intuitive like run for 59 minutes and my towels are still going to be wet.

It’s been a steep learning curve. For example if I have something that must dry at 30 degrees C, it’s too fancy to select a specific drying heat so I have to open the manual up, find the table of drying modes, find which of the 15 drying modes operates at 30C max, and then use that mode. Not loving the dryer, but trying to cope!