Today, the use of aerodynamic dryers for drying various types of fruit crops is very current. In them, the electric energy spent on the drive of the centrifugal fan is transformed into thermal energy due to the mutual friction of the air flows circulating in the closed chamber. In order to increase the energy efficiency of the drying process, the heat of the waste drying agent was used in the research. The presented dryer was equipped with a combined heat exchanger. In order to predict the thermal performance of the combined heat exchanger depending on external factor variables, the dependence of the temperature of the fresh drying agent at the outlet of the combined heat exchanger on the dryer operation time is theoretically determined on the basis of the heat balance equation. The air solar collector in the combined heat exchanger made it possible to increase the temperature of the drying agent at the outlet by another 10 ^oC without extra costs of electrical energy. A comparative analysis of the results of experimental and theoretical studies showed their high convergence.