
Dyson Unveils New 'Wet and Dry' AirBlade Faucet - eplanit
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/AirBlade-Tap-Faucet-Cost-Release-Date,news-16715.html
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bryanjclark
Except for one issue: it actually slows down the efficiency of the bathroom.

See, by splitting up washing and drying into two steps, you allow two people
to be in the process of cleaning their hands at a time.

By bundling the two steps together, you reduce the amount of stuff in the
bathroom, but you also reduce the efficiency of the bathroom.

This AirBlade Faucet is a great idea for low-usage bathrooms: less paper
towels, less equipment to maintain, etc. For high-volume bathrooms, (airports,
etc) this would actually be a step backwards to put these faucets in, if a
goal of the bathroom is to be able to quickly serve a large group of people.

~~~
tocomment
That's only if you assume unlimited paper towel stations. In reality hand
drying is the bottle neck. So if every sink has its own dedicated dryer it
will speed things up.

~~~
epo
But you wouldn't get a queue for paper towels. People would grab 2 or 3 towels
and move aside.

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tocomment
Maybe but there's a bit of a shuffle getting around people who have grabbed
towels. And there are always the people who stand by towels to dry because
that's where the trash can is.

Actually, I guess separating the towel dispensers and trash cans in existing
bathrooms would be a smart efficiency move since it would encourage people to
grab a towel and keep moving.

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retube
Nothing grinds my gears more than Dyson products. Oh sure I'll spend £400 on
an insanely complicated vacuum with hundreds of springs and hinges and clips
that breaks 6 months later and does no better job than a simple, virtually
indestructable Henry that cost just 1/4 the price.

Or £300 on a FAN.

And just what the FUCK is a digital motor?
<http://www.dyson.co.uk/vacuumcleaners/ddm.aspx>

Over-priced, over-engineered, completely unnecessary rip-off bullshit.

~~~
Zimahl
My wife and I have 3 Dyson vacuums. We purchased one and then acquired a
couple more over the years. Two are standard room/floor vacuums and another is
more like a carpet/floor 'broom'.

They are expensive but all have worked flawlessly. One we've owned for more
than 8 years and it's in perfect condition. No bag and it sucks up pet hair
like you wouldn't believe. Better than any other vacuum I've ever owned.

As for the Henry vacuums, I'm not sure you'd get the same power for 1/4 the
price. There appear to be some models that are that price differential but
once you get up to the higher power models it's still cheaper but about 3/4
the price.

Dyson is a lot like Apple. They make dependable, designed products that simply
work. You can get by with something else but it will most likely be inferior
in form and function.

~~~
cubicle67
_Dyson is a lot like Apple._ ... people tend to have strong opinions about
them even if they've never had much to do with them :)

another data point - we have a single dyson we bought over 7 years ago and
it's still going strong. Thing's built like a tank and works better than any
other vacuum I've ever used (not that many, to be honest)

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3amOpsGuy
The airblade hand driers are the only hand driers I've used that thoroughly
dry your hands in a reasonable time frame. Even high air flow traditional
driers don't come close to airblade driers.

They do depend on blowing from both sides of your hand at once though. This
seems like it will double the drying time.

~~~
woobar
Excel's Xlerator does better job. And there is no walls to touch
(accidentally) while drying your hands. And no moldy water pool at the bottom.

~~~
Swannie
True on the walls and the water pool. Not true on the drying faster. The sheet
of air is much more efficient than the xlcerator.

~~~
stcredzero
I've had to do 2 or 3 passes with AirBlades to get my hands dry. I've never
had that happen with an xcelerator. In my recollection, the xcelerators are
faster and more pleasant to use.

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Anechoic
As other posters have mentioned, one big drawback of the Dyson Airblade (stand
alone unit) is that it's _loud_. 90 dBA loud [1]. I've never seen more than
two Airblades in one restroom, with this combo unit, there could be double
that number. That could lead to an unpleasant environment for guests of the
establishment and potential OSHA violations for employees.

From using it, it appears to me that most of the noise is caused by the
turbulence of the high-speed airflow interacting with hands and the enclosure
(Fullerton's paper comes to the same conclusion). In that case, all you can
really do to reduce the noise is reduce the flow speed, which reduces the
effectiveness of the dyer action.

[1] <http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/fullerton.htm>

~~~
r00fus
They have one of these (non-combo) Dyson airblades in a breastfeeding area in
a mall I live near.

It's horrendous - my wife couldn't feed whenever anyone used the blade. So now
whenever we go, we put a "do not use - baby is feeding" note on the hand-
dryer.

It's not a drop-in replacement for towels or normal air-dryers by any means.

~~~
femto
Not to mention the number of three year olds that refuse to enter a room with
a jet engine affixed to the walls.

Maybe there's a market there? Just as The Wiggles showed that there is money
in adapting adult music for kids, maybe there is money to be made by taking
children into account in the design of public facilities? Venues that are
frequented by families (shopping centres, child care centres, schools, ...)
might be prepared to pay for a line of appliances that don't make life
unpleasant for their customers?

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adamman
It looks like the air blowing in the sink like that could cause germs to fly
all over the place.

~~~
Swannie
You're worried about the germs? I'm worried if there is water in the sink and
the fan kicks in at 400mph, what happens to that displaced water?

The AirBlade when it's not properly calibrated makes a big enough mess as it
is...

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stcredzero
The old AirBlade had some huge design flaws. I've been in busy restrooms with
AirBlade dryers which were wet and gross. Not pigsty level, but that's not
really what you'd want to be touching after you've just washed your hands.
Well, a problem with AirBlades is that it's very easy to accidentally touch
the dryer cavity when you're plunging your hands in and drawing them out.
Sometimes the strong blast of air even encourages this to happen. I have
encountered more conventional air dryers which have touch less activation, and
hyper fast airflow that are just about as quick as the Dyson, and which give
better results, because you can rub your hands beneath the blower and adjust
which parts get the most airflow according to dampness. AirBlades allow
nothing of the sort. I think the design is gimmicky and is more about
differentiating Dyson's product than real utility. Unfortunately, other hand
dryer companies don't have Dyson's marketing budget.

~~~
ceeK
Rubbing your hands together has actually been linked to increasing bacteria
counts[1].

I personally quite like the Dyson driers and the new tap seems interesting.

[1] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-
news/7991492/Rubb...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-
news/7991492/Rubbing-hands-together-after-washing-them-increases-the-danger-
of-contamination-scientists-warn.html)

~~~
stcredzero
That one study was paid for by Dyson. Also, the result only really supports
airblades being better in medical and food preparation contexts. In the
context of most public restrooms, transferring commensal bacteria doesn't seem
that big a deal. As stated in the article, we all have them and can never get
rid of them with ordinary hand washing. I think it suffices in that context
for one to wash and dry hands quickly and comfortably. If someone found an
epidemiological difference between hand dryer types, I'd pay attention.
Otherwise, going by bacteria counts, one should rather lick a toilet seat than
eat a tortilla chip with salsa.

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Simucal
This model doesn't allow you to control the temperature of the faucet which
might be important in a home setting. It seems like a great idea for public
restrooms however.

Here is a video of James Dyson describing the faucet:
<http://youtu.be/3y4-fnTXzio>

~~~
username3
Interesting comment from YouTube.

 _dysonteam 5 hours ago Hi there, it's Jack at Dyson. In total, our engineers
created over 3300 prototypes of the new Dyson Airblade hand dryers, and every
component was subjected to hundreds of tests. Our unforgiving test team was
tasked with finding fault and weakness and paying attention to detail – they
simulated hand washing 213 million times. They even doused the machines in
chemical﻿ mixes and tipped beer over the Airblade hand dryer range to make
sure they are not damaged by harmful substances._

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k4st
Two slightly on/off-topic rants about public washrooms:

First, the one thing I don't like with the normal AirBlade is the tendency for
the water to drip off your hands, onto it, and then to pool below it on the
floor. Not much water, mind you, but enough to make both the floor and the
plastic onto which the water first drips a bit nasty (in some places). This
might just be a cleaning issue in said places, though.

Second, the one mistake I hate seeing washrooms make is to have a tiny faucet
where, in order to get your hands properly wet, your hands are almost forced
to run into / touch the back of the sink.

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slamdunc
Interesting timing on Dyson's announcement this week - yesterday NPR ran the
first of a 2-part piece on the Excel Dryer Co [1], a US-based Dyson rival.

Though it's not mentioned in the transcript, late in the nine-minute piece,
the Excel VP takes the reporter into Excel's R&D where he's shown one of their
latest inventions, a faucet that dispenses soap, water, and then drying air...

[1] [http://www.npr.org/2013/02/04/171090394/how-one-company-
rein...](http://www.npr.org/2013/02/04/171090394/how-one-company-reinvented-
the-hand-dryer)

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mmagin
Am I the only one who hates the AirBlade dryers because they splash me in the
face (presumably partially with the water that's been pooling in crevice along
the bottom if it's being heavily used)?

~~~
ricardobeat
How is that even possible? Are you putting your head through the loop?

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hkuo
But what are we gonna use then to open the germy bathroom doors, for the
95-ish% of us who use the paper towel we dry out hands with to also open the
door and then drop in a bin next to it?

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Shivetya
I will stick with separate sinks combined with automatic paper towel
dispensers. Why? Its more hygienic. After my work converted what did we
notice?

Two trashcans, one by each door of the bathroom and now people dry their hands
and grab handles with the paper towel ditching it in the can at the end.

With all the concern over the flu and other contagious diseases, let alone
witnessing some of my coworkers habits, I am all for a simple solution.

Besides paper towels always work.

~~~
scott_s
Are you assuming that paper towels are more hygienic, or are you aware of
studies? Personally, I doubt that the door handle out of the bathroom is any
dirtier than other doorhandles in the building.

~~~
function_seven
I always assume the interior door handle of the bathroom is the cleanest one
in the building. Many people touch it after washing their hands.

~~~
sliverstorm
The pessimist in me says, many people also touch it without washing their
hands.

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jtbigwoo
Just heard a report on the radio about these kinds of dryers. Excel Dryer,
Inc. in Massachusetts was actually the first to sell a high-speed dryer like
this (the Xlerator). The Dyson AirBlade came later. Interesting stuff:

[http://www.npr.org/2013/02/04/171090394/how-one-company-
rein...](http://www.npr.org/2013/02/04/171090394/how-one-company-reinvented-
the-hand-dryer)

~~~
Kadin
The Xlerator works far better than the Dyson, too, it just doesn't look as
strange and doesn't seem to have attracted as much press attention.

Every time I've attempted to use a Dyson dryer, it's turned off as I've been
drying my fingers, leaving them still wet. It seems like it'd be trivial to
put a few seconds worth of delay into the automatic cutoff (or position the
sensor higher), but no, they all seem to be configured this way. I've watched
probably dozens of people run into the same problem while using them, so I
don't think it's just me.

Hopefully the Excel dryers will remain after the Dyson dryers get pulled out;
I can't imagine they'll age gracefully or attractively with the water dripping
down into/onto them, in low-maintenance situations.

~~~
ricardobeat
Isn't the Xlerator just a more powerful (and louder) blower? The Dyson is a
different concept, uses way less energy and dries much more efficiently than
standard driers, sometimes in one 5-second pass (I haven't seen an xlerator).

~~~
stcredzero
Xlerator can get my hands dry in an acceptably short time. One pass with an
AirBlade leaves me with damp hands more often than not. By the time I have my
hands feeling comparably dry with an AirBlade, there's often no time savings
left at all. (There is, but only over the low-velocity blowers, which I think
are generally horrible.)

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NathanKP
This is one of those practical inventions that I could see being in everyone's
home (and bathroom) in twenty years, with future generations asking: "Did
people really use unhygienic towels to dry their hands after washing,
grandpa?"

~~~
danellis
What I really want is something like that for the shower. No more getting out
wet when it's cold.

~~~
ceejayoz
Use one of the Dyson dryers first. Your hands get cold - they use hot air, but
evaporation makes it feel pretty cold until they're actually dry.

~~~
VLM
Skin temp drops to dew point and not a degree lower. Wind speed can mess with
total heat energy flux thru a surface via windchill, but thats more a long
term / higher delta t effect. Hence the Floridians who are looking confused at
your claim and the Arizonians who shiver along with you.

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mmcconnell1618
How does the faucet know when you're done washing and want to start drying?

~~~
hkmurakami
Separate sensors for faucet, left dryer and right dryer would be my guess.

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kalleboo
This kind of thing has been around for ages in Japan
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalleboo/4611597467/lightbox/>

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hammock
A 1400W fan? Maybe it was the Dyson AirBlades that caused the power to go out
at the Super Bowl! A typical box fan (dorm room style) is 100W and puts out
2,000 cubic feet per minute, whereas the airblade puts out 56 cfm @ 14x the
power draw.

That is a lot of power, and it's interesting to see from the article "the
$40-$43 per year cost of a regular Dyson AirBlade dryer." Although I'm sure
their salesmen always compare it to the labor & materials cost of refilling
paper towel dispensers.

~~~
CountHackulus
But in this case it's not really the CFM that matters, it's also the static
pressure. Especially since they're trying to make a nice sheet flow at good
speed.

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aslewofmice
The description makes it seem prone to blow whatever remnants of water out of
the wash bowl and onto your shirt/pants. Here's to hoping they figured that
part out!

~~~
clicks
Someone on Youtube asked that, here was the reply:

 _Hi there,﻿ it’s Jack at Dyson. The Dyson Airblade Tap hand dryer is designed
for commercial environments – these commercial washrooms do not have plugs due
to health and safety issues, and the risks related to flooding. So we wouldn't
expect this to be an issue._

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momchenr
But when will they release a Dyson wet/dry Bidet?

~~~
hkmurakami
I think the Japanese toilet seat makers like ToTo have a huge head start in
that area.

~~~
gcheong
Kind of like when Mitsubishi first came out with the jet towel years ahead of
Dyson's "airblade"?

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ryen
Seems like a great idea, until you put one in a high traffic area. Pretty much
doubles the time each person spends at the sink.

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pasbesoin
I finally ran across one of their (or is it someone else's) high speed hand
dryers. It was about as miserable an experience as I'd expected. Also, I felt
that I should be wearing hearing projection -- LOUD!

At a glance, I expect people to end up wearing at least a few drops of waste
water.

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specialp
I think the whole idea of having air blasting into a sink is asking for
sanitation problems. Sinks are very dirty and if you are blasting air into
them it would then create aerosols of the grime and spit in the sinks!

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biot
Hopefully this device operates at under 100 decibels.

