Featuring new video today....
British inventor, James Dyson, has done it again. Embracing his trademark "there ought to be a better way" approach that spurred his most well-known high-end vacuum cleaners and blade-less fans, he has now revolutionized, or at the very least streamlined, the way we wash and dry our hands. We were lucky to get a recent sneak peek here in NYC of his latest creation, the Airblade Tap.
The sleek and minimalist Airblade Tap is essentially an all-in-one touch-free water faucet and hand dryer. Activated by infrared sensors, the water turns on when you place your hands underneath (no innovation here), but then as you raise your hands up and outwards a blast of cold air blowing at 430mph literally pushes, or as Dyson explained, "scrapes", the water off your hands. In about 14 seconds our hands were perfectly dry. And the internal HEPA filter claims to remove 99.9 percent of bacteria, further appealing to our innermost germaphobe.
Also featured were other singular hand dryers, the updated Airblade MK II, a wall mounted dryer where you immerse your hands into holes at the top of the dryer and the new Airblade V, both using powerful air pressure (rather than heat) to expel the water from your hands.
James Dyson proudly explained how all three hand dryers use much less energy and therefore have a smaller carbon footprint than weaker hand dryers and paper towels. But with the Airblade Tap priced at approximately $1500, unless we're in Jennifer Aniston's house (yes, a Dyson rep confirmed she has one in her bathroom), it seems we'll be visiting a cutting edge restroom to re-visit our Airblade Tap experience. Maybe by then Dyson will add a sensored soap dispenser--now that would be a trifecta in the art of public restroom hand washing!
For more info, check out: Dyson
(Images: Neila Deen)
Weekend DIYs: 10 Wood Molding Projects for the Home
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Ercol Bar Stool
True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
IKEA will have them soon enough.
For use, not for sale...
Does Ikea have airblades in their bathroom? I didn't think they did.
Whenever I used an airblade, I was afraid I would accidentally bump my hand into the machine, which I assumed had a lot of germs blown onto it -- there's my inner-germaphobe for you...
I don't understand: I raise my hands up and outward to put soap on and scrub for a good 20 seconds. (Germphobic big time.) Would the faucet assume I am done and then dry my hands before I have started? Where does the washing with soap come in to all of this?
The Ikea in Plano, TX does have the Airblade. The MK, I think.
Using it to dry my hands is typically the highlight of the trip. It's all downhill after that.
does the air blow toward you, since you are already pulling your hands out? i know it's james dyson and surely he'd have thought of that, but i just can't figure it any other way from the description.
also: the commercial ones, mkii or whatever, are so loud! both my kids are terrified of them and i have tinnitus with a sensitivity to loud high pitched noises. when all hands are finally dry, i need a dose of tylenol for my headache. every single time. they are in all the hip or nice restaurants around here. it's awful.
I imagine that the sensor detects when hands are held in front of them, not when hands pass them to do something else, like take soap from a dispenser.
How many people will stand still for a full 14 seconds to dry their hands (as opposed to using their jeans). And in that close up pic - the welds look pretty rough.
^ sorry to sound so crabby. I think I just hate that guy for bombarding us with his commercials for so many years. Plus, my super expensive Dyson vacuum cleaner fell apart after only a few years and, in fact, lost suction.
When the water is "scraped" from your hands, does it go flying across the room, or onto your person, or what?
I was at a restaurant in Carmel, CA a few weeks back and they had the hand dryers in the bathroom. I hate air dryers, but I have to say that I was quite impressed by this one.
I can see the integrated design being used in washrooms where there is just one person (i.e. no stalls) but I can't see this being really useful in a normal public washroom. There is efficiency in having the air dryer separate from the sink. If there are more than one person but only one sink, you would have to wait for the person in front of you to wash and dry their hands, where as with the separate units you can wash while they are drying.
The airblade is kinda cool, but I don't find them that much faster than a normal dryer. Also, I'm okay with my hands being a bit damp. They don't need to be completely dry for me to be happy...
It would keep the floor drier.
I like the Xlerator hand dryer better then Dyson's. Using Dyson's model that is out now, I always feel like I have to make sure not to touch the sides. With the Xlerator, I feel like I am getting a germ free experience. Plus, I can lose ideas in the Xlerator stream of air!
that looks so totally impractical.
and the hand dryers you lower your hands into, so freaking loud.
I used an Airblade Tap in the last couple of months (airport or restaurant, can't remember which), and it was better than the air dryers that have been around for the last 30 years, but you still can't beat the quickness and convenience of a towel at home, or paper towels out in public. People will not wait several minutes for one of the few air dryers to become available--grabbing a paper towel or two is much quicker, and enables a much faster flow of traffic.
I never manage to use that Dyson hand dryer without touching the sides. It's completely impractical! And there's no allowance for people of different heights or with (God forbid) really fat wrists, which at the moment is much of America.
That hand washer looks incredibly uncomfortable to use.
Well, this isn't exactly news...I've seen these in several places over the last couple of years. They do work rather quickly to dry your hands, but as gttim mentioned above, there is always the possibility of touching the sides of the dryer when putting them in, plus it is incredibly loud! I also prefer the Xlerator hand dryers too!