Dyson's New Hand Dryer Is a Blast

This just in: Dyson—the British manufacturer of iconic, industrial-strength home vacuums—has this morning announced a high-tech hand-dryer that uses an unheated airstream blowing at 400mph to dry water off of your hands. You just stick your hands in the chamber and the device does the rest. I've seen similar devices by Mitsubishi in public restrooms in Japan, which probably has the most sophisticated, high-tech bathroom accessories in the world.

Dyson's model not only saves trees and limits garbage, but works more efficiently than the time-consuming heated types in most restrooms today (the air blows over a wider swath, so you can do both hands at once). According to Dyson, this design and process is also more hygienic: Conventional hand dryers suck in grody bathroom air and blow the germs all over the room. Dyson's, on the other hand, keeps the airstream confined to a semi-enclosed space. Dyson also says these heaters cost about $1.74 per-thousand-uses versus the $23 per-thousand-uses of paper towels.

At the risk of sounding environmentally-unfriendly, I'll admit that I usually use paper towels because I can't be bothered to wait for the hand dryer to do its business. And I leave with wet hands, which are just great for spreading germs. But I've tried similar devices out in Japan and they are fast, taking about a third of the time of conventional hand dryers (which take, on average, 35 seconds). This particular model is due out in the U.K. and Ireland next month (November), but is making its way to public restrooms stateside some time next year. No word from Dyson on whether these will ever be available in the home (it would save water with fewer towel washings, most likely).