Dyson Airblade Tap: Revolutionizing Hand Drying, Again

The Dyson Airblade Tap further improves upon the company’s innovative hand dryers

Dyson is best known as the maker of powerful bagless vacuum cleaners and the “Air Multiplier” bladeless fans. But many consumers don’t realize that Dyson also makes an innovative restroom hand-dryer, known as the Airblade.  The Dyson Airblade subverts the thinking behind traditional air hand dryers, which use heated but slow-moving air to dry your hands. Instead, the Airblade shoots air out of a pair of opposing slots at nearly 400 miles per hour. These curtains of powerful air envelope your hands, squeegeeing the water off in just 12 seconds. The process is more sanitary and energy-efficient than normal hand dryers, and more environmentally-friendly than using paper towels.

We thought it was a pretty awesome concept, enough to not only carry the Dyson Airblade, but also install it in all of our store bathrooms. Well, Dyson has spent the last few years making the Airblade even better. They did this by integrating the drying technology right into an automatic faucet to create the Dyson Airblade Tap.

The Dyson Airblade Tap started with the construction of an all new, compact yet high-powered digital motor. Less than 3.5 inches in diameter, it sits under the sink in an enclosure that houses necessary connections and a HEPA air filter. Air is drawn in through the bottom of the enclosure and piped up to the faucet at super high pressures, thanks to the motor’s 92,000 RPM top speed. The air jets out of arms on either side of the faucet, creating the same effect as the original Airblade, cleanly drying your hands in seconds.

With the Airblade Tap, you get the same energy and waste-saving benefits as the original model, with the added perk of no longer having water splashed around in the area between the sink and hand dryers. That may not seem like a huge deal, but in a busy bathroom, those drips and dribbles can add up to create not just an unsightly mess, but also a real safety hazard. Dyson announced the Airblade Tap just today, so we don’t yet have one, but we’re all quite eager to get our hands on, or should I say “under”, one soon.