Airblade at Skipper’s restaurant in Silverdale
What high-end appliance would you want in your kitchen assuming you had the space and the budget? How about a La Cornue range or a Sub-Zero refrigerator? My choice wouldn’t have anything to do with cooking or food storage. It would be a Dyson Airblade db hand dryer (see photo) so I can say goodbye to wasted paper towels and damp dish towels.
Almost every time I do something in the kitchen my hands get wet. Imagine an appliance that would dry them almost instantly. Think of the use it would get.
Let’s consider the good points first. The Airblade db dries your hands really fast. The Dyson web site says you can go from wet hands to dry in 12 seconds. When I tried one, it seemed even faster. There’s no switch to fumble with. Stick your hands in the opening and a touch-free infrared sensor turns on a 420 mph stream of air to dry them. Remove them and the air stream stops. Magic. The Airblade db is hygienic, and it’s fitted with a HEPA filter to keep the surrounding air clean. It’s also durable and comes with a 5-year limited warranty for commercial use. Plus there’s a wow factor.
Now the bad points. The Dyson Airblade db is loud. Really loud. A lot louder than towels. But only for 12 seconds. It’s also pricey—about $1350 plus the cost of installation, which requires a separate electrical line with a 15-amp circuit breaker. It’s only certified for commercial use. The sales rep told me that Dyson honors the warranty when people buy them for home use. To me that’s taking a chance.
But the biggest problem is space. The Airblade db measures 28 (h) x 14 (w) x 12 (d) inches and is mounted so the opening is about 31 inches off the floor. Allowing for clearance above the opening, you would need a dedicated column of wall space as tall as a kitchen counter and as wide as a drawer. There’s no way to fit one in my space-challenged kitchen without a complete remodeling. Not if the Airblade db is going to be close enough to the kitchen sink to be useful.
That’s why you mostly see them in high-use upscale commercial bathrooms where the cost saving on power (over other hand dryers) or paper towels helps justify the purchase.
Setting the kitchen fantasy aside, I checked the rest of the house for possible installation spots. There is room in the upstairs bathroom for an Airblade db and also next to the master bathroom sink, although the towel rack there would have to go. But that’s the point, right?
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