New generation of hand dryers makes hotel debut
By MICHAEL STETZ Copley News Service

Don't you just hate walking out of the bathroom with your hands still damp because a lame hand dryer failed to do the job?

You stand there, arms up and hands dripping like a doctor getting ready for surgery, waiting, waiting, waiting ...

And you still end up using your shirt or pants to finish the job.

That's not the case at Tower 23, though.

The bathrooms in the lobby of the swanky San Diego hotel boast new-age, high-powered hand dryers. They're lean and shiny and look like they belong in the starship Enterprise bathroom.

In 10 seconds or less - thanks to air whizzing at a whopping 400 mph - the Dyson Airblade, made by the British company that invented the Dyson vacuum cleaner, blows every bit of moisture from your hands, including the tough-toget crevices between your fingers.

The machines have been offered for sale in the United States since late June. According to Dyson, the New York Yankees have bought them. So has Nike. At $1,400 a pop. The quirky looking contraption has an open seam that runs across the middle. You dip your hands inside, and then look out: The motor roars and that powerful stream of air - unheated, mind you - envelops your hands.

The technology is called "air knives," and Mitsubishi uses a similar system for the new-age hand dryer it's selling. It's the force of the air that does the trick. Traditional hand dryers use warm air to evaporate the moisture on your hands. That takes longer.

Eric Rimmele, managing director of Tower 23, read a magazine article about the new dryers and decided he had to have one.

He was also lured by the machine's environmental benefits. It uses less energy than traditional hand dryers.

And it saves paper, even though Tower 23 still offers paper for those who don't want to stick their hands into the Dyson Airblade.

Dyson believes the days of traditional hand dryers are numbered. Not only are they slower at drying hands, they also suck in dirty bathroom air to do the job.

The Dyson Airblade also uses existing bathroom air, but a filter rids the air of the bacteria before blasting it back.

"Once people use something that works properly, they won't accept old or inferior products," said John Churchill, a Dyson design manager.