for years i’ve wanted a full body Dyson Air Blade. my dream is to turn off the shower and to dry off as if i was skydiving naked. i won’t buy this, but i am serious. i don’t like towel drying.
for years i’ve wanted a full body Dyson Air Blade. my dream is to turn off the shower and to dry off as if i was skydiving naked.
i won’t buy this, but i am serious. i don’t like towel drying.
I ran into this while researching bathroom designs (in particular, the Airmada shower dryer, which is also weird but less so). This appears to be like a hand dryer, but moreso. Surely someone must...
I ran into this while researching bathroom designs (in particular, the Airmada shower dryer, which is also weird but less so). This appears to be like a hand dryer, but moreso.
Surely someone must have wanted this, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. I think I recall some comments from people with pretty severe eczema; I guess it’s useful for that? Maybe it cuts down on a tiny amount of microplastic emission, for folks that don’t use natural fabrics in their towels? Perhaps if you have sensory issues (and are fine with hearing an industrial fan motor run for ten minutes), this could be more tolerable than a towel.
I just found myself very amused that this exists, for whatever reason, and hopefully someone else will be as well.
I think this would be fantastic for older folks and others with limited mobility. Showering became a real burden for my mom and toweling off was a big part of that, but she hated having help.
I think this would be fantastic for older folks and others with limited mobility. Showering became a real burden for my mom and toweling off was a big part of that, but she hated having help.
They are definitely targeting that market. I used to be (a very long time ago) tangentially involved in marketing and selling this product and there were strict instructions to partitions...
They are definitely targeting that market. I used to be (a very long time ago) tangentially involved in marketing and selling this product and there were strict instructions to partitions potential customers into different groups and NEVER mention to the e.g. corporate customers (wellness centres, hotels etc.) that this product could be a boon for those with limited mobility or for people who'd use the product because they had skin problems. The messaging was always focusing on "this is a superior option to a towel". It's fascinating, they had statistics for how much water you could save (from not having to wash towels), how much space you could save, how much theft (hotels + gyms) you could avoid.
Honestly, if it wasn't for the price, I could see this as a great option at home, purely for the reduced clutter. I know I have enough trouble storing bulky towels under the bed and in every nook and cranny of my small bathroom. Having said that, I suppose this doesn't obviate the need for a hair towel, if you have lots of hair that needs to be wrapped up and left to soak in conditioner or something else.
I am also very amused by this, thanks for sharing. I kinda love it? Like, I’m a big fan of my towel warmer so I can imagine I’d be a big fan of this. I’d guess it’s maybe similar to the dryers at...
I am also very amused by this, thanks for sharing.
I kinda love it? Like, I’m a big fan of my towel warmer so I can imagine I’d be a big fan of this. I’d guess it’s maybe similar to the dryers at waterparks or amusement parks with water rides?
I can’t even decide if I think the ~$2000 price tag is absurd or not. Like, it’s expensive, but that’s about what I expected it to cost I think?
I’m a little shocked by their “environmentally friendly” claims, I can’t imagine running this is really more efficient than a towel, but at the same time, I do get that drying towels in an laundry machine dryer is quite energy intensive.
I guess that I would need to know how warm it gets and the airflow rate to run the numbers, but moving air is pretty easy (at least in the amounts of air that people can deal with being aimed at...
I'm a little shocked by their “environmentally friendly” claims, I can’t imagine running this is really more efficient than a towel, but at the same time, I do get that drying towels in an laundry machine dryer is quite energy intensive.
I guess that I would need to know how warm it gets and the airflow rate to run the numbers, but moving air is pretty easy (at least in the amounts of air that people can deal with being aimed at their face) so I can see a world in which the numbers work out.
In the public toilet industry (I don't know what to call it, but I'm trying to cover all the services and products in publicly accessible toilets), there is a massive debate as to the benefits of...
In the public toilet industry (I don't know what to call it, but I'm trying to cover all the services and products in publicly accessible toilets), there is a massive debate as to the benefits of paper towels/"real" towels/hand dryers, whether you're looking at hygiene (hand dryers spread germs around, not great for hospital toilets where people are perhaps couging germs into the air) or environmental friendliness ("real" towels are best, but they become havens for bacteria unless replaced regularly, which isn't great for the aformentioned environmental aspect) or price (paper towels, but customers hate bad paper towels that don't really work, so you probably shouldn't buy the cheapest ones, so they end up not being dead cheap).
When I read about this, I remember thinking that it was a real demonstration that there are areas/products that the normal person will interact with very, very regularly, but have no idea that there is such intense debate and work behind the scenes to make the environment that they are in and using.
The spec sheet rates it's power draw at 133-2800W, for 3-6 minutes. Don't forget it's heated as well. I'm not sure 133W is enough to move all that much air, considering a small desk fan clocks in...
The spec sheet rates it's power draw at 133-2800W, for 3-6 minutes. Don't forget it's heated as well. I'm not sure 133W is enough to move all that much air, considering a small desk fan clocks in at about 30W. Maybe that's OK on a really hot day if you're not very wet.
My towel draws zero power for however long I want to use it for. Drying also takes zero power. I do have to wash it on occasion but I would bet money that as part of a full load of washing, that pulls less power than running this monstrosity a single time.
If you wash your towel after every use and power dry it, it might be less energy intensive to stand in a slow, cold air flow device but who does that?
To add some anecdata to the mix: a large residential front loading washer takes about 300Wh for a load of ~4 cubic feet (0.1 cubic meters) and a high efficiency dryer will take about 2kWh to dry...
To add some anecdata to the mix: a large residential front loading washer takes about 300Wh for a load of ~4 cubic feet (0.1 cubic meters) and a high efficiency dryer will take about 2kWh to dry the load fully. With dry bath towels (a size down from beach) I can fit maybe 3 in a cubic foot. So 12 towels takes about 2.3kWh to launder and dry, if you use some warmed water that would go up another 1 (13 gal of water takes about 1kWh of energy to raise 15°C).
Change your towel twice a week and that means 104 towels a year and (3.3kWh/12 towels) is about 28kWh/person/year.
If we assume the dryer is using an average of 1500W for all 6 minutes then it's (1500Wh * 6min/60min/hr) 150Wh per use and a daily shower means 54.75kWh a year per person. Which is pretty light for energy use, a 0.5W lit clock is (0.5 * 24 * 365) 4.4kWh a year.
Yeah, these are within the range that I was kind of gut feeling. I didn't expect it to be better than a towel but only twice as much isn't that bad. That is like... The difference between 5...
Yeah, these are within the range that I was kind of gut feeling. I didn't expect it to be better than a towel but only twice as much isn't that bad. That is like... The difference between 5 dollars a year for a towel and 10 dollars a year for the air. Even if you are only estimating half the actual cost, that is not an alarming amount of electricity.
Twice a week is personally a lot to change a towel. I change mine maybe once every other week. It fully dries before the next time I use it, and I'm exclusively using it on my clean body, so I...
Twice a week is personally a lot to change a towel. I change mine maybe once every other week. It fully dries before the next time I use it, and I'm exclusively using it on my clean body, so I don't really see a need to change it too frequently.
Also, we're not factoring in the cost of manufacturing the thing. Towels aren't that energy intensive to make. Motors, heating coils, steel, and injection molded plastic are.
My cotton towels will also fully biodegrade when I throw them away. This machine, when it breaks and goes into the garbage, will not.
Twice a week was pretty normal for me for several years when I lived in a more humid environment. They would smell like mildew by day 4. I am in no way arguing that this is an efficient process,...
Twice a week was pretty normal for me for several years when I lived in a more humid environment. They would smell like mildew by day 4.
I am in no way arguing that this is an efficient process, just that it is less egregious than a lot of "splurges" for those that want or need such a thing.
Depends on how hard your water is. I can only use mine once because they tend to dry... Rigid? Crunchy? Washcloths are worse (which is why I prefer the African net sponges) but towels are not...
Depends on how hard your water is. I can only use mine once because they tend to dry... Rigid? Crunchy? Washcloths are worse (which is why I prefer the African net sponges) but towels are not comfortable on a reuse, except as a bath mat.
30KWh of daytime electricity Is about £15/$20 in the UK right now. Most of that cost is running the drier, not the washing machine. It's not just for environmental reasons I refuse to have a...
30KWh of daytime electricity Is about £15/$20 in the UK right now. Most of that cost is running the drier, not the washing machine. It's not just for environmental reasons I refuse to have a tumble drier!
I knew driers were bad but I didn't know they were that bad. I have lived my entire adult life without a drier and I haven't had a problem drying my clothes. A washing line or clothes airer takes...
I knew driers were bad but I didn't know they were that bad. I have lived my entire adult life without a drier and I haven't had a problem drying my clothes. A washing line or clothes airer takes no power.
I wash my towel maybe once a fortnight. Depends a bit on the time of year, I often just hang it outside for a bit instead of washing it. Bit of UV and some moving air works wonders (the "don't wash your denim" crowd do this too)
And that's a heat pump dryer; electric using resistance are about double in energy use (roughly 4x power for half the time) and gas-fired is similarly wasteful with added carbon output. It's...
And that's a heat pump dryer; electric using resistance are about double in energy use (roughly 4x power for half the time) and gas-fired is similarly wasteful with added carbon output.
It's really down to your climate and interior climate control as to what's available to you. I wouldn't consider hanging anything outside, it would come in covered in dust, pollen, and maybe smelling of smoke if the neighbors use their grill. Inside and I'd have to run more air conditioning to not end up with a mildew or mold problem. Sometimes that's worth it for some clothes but not a frequent thing.
I grew up with summer sheets always having a little grass flavor as we had some pollen from line drying but it was hot and dry enough that it was a pretty quick thing and no one wanted to pull cool air out of the house with the dryer.
I feel like I'd still have to contort in weird positions to get fully dry, or use a towel anyway. Hand dryers rely a lot on the friction of rubbing your hands together. This did remind me of the...
I feel like I'd still have to contort in weird positions to get fully dry, or use a towel anyway. Hand dryers rely a lot on the friction of rubbing your hands together.
This did remind me of the swimsuit/towel dryers I used when I swam competitively though and then I realized as hard as my water is (my insulated tumblers show signs of build up if I leave them sit long enough) that wouldn't be helpful either. My towels and wash clothes dry pretty rigid.
But maybe it'd feel nice?
Edited because I can't spell while using darkmode outside in sunglasses.
I can't decide if I'd like this enough to buy one and install it in my house, but I 100% want to try one. Especially when it's hot outside, nothing beats taking a shower and then standing in front...
I can't decide if I'd like this enough to buy one and install it in my house, but I 100% want to try one. Especially when it's hot outside, nothing beats taking a shower and then standing in front of a fan on full blast.
for years i’ve wanted a full body Dyson Air Blade. my dream is to turn off the shower and to dry off as if i was skydiving naked.
i won’t buy this, but i am serious. i don’t like towel drying.
That is a truly beautiful dream
also acts as motivation to stay hydrated so my skin doesn't clap around in the eventual gale.
I thought water parks had these when I was a kid.
I ran into this while researching bathroom designs (in particular, the Airmada shower dryer, which is also weird but less so). This appears to be like a hand dryer, but moreso.
Surely someone must have wanted this, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. I think I recall some comments from people with pretty severe eczema; I guess it’s useful for that? Maybe it cuts down on a tiny amount of microplastic emission, for folks that don’t use natural fabrics in their towels? Perhaps if you have sensory issues (and are fine with hearing an industrial fan motor run for ten minutes), this could be more tolerable than a towel.
I just found myself very amused that this exists, for whatever reason, and hopefully someone else will be as well.
I think this would be fantastic for older folks and others with limited mobility. Showering became a real burden for my mom and toweling off was a big part of that, but she hated having help.
Ooh, that’s actually a really good one. Typically accessible showers also have grab bars, too, and this would slot in nicely between them.
They are definitely targeting that market. I used to be (a very long time ago) tangentially involved in marketing and selling this product and there were strict instructions to partitions potential customers into different groups and NEVER mention to the e.g. corporate customers (wellness centres, hotels etc.) that this product could be a boon for those with limited mobility or for people who'd use the product because they had skin problems. The messaging was always focusing on "this is a superior option to a towel". It's fascinating, they had statistics for how much water you could save (from not having to wash towels), how much space you could save, how much theft (hotels + gyms) you could avoid.
Honestly, if it wasn't for the price, I could see this as a great option at home, purely for the reduced clutter. I know I have enough trouble storing bulky towels under the bed and in every nook and cranny of my small bathroom. Having said that, I suppose this doesn't obviate the need for a hair towel, if you have lots of hair that needs to be wrapped up and left to soak in conditioner or something else.
I'm not sure I want one, but I want to try one. The hot air seems like it'd be delightful in the winter.
I am also very amused by this, thanks for sharing.
I kinda love it? Like, I’m a big fan of my towel warmer so I can imagine I’d be a big fan of this. I’d guess it’s maybe similar to the dryers at waterparks or amusement parks with water rides?
I can’t even decide if I think the ~$2000 price tag is absurd or not. Like, it’s expensive, but that’s about what I expected it to cost I think?
I’m a little shocked by their “environmentally friendly” claims, I can’t imagine running this is really more efficient than a towel, but at the same time, I do get that drying towels in an laundry machine dryer is quite energy intensive.
I guess that I would need to know how warm it gets and the airflow rate to run the numbers, but moving air is pretty easy (at least in the amounts of air that people can deal with being aimed at their face) so I can see a world in which the numbers work out.
In the public toilet industry (I don't know what to call it, but I'm trying to cover all the services and products in publicly accessible toilets), there is a massive debate as to the benefits of paper towels/"real" towels/hand dryers, whether you're looking at hygiene (hand dryers spread germs around, not great for hospital toilets where people are perhaps couging germs into the air) or environmental friendliness ("real" towels are best, but they become havens for bacteria unless replaced regularly, which isn't great for the aformentioned environmental aspect) or price (paper towels, but customers hate bad paper towels that don't really work, so you probably shouldn't buy the cheapest ones, so they end up not being dead cheap).
When I read about this, I remember thinking that it was a real demonstration that there are areas/products that the normal person will interact with very, very regularly, but have no idea that there is such intense debate and work behind the scenes to make the environment that they are in and using.
The spec sheet rates it's power draw at 133-2800W, for 3-6 minutes. Don't forget it's heated as well. I'm not sure 133W is enough to move all that much air, considering a small desk fan clocks in at about 30W. Maybe that's OK on a really hot day if you're not very wet.
My towel draws zero power for however long I want to use it for. Drying also takes zero power. I do have to wash it on occasion but I would bet money that as part of a full load of washing, that pulls less power than running this monstrosity a single time.
If you wash your towel after every use and power dry it, it might be less energy intensive to stand in a slow, cold air flow device but who does that?
To add some anecdata to the mix: a large residential front loading washer takes about 300Wh for a load of ~4 cubic feet (0.1 cubic meters) and a high efficiency dryer will take about 2kWh to dry the load fully. With dry bath towels (a size down from beach) I can fit maybe 3 in a cubic foot. So 12 towels takes about 2.3kWh to launder and dry, if you use some warmed water that would go up another 1 (13 gal of water takes about 1kWh of energy to raise 15°C).
Change your towel twice a week and that means 104 towels a year and (3.3kWh/12 towels) is about 28kWh/person/year.
If we assume the dryer is using an average of 1500W for all 6 minutes then it's (1500Wh * 6min/60min/hr) 150Wh per use and a daily shower means 54.75kWh a year per person. Which is pretty light for energy use, a 0.5W lit clock is (0.5 * 24 * 365) 4.4kWh a year.
Lots of assumptions, this is napkin math!
Yeah, these are within the range that I was kind of gut feeling. I didn't expect it to be better than a towel but only twice as much isn't that bad. That is like... The difference between 5 dollars a year for a towel and 10 dollars a year for the air. Even if you are only estimating half the actual cost, that is not an alarming amount of electricity.
Twice a week is personally a lot to change a towel. I change mine maybe once every other week. It fully dries before the next time I use it, and I'm exclusively using it on my clean body, so I don't really see a need to change it too frequently.
Also, we're not factoring in the cost of manufacturing the thing. Towels aren't that energy intensive to make. Motors, heating coils, steel, and injection molded plastic are.
My cotton towels will also fully biodegrade when I throw them away. This machine, when it breaks and goes into the garbage, will not.
Twice a week was pretty normal for me for several years when I lived in a more humid environment. They would smell like mildew by day 4.
I am in no way arguing that this is an efficient process, just that it is less egregious than a lot of "splurges" for those that want or need such a thing.
Depends on how hard your water is. I can only use mine once because they tend to dry... Rigid? Crunchy? Washcloths are worse (which is why I prefer the African net sponges) but towels are not comfortable on a reuse, except as a bath mat.
30KWh of daytime electricity Is about £15/$20 in the UK right now. Most of that cost is running the drier, not the washing machine. It's not just for environmental reasons I refuse to have a tumble drier!
I knew driers were bad but I didn't know they were that bad. I have lived my entire adult life without a drier and I haven't had a problem drying my clothes. A washing line or clothes airer takes no power.
I wash my towel maybe once a fortnight. Depends a bit on the time of year, I often just hang it outside for a bit instead of washing it. Bit of UV and some moving air works wonders (the "don't wash your denim" crowd do this too)
And that's a heat pump dryer; electric using resistance are about double in energy use (roughly 4x power for half the time) and gas-fired is similarly wasteful with added carbon output.
It's really down to your climate and interior climate control as to what's available to you. I wouldn't consider hanging anything outside, it would come in covered in dust, pollen, and maybe smelling of smoke if the neighbors use their grill. Inside and I'd have to run more air conditioning to not end up with a mildew or mold problem. Sometimes that's worth it for some clothes but not a frequent thing.
I grew up with summer sheets always having a little grass flavor as we had some pollen from line drying but it was hot and dry enough that it was a pretty quick thing and no one wanted to pull cool air out of the house with the dryer.
I feel like I'd still have to contort in weird positions to get fully dry, or use a towel anyway. Hand dryers rely a lot on the friction of rubbing your hands together.
This did remind me of the swimsuit/towel dryers I used when I swam competitively though and then I realized as hard as my water is (my insulated tumblers show signs of build up if I leave them sit long enough) that wouldn't be helpful either. My towels and wash clothes dry pretty rigid.
But maybe it'd feel nice?
Edited because I can't spell while using darkmode outside in sunglasses.
I can't decide if I'd like this enough to buy one and install it in my house, but I 100% want to try one. Especially when it's hot outside, nothing beats taking a shower and then standing in front of a fan on full blast.