Lesley’s husband Crayton is filling in this week with a few posts.
Oh how I crave your American technology. Mexico isn’t a total backwater, but every time I return to the U.S., I get the feeling I’ve stepped at least a few years into the future. Look at all those high-definition channels you guys have! Your Internet speeds are so fast! And OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HAND DRYERS?
Back when I lived in the States, oh those many months ago, public restroom hand dryers were a thing to be mocked. Everyone knew they didn’t actually dry hands. They just made them less damp, enough so that you could wipe them on your pants to finish the job.
But apparently in the past year, serious advances have been made in hand dryer technology. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Dyson Airblade.
Image from dysonairblade.com
The Airblade site claims that the device “literally scrapes water from hands,” which sounds painful. But all you do is dip your hands in the well and draw them out slowly as the thing basically vacuums the water off of you. BOOM. Dry hands.
I encountered the Airblade in a restroom at True Food Kitchen in Phoenix. I must have looked like an unfrozen caveman encountering this strange device, peering at its instructions skeptically, dipping my hands in gingerly. But it worked as advertised, smoothly and quietly, in about 10 seconds.
On the other side of the spectrum, but equally impressive, is the Xlerator:
Image from exceldryer.com
Found this bad boy at an Edwards movie theater in San Diego. Where the Airblade is delicate and refined, the Xlerator is an industrial-strength blast of air that nukes the water off your hands. Regular hand dryers feel like a summer breeze compared to this blowhard. Most impressive.
Will these technological breakthroughs change the hand dryer vs. paper towel debate? Both manufacturers claim, at least, that their devices are more energy efficent than paper towels.
Anyway, way to go America! Way to finally get those hands dry! This gives me hope that the next time I’m back home, my mother country will have tackled some other seemingly insurmountable problem. I’m thinking college football playoff.
I delight in finding high velocity, electric eye or proximity triggered hand dryers in more modern Mexican businesses. There’s a roaring jet one in a Pátzcuaro supermarket restroom.
It’s a lot more confidence inspiring than going to your specialist doctor’s office restroom and finding a single cloth hand towel hanging from a loop.
But overall, I still prefer a paper towel dispenser. I’m an old fashioned guy.
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
Hi Crayton ~
Is it true that using the air dryers is better for your hands, making them less chapped/dry? Or is this just an urban legend?
I think there is a Dyson Airblade type device at Loncheria Olivia/Hotel Brick… at any rate it took me a long time to work out I was supposed to dip my hands IN to the machine to dry them. Ah technology, I just can’t keep up.
Wow, cool! We’ve been meaning to go there anyway, so now we have even more incentive. I also saw the Xlerator at the Cintermex convention center in Monterrey recently, so it appears the latest in hand dryer technology is finally making its way south.