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Comment by ohazi | Hacker News Reader

The Dyson airblade is the fucking worst. In addition to apparently being one of the louder ones, it's also one of the most unhygienic. It blows the germs off of your hands and onto your face. You should avoid them like the actual plague.

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Dyson equipment (I have an Animal vacuum cleaner too (it was a gift)) falls into the category of "surely this breaks some kind of regulation". The sound levels are way above my pain threshold. My only explanation is (seriously) that everyone invovled in designing, building, testing and marketing must have hearing problems.

And yet, they're seen as a medium-high-prestige item.

I think I’ve read somewhere that Sir Dyson was pro Brexit because of strict EU regulations. They moved their HQ to Singapore so it’s certainly not about the UK.

Their legal HQ has moved. The actual HQ is still in Malmesbury.

We have a set of kid sized ear-guards that my son prefer to wear when I vacuum with my Dyson vacuum cleaner. It's extremely loud and very srill (but it's also very effective).

I’ve always thought it was disgusting that I’m raising / lowering my hands into a narrow slot where I’m bound to touch the sides - sides where others (who might’ve washed their hands less well) have also been depositing a germ factory.

I’m sure mold grows in there because of the constant dampness. You can’t avoid touching the sides because the airflow is so strong and kind of forces it.

In the old days there was a multiple use towel than hung out of the dispensers and just circulated back in. Yuck.

https://collegeofcuriosity.com/2-18-restroom-evolution/

It was actually a roll of clean towel mechanically linked to a pickup roll of used towel, but it's much bulkier than paper towels so it faded away.

In many ways it's very similar to the change from cloth diapers to disposables.

Depends which model, the V which I've used in many gas stations is one of the best in my opinion, blows air through a narrow opening and you don't have to touch it.

Pic for reference: https://www.savemoneycutcarbon.com/wp-content/uploads/Dyson-...

Edit: if you find the older ones disgusting, make sure to let the place of business know by complaining to them, otherwise they're never going to change them unless they break.

When it comes to the standard air blade, I don't think your concerns about hygiene are valid. You have, after all, just washed your hands. Any "germs" have already been killed and washed away by soap and water. If anything is blowing on to your face (not the case in my experience), it's just water vapour from your own hands.

There is, however, another Dyson design where the hand dryer is integrated into the sink/tap. This one actually blows particles/droplets from the sink up towards your face, which does give me some hygiene concerns:

https://www.dyson.co.uk/hand-dryers/dyson-airblade-wash-dry-...

You can find these in some of the washrooms at Heathrow airport.

Soap and water does not fully kill the hand bacteria (which is good, kind of). And there are definitely possible problems with bacteria from those air dryers, see https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-bacterial-horror-of-... - though there seems to be no real consensus here.

Modern hand dryer models, including Dyson air blades, do often have HEPA filters on their air intakes.

If you ever see an air blade in a less often cleaned public toilets there's usually pool of gunk at the bottom of the unit.

The musty smell that ensues when it's on makes me believe that the dirty dampness is being accelerated into a cloud of bacteria.

That is assuming that people actually wash their hands effectively, and also that the dryers themselves are not breeding areas for microbes.

I hate that thing. It's so loud. I refuse to dry my hands with it.

i am a bit confused by the problem here. if you decide to wash your hands and your face don't you get the same germs still on your hands onto your face?

if that is a problem then isn't the solution to wash hands more thouroughly?

on a side note, what concerns me much more is how many places i have to touch in a bathroom before even getting to the sink and start washing...

> what concerns me much more is how many places i have to touch in a bathroom before even getting to the sink and start washing..

Or worse, how many places you have to touch after you've washed, and when you've seen people leave who don't wash their hands.

in my experience it's easy to avoid having to touch anything at that point. most bathrooms in modern buildings i have seen are without doors.

ironically, not drying my hands after washing seems to help as i will make an effort not to touch anything until the hands are dry.

I have always wondered where the excess water/moisture goes to anyway. Most of them look absolutely disgusting.

There is no need for cursing on HN. Yes, the older models of Dyson Airblade were noisy, but they have addressed this in the latest model Dyson Airblade V HU02 which is significantly quieter.

Also, why are germs on your hands after washing them? Surely you used soap which killed 99.9% of germs and given that the Dyson Airblade V blows air downward, you would need to contort yourself to put your face below your hands ...

Dyson hand dryers blow air literally everywhere. And it’s not necessarily my germs it’s blowing, it’s the accumulated germs of everyone who’s used the dryer before me and touched the sides/dripped water into the unit.

Strong language is fine on HN as it is in adult dialogue generally. It is often very effective at conveying emotion and emphasis, which was the case here.

The HN guidelines prohibit personal attacks and political or ideological battle (which includes attacks or inflammatory commentaries on gender, nationality, race, etc).

But using a curse word to convey strong displeasure towards a product from a giant corporation seems fine to me.

You seem a little too upset because someone used a bad word.

No, we try to maintain better standards of dialogue here, and there is rarely a need to curse unless it's a quote from someone/something else.

I checked the guidelines and there is nothing against swearing or "standards of dialogue". FWIW swearing is within my standards of dialogue.

This seems to be a funny problem among some people, which also censor and beep each swear word in videos on YouTube or anywhere else. Seems to be some anticipatory obedience that is deeply embedded in some cultures/people.

I understand that different people and cultures have very different reactions to it, but profanity per se doesn't violate the HN guidelines.

The only reason to use a "bad word" is to make people upset. "Swearing is a weak mind trying to express itself forcefully."

newsflash: all hand blowers are nasty as fuck. Might as well just not wash your hands.

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