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Comment by LegitShady | Hacker News Reader

I prefer the Excel XLERATOR hand dryers, and usually spec them over most other models. Hands dry in ~10 seconds, not spashing onto a lower surface, etc.

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I thought those were considered to be a bad idea because they blasted all of the germs from your hands all over the room?

Also, my kids won't use them because they're too loud.

what do you think has more germs, your recently washed hands or the bathroom around you?

Also, the dyson's do the same thing.

The Dyson ones were also considered bad.

Yeh, those are good. Though they seem to have appeared shortly after the Dyson blade dryers. Dyson seem to have shaken the market a bit into realising you actually need power in these things for them to be useful.

No, the XLERATORS predate the dyson airblade by ~4-5 years. The dyson just made people realize that they were more expensive than the garbage units people used before, but not that expensive.

I checked and I spec'd an XLERATOR in 2004, and I think they became available the year before. The dyson took another 2-3 years to reach market, so 4-5 years is probably overstating it.

Either way Excel were the innovators. Dyson just made it look cool. The apple-style marketers who charged 2x as much so could afford some stupid overengineering.

I hate them because they are too loud. Sure they work fast, but I need to put air plugs in before using them, and those are never provided.

*Ear plugs, hopefully. :)

The noise is a feature. It is a social signal that you are clean for everyone in the establishment, or at least for everyone who can see the entrance to the restroom.

its 10 seconds, I prefer loud and fast to mediocre in both respects.

Ditto. They dry my hands much faster than the Dyson and I don't have to touch a germ infested surface.

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