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Road Trip 2010: The Xlerator

I went on a road trip with a friend through many of the Midwest states recently.  Neither of us had been to Mt. Rushmore (South Dakota) before, so we figured we'd check it out.  And since we were in the neighborhood, we'd stop by as many nearby states & attractions a we could.  We finally settled on flying in to Minnesota, flying out of Montana, and figuring out the rest as it came up.

It was a good trip, and I had fun.  During this trip, though, I came to respect the name "Xlerator."  For those of you too lazy to click on the link, it's a normal-looking automatic hand dryer.  Let me assure you, however, that these things are most definitely not normal.

I'm not even sure I remember where I first saw one of these devices (maybe my brain is just trying to block out the memory).  Regardless, I had just finished washing my hands, and I moseyed over to the hand dryer.  It turned on, and when it did, I thought that it seemed to be blowing air fairly strongly.  It's not like it was uncomfortable, so I just kept drying my hands.  And then, I glanced down.

You know when people go skydiving and the rushing air messes with their skin?  It looks almost as if that person's skin is starting to get pushed/pulled away from its normal position, right?  Normally your skin only behaves that way if there's a vacuum of some sort or ridiculously fast streams of air involved (e.g., when you're skydiving).  You can add another item to that list: this hand dryer.  I was surprised at first, and then a little awed.  This thing wasn't just set to dry someone's hands, it was set to "blast away all water, quickly."

At that point, I glanced at the front of the dryer, and I caught the name.  I'm pretty sure my first thought was something like, "heh, they got that right."  That's also why I remember the name.  Anyhow, since I was finished drying my hands, I walked away and returned to my regularly scheduled road trip.

I probably would've forgotten about it, too, if it hadn't been for a repeat performance.  Two or three states later, I took another trip to the bathroom, and I came across another one of these things.  I didn't realize it at first, but as soon as it turned on, I noticed that it was set to "death to water."  And sure enough, it was the same model.  These Xlerator things didn't mess around, clearly.  Again, it didn't hurt, but it made me wonder if it was good to keep using these dryers.

Fortunately, I didn't come across many more of those things, so it wasn't really an issue.  Maybe it was just those few dryers, maybe it's just a different mentality in those establishments that I visited, or maybe those few were in need of tuning/repair.  All I know is that apparently I've been drying my hands the pansy way all this time.
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  1. MicheSeptember 20, 2010 at 4:13 PM

    It's got nothing on the Dyson Airblade, methinks. That is the coolest hand-dryer to-date.

    http://www.dysonairblade.com/homepage.asp

    ReplyDelete

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