never loses suction

The gents toilet is not somewhere that has been overwhelmed by technological advances in recent years – the urinal, sink, cubicle combo is difficult to improve on – they can be well designed, but never really advanced…its just plumbing after all.

Now, super techno wizard James Dyson storms into the bathroom (er…) with some innovation in the ablutions area. They have installed these wicked devices in the gents (and I assume the ladies) at the fantastic Malmaison in Liverpool (my chosen hotel when visiting the banks of the Mersey).

You just pop your hands in the slot at the top – and then slowly withdraw. ‘Blades’ of air (hence the ‘Airblade’ name) sort of ‘scrape’ the water from your hands, leaving them virtually dry (most hand dryers are useless for this, unless you stand for about 4 minutes and are willing to get a chillblain).

The Airblades make a fearsome noise, like a couple of jet engines torching your hands – but boy, you leave the lav feeling clean (until you touch the door handle to leave).

With technology like this, maybe more blokes will wash their hands properly!