Ease Hair Dryer, AC Motor

Details

Hair dryers die for one boring reason. The rear filter clogs with hair and lint, airflow drops, the element has nowhere to put its heat, the thermal cutout starts tripping and eventually the motor cooks. On most dryers that filter sits behind a fixed grille and can only be picked at with a toothbrush. Here it twists off by hand for rinsing under a tap, and that single change is most of the difference between a dryer that lasts two years and one that lasts eight. The motor is an AC universal motor rated for 1,000 hours of use, against the 300 to 500 typical of the small DC motors used at this price. It is heavier and it is louder, and its carbon brushes wear, which is the honest trade off; the brush set is a stocked part. Three things get misread in this category. The first is the wattage: on the 1800 W variant about 1,750 W is the heating element and roughly 50 W is the motor, so the big number on the box describes the heat and almost nothing about the airflow. The second is the noise figure, always quoted at one metre and never at the ear where the dryer actually is. The third is the two pin plug. On a hair dryer a two pin plug is correct, because this is a Class II double insulated appliance with no exposed metal to earth. On an iron or a kettle the same two pin plug is a fault. That distinction is worth knowing and the market blurs it.

• Rear filter twists off by hand, no tools, rinse it under a tap once a month, and it is a stocked spare
• AC universal motor rated 1,000 hours of use, stocked as a service part along with its brush set
• Of the 1800 W, about 1,750 W is the element and about 50 W is the motor. The wattage is the heat, not the airflow, and the airflow figure is given separately
• Airflow 70 m3/h on the 1400 W and 88 m3/h on the 1800 W, measured at the nozzle
• Outlet air temperature published at every setting, measured 5 cm from the nozzle: about 35 C on the cool shot, 65 C on low heat, 85 C on medium and 90 C on high heat with high airflow, rising to about 110 C on high heat with low airflow. Above roughly 100 C you are cooking hair, so use more air and less heat
• Three heat settings and two speeds as separate switches, plus a true cool shot with the element off. Heat and airflow are not the same control and an appliance that ties them together has taken the choice away from you
• Protection is a resettable bimetal cutout at 120 C on the element plate, plus a one shot thermal fuse at 172 C behind it. That is what saves the motor when the filter clogs
• Class II, double insulated, two core 1.0 sq mm cord, 1.8 m, replaceable assembly with a 360 degree swivel. A two pin plug is correct on a Class II appliance and wrong on a Class I one
• Concentrator and diffuser nozzles included, both a standard 45 mm fit, so a lost nozzle is replaceable and not proprietary
• Motor, brush set, heating coil, switch bank, thermal cutout and cord are all stocked. Spares held 7 years, on a spares bank bought with the first production run, a seven year supply clause with the maker, and the housing, nozzle and filter tooling held in our name
• 2 years comprehensive, 5 years separately on the AC motor
• Noise is 76 dB(A) at 1 m on high and 68 dB(A) on low. At the ear, where you actually hold it, high reads closer to 88 dB(A). The category prints only the first figure; both of ours are here
• Left out: no ioniser claim, no glued housing, no moulded in cord, no sealed filter grille
• There is no Shuunnya service network. A claim is answered by sending the part, and the filter and nozzles are owner fits. We do not promise a turnaround, because we cannot keep one yet