Sam Gibbs - 

Meet the Dyson Airblade Tap. It’s basically the next evolution of the humble faucet and hand drier, all bundled into one pristine hunk of gleaming metal. You don’t even have to touch the thing, as it’s powered by IR sensors, and will blast your hands dry in 12 seconds flat with blades of air fired out at 430mph.

Essentially, the Airblade Tap is the consumer-orientated version of the now-legendary Dyson Airblade (it was in Star Trek for goodness sake). I say consumer; you have to be pretty keen on the latest in bathroom tech to fork out the £1,000 asking price, but hell, you can’t put a price on progress, right?

The Tap itself is made from 304 stainless steel — the kind used in boats — and can withstand 16 bar of pressure, just in case the water plant explodes and, err, forces a tidal wave down your pipes. That’s the stuff we saw being lasered the other day, which should make it look damn nice in the flesh, but perhaps it’s just a little over-the-top for a tap? We’ll find out tomorrow when we get hands on with the thing.

Of course, Dyson’s biggest play here is the V4 Digital Motor that powers the beast. It alone cost £26.9 million and seven years to develop, and uses bonded magnets and other fancy electromagnetic features to make it super efficient and, of course, super powerful with a huge amount of torque. If you fancy yourself one, you can pre-order from tomorrow, although you’ll have to kind of re-engineer your bathroom to fit it in.

Dyson Airblade Mk2

The Airblade Tap isn’t the only thing Dyson’s launching this evening, either. The original Airblade is getting an upgrade, with the Mk II featuring the new V4 Digital Motor, which makes it super efficient and kinder to mother Earth in the process. Dyson says it’ll dry your hands in just 10 seconds too, and cost you from £650 a pop in plastic, or £800 in aluminium from tomorrow.

Dyson Airblade V

Likewise, Dyson’s also launching a new style of commercial hand dryer called the Airblade V, which is essentially a shrunken version of the Airblade. It’ll still dry your hands in 10 seconds, but it uses two sheets of air instead of the one you stick both hands through. It looks a lot more like a conventional hand dryer too, which might be a good thing, especially considering it carries at least a passing resemblance to a Cylon. The V can be had in white for £500, or nickel for £520 starting tomorrow.

All three of Dyson’s Airblades use HEPA filters to screen out 99.9 per cent of bacteria before blasting air onto your hands, which should keep the germs at bay after you’ve scrubbed your knuckles clean. I can’t see many people installing an Airblade Mk II, or a V in their homes, but the next time you go to see that super-wealthy lot down your street, you never know, they might have a shining new £1,000 tap for you to have a play with.