12volt hairdryer

[David Schweizer]

I was wondering if anyone has found a 12volt hairdryer that actually works, or alternatively a rechargeable one which can be re-charged from a small (max 350 watts) inverter. Jan has very thick hair and it takes a long time for it to dry in either cold or damp conditions, and would find one very useful. (I regrettably do not have the same problem!!)

 

I know that this subject has been discussed in the past, and I realise that it will be difficult for a 12volt appliance to produce much heat, but I would have thought that with modern digital motors a reasonable force of air could be produced. I have found some on the interrnet, but it is impossible to know how effective they are, Has anyopne found one recently that works reasonably well?

Edited August 30, 2013 by David Schweizer

[Phil Ambrose]

Not sure if this helps but Hire Boats on the Broads offered 12v hair dryers as an add-on, might be worth contacting one or two. My wife had one on a couple of occasions and though they were'nt great they did the job for her eventually, should add that Chris also has thick hair.

Phil

[by'eck]

Surely its not the airflow but the heating required that would make one totally impractical, even if you could find suitable plugs and sockets to take the massive current required.

[Woodstock]

Hi

I've tried a number of 12v hairdryers on boats we've hired and always found them to be useless. Its 2 years since we hired so I guess progress may have been made since then

[Phil Ambrose]

Airflow is as important as heat for drying hair, my wife's dryer can use 600w or 1200w, she uses it in 600w mode but this on shoerline, 12v models have a considerable lower wattage but still blow hard.

Phil

[Guest]

I was wondering if anyone has found a 12volt hairdryer that actually works, or alternatively a rechargeable one which can be re-charged from a small (max 350 watts) inverter. Jan has very thick hair and it takes a long time for it to dry in either cold or damp conditions, and would find one very useful. (I regrettably do not have the same problem!!)

 

I know that this subject has been discussed in the past, and I realise that it will be difficult for a 12volt appliance to produce much heat, but I would have thought that with modern digital motors a reasonable force of air could be produced. I have found some on the interrnet, but it is impossible to know how effective they are, Has anyopne found one recently that works reasonably well?

 

We caravanned for years prior to having a boat and used to have these and TBH they were frankly useless. They never seemed able to create enough heat or enough 'ooomph' to successfully dry Jan's hair. I don't believe they have improved that much but happy to be corrected.

 

We gave up as mains became more common on caravans and sites and got a mains one.

 

On the very rare occasion Jan uses a mains one now it's normally while we are under way with the inverter on.

[Beaker]

12v models have a considerable lower wattage but still blow hard.

Phil

 

Plenty of blowhards on here, I think!

Edited August 30, 2013 by Beaker

[Phil Ambrose]

Airflow is as important as heat for drying hair, my wife's dryer can use 600w or 1200w, she uses it in 600w mode but this on shoreline, 12v models have a considerable lower wattage but still blow hard. If I recall correctly they are about 120w

Phil

[Beaker]

Err... how did I manage to quote you before you posted?

[Guest]

Err... how did I manage to quote you before you posted?

 

Easy -

 

phil posted at 10.14 you quoted him at 10.17

[Beaker]

 

Easy -

 

phil posted at 10.14 you quoted him at 10.17

 

My post appears first here, both timed at 11:17.

[Guest]

Not on my PC it doesn't....

 

It appears as I said.

 

I can't explain the difference...

[RLWP]

 

What have you done, Beaker?

 

Richard

[Beaker]

Meep!

 

<hides>

[MikeV]

SWMBO must have a decent hair dryer or I would't be allowed to go boating. 12V types are unacceptable. Has to be ~1000 watts to be of any use as far as she is concerned.

 

I suppose you could design a 12 volt 1000 watt hair dryer if you used heavy enough cable but your arm might get rather tired using it!!

[pquinn]

mr dyson needs to tackle this problem,surely a better market than fans.

[koukouvagia]

I think Bizzard needs to get to work on this - incorporating, perhaps, an ecofan.

[Beaker]

I think Bizzard needs to get to work on this - incorporating, perhaps, an ecofan.

And blacksmith's bellows?

[RLWP]

SWMBO must have a decent hair dryer or I would't be allowed to go boating. 12V types are unacceptable. Has to be ~1000 watts to be of any use as far as she is concerned.

 

I suppose you could design a 12 volt 1000 watt hair dryer if you used heavy enough cable but your arm might get rather tired using it!!

 

That's only 83 Amps - you can get very flexible welding cable these days

 

Richard

 

MORE: Hang on, I've got an idea. It should be possible to make the heating bit by cutting about an ordinary hair-drier, that leaves finding a suitable 12V fan - perhaps from a car heater - and a suitable battery. Let's say you want to use it for ten minutes, so a 20AH battery should be plenty. That's the same size as they use in electric mobility scooters

 

Mount that all on a sensible base and hang it from the ceiling. Job done!

Edited August 30, 2013 by RLWP

[David Schweizer]

I was wondering if anyone has found a 12volt hairdryer that actually works, or alternatively a rechargeable one which can be re-charged from a small (max 350 watts) inverter.

 

So can I assume the answer to my enquiry is No?

[junior]

 

So can I assume the answer to my enquiry is No?

 

I think you can.

[bizzard]

Did this as a wheeze a while back. The search thing might have found it.

Put a 12v computer fan in or at the business end of an old flexible vacuum cleaner hose. Place the other end against or in a heat source like your oven (whilst cooking your dinner, don't waist gas), engines exhaust manifold, coal stove, bonfire or any other heat source. Start up the blower fan by connecting to the 12v, to suck up the heat and waft all that lovely warm air over your nut.

[gary955]

An alternative to Bizzards excellent wheeze is to simply use a 240v hairdryer! My lovely girlfreind lets her hair almost air dry then finishes it off with a normal hairdryer for a few mins. She tells me that she uses the lower heat setting (about 600w I should think) but as the fan on the 1800w inverter starts in protest, I suspect that she's sneakily using the hot setting!

My elderly 330ah battery bank seems untroubled by this, but you could always run the engine to give it a helping hand.

[by'eck]

It was pointed out to me that some cheap AC travel hairdryers simply rectify one leg of the AC in low power mode to halve the power.

 

This creates a very imbalanced load since only a half cycle is being used. Household supplies can cope with this but it literally rattled my inverter, thankfully without damage, for the few seconds it was happening when my sister used hers.

[madcat]

No volt hair dryer,its called a towel. Then hang around in a hot cabin for a bit or wear a hat and go to a warm pub. Take off hat when in pub, stay there till hair dry. Jobs a good un.