This article is written by Jeff McEachran: Owner of Denver Auto Shield, National Brand Manager for Gyeon quartz USA, and National Brand Manager for BLO Car Dryer
The plans to bring a new car dryer into the market were literally scratched out on a napkin in Frankfurt Germany during lunch at Automechanika in 2018. The existing and long-running tool in the market worked. But could there be a better option? Something to be improved? Yes.
And so it began. The hunt for a supplier. Product specs. Electric motors. Watts. Hose length. Sample machines. And everything else that is stressful and fun about bringing a new option to the market. Admittedly, we would have liked for the machines to be released a bit sooner. But these things happen. We received the first units to test from the factory in December of 2018. After testing, and kicking specs and requirements back and forth for about 6 months with the factory, we had the AIR-GT and AIR-RS as they sit now.
The AIR-GT and AIR-RS are two car dryers that I can stand behind and say confidently that we have put a quality and high performing tool into the market. We are still using the very first fully spec’d RS and GT samples from the production factory to be sent to us, every single day in our Denver Auto Shield service business. The hoses are worn. There’s a few bumps and bruises. But the machines are operating perfectly.
So why is drying your car with clean filtered air important? Here are the top three reasons:
No Scratches.
The vast majority of marring introduced to your paint happens during the wash process. And a large percentage of that marring happens when drying the car. There is no lubricant between the towel and the paint, and it is very easy for contaminants to get stuck in the towel and scratch the paint. By using a forced air car dryer, we are eliminating the need to physically touch the paint during drying. This takes wash induced marring out of the equation.
No Drips.
We’ve all been there. The car is clean. It is dry. You’ve hit it with your favorite quick detailer to add a pop in gloss. And as soon as you walk away the mirror or the emblem lets out a perfect drip of water down the side of the car. By using the BLO Car Dryer, you will blow out all standing or tapped water from every crevice of the car. This eliminates the water run marks and the potential for any etching.
No Streaks.
After the paint, the windows are the toughest thing to get streak-free and clean on the car. Using a forced-air dryer will blow the standing water from the glass quickly and effectively. This keeps the glass from spotting and keeps you from having to go back and re-clean the windows after the wash to sort out any streaking.
Now lets get an overview of the machines.
The BLO AIR-GT offers not one but two motors in line, so if you are looking for the biggest and most powerful car dryer, this one is for you. Like it’s smaller brother it filters the air and heats it up to 30 degrees above ambient air temperature, to provide optimum drying speed for you.
With a bigger slightly heavier blower we insisted it had a good set of swiveling wheels so you can pull it around the garage or workshop with ease, but the wheels can lock as well to stop it from wandering off down hills or driveways. Add a super-long extendable hose of over 26′ (8 meters) that will give you the reach around most large cars, trucks, motorcycles and other toys.
This blower will push out over 61,500 FPM at peak power to dry fast, but comes with a fully variable power dial, so you can control this power and turn it down if needed for smaller or more delicate areas to ensure they are dried well but safely.
The BLO AIR-RS is one of the smallest and lightest Car Dryers on the market but it is also one of the most powerful. In using both daily in our shop, we are never really “wanting” for one over the other. The RS moves a ton of air.
With both a 16 foot Air Hose and 16 foot Power Cord, you can work around most every vehicle without having to move the machine but once.
With the large 5HP motor comes an increase in Air Temperature, up to 30 degrees above ambient temperature, which also provides faster drying. But this is not at the expense of clean filtered air. All this is delivered through a quality Hose connector that locks into the car blower and provides a comfortable neoprene handle for you to direct that flow of warm filtered air and scare that water away. The AIR-RS allows you to turn up or down the power and air flow when required in tight areas or delicate surfaces; so you have complete control.
So what is next for BLO Car Dryer? Keep going! We have been selling the units for just over a year directly in the USA, and have individual Distributors in 16 countries globally with more requests coming in all the time. We are hard at work at making improvements in further utility of the machines. This will include things like a wall mount feature, wheel accessories for both units, an upgraded base, and other touches that we think will add to the user experience. And in the very near future, we have an addition to the line coming in the form of a new machine that we are superbly impressed with.
Thank you taking the time to explore BLO Car Dryer!