RESTROOM VISITS BLOW YOU AWAY

There’s a new blowhard on Broadway.

Not on stage, mind you, but in the bathrooms of one Times Square multiplex.

James Dyson, the man who pitches vacuums on television, is looking to take the very pedestrian – and germ-ridden – public bathroom hand-dryer upscale by introducing his Dyson Airblade, a high-tech gadget that blows air at 400 mph and promises to cut down wait time by drying hands in 12 seconds.

The Airblade will make its U.S. debut this week at the AMC Times Square movie house.

“People are impatient,” Gordon Thom, who heads up Dyson’s Chicago-based U.S. operations, said in addressing one of the selling points of his new product – the speed at which it dries your hands.

Instead of evaporating the water like most hot-air dryers currently do, the Airblade blasts the water clear off your skin.

Dyson launched the Airblade hand dryers in Great Britain early this year. Among the locations using them are rest stops, department stores, sports venues, health clubs and even Gatwick airport. A power utility bought 200 of them.

While the Airblades may be fast and less germy – because you never have to touch them – they are, at $1,400 a pop way more expensive. So while they blow hard, they also suck more cash from business’ wallets.

Dyson is pushing the fact that they are more economical to operate because they use less energy and they are a substitute for more expensive paper towels.