13 Unusual Uses for a Hair Dryer

OHHHH the unusual things you can do with your house hold gadgets!!!  I've thoroughly research all the strange weird uses for your blow dryer. Yes that's correct: BLOW DRYER.  Fitting your glasses to your head and adding a glaze to your cake frosting are just some of the unusual uses I discovered.

You can tell from the look on my face that this is no joke ;)

Step 1: Remove Stickers and Price Tags

Have you ever spent hours peeling of a sticker from a window or box?  You scratch it but can only get small bits of paper off...

The hot hair from a hair dryer will loosen a price tag or sticker making removal super easy.  You can also use this trick to remove contact paper from shelves.

Step 2: Custom Fit Your Glasses

Custom fit your plastic frame glasses.  Simply heat up the ends and mold them to fit our head.

This works great on store bought glasses.  I wouldn't recommend this for your $300 designer glasses frames.  I bought these prescription glasses in Vietnam for only $12!  They're a great back up pair.

Step 3: Wax on WAX OFF

Getting candle wax on wood furniture can be a nightmare to get off (again with the scratching!!!).  The best way to remove it is to heat it back up.  Blow medium heat on the wax until it starts to melt then wipe away with a cloth.

Step 4: Add Gloss to Cake Frosting

Give your baked good a professional looking gloss.  Turn your dryer on low heat and slowly blow it over the entire cake.

Step 5: Dry Clothing

Quickly dry spots of water you spilt on your clothes.  First REMOVE THE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING -- you don't want any burns on your skin! Hang it over a shower rod and dry.

If this happens at a party i fully encourage snooping through your friends bathroom cabinets for a dryer.

Step 6: Dry Steam Off of Mirror

Its frustrating to lose mirror access after a steamy shower!  Dry that steam off with a quick blast of hot air from your hair dryer.  Now you can just leave the blow dryer on and continue drying your hair :)

Step 7: Remove Dust

Use a hair dryer to remove dust from hard to get to nooks and crannies in your house.  Use this trick on carved wood work, art work, artificial flowers, bookshelves, lamps, computers....you name it!

Step 8: Hot Compress

Keep a hot compress hot by pointing your blow dryer at the towel and leaving it running while you are putting the compress on an injury.  Keep the towel wet by misting it w/ a spray bottle.

Step 9: Remove Crayon Marks from Walls

If you read step three then you can understand why this makes sense...

Crayons are made out of wax, blow dryers remove wax, thus blow dryers remove crayons.

Set the hair dryer on hot and keep it on the crayon mark until it melts.  The crayon will wipe off easily with a damp cloth and a small amount of oil soap cleanser.

Step 10: Dry Wet Boots

This is a great trick to use in the winter!  Dry off your snowy boots with your blow dryer setting on high.  Be sure to do this over a towel so your mom doesn't yell at you for getting water every where! (personal experience...)

Step 11: Thaw Windows

Another winter time use. If you forgot to put your storm windows down in time for the first snow and your windows freeze shut thaw your window with a blast from your hair dryer.

Step 12: Dry Painted Nails

I love painting my nails, but I have so much trouble waiting for my nails to air dry.  A tip for quick drying your painted nails: blow dry them!  Not too high of a setting, just a little hot air to speed the process up.

Step 13: Defrosting Food

I have had bags of peas freeze to the side of my freezer.  Its super frustrating and I hate having to chip away at ice mounds with my hands.  Make this process easier by melting the ice with a blow dryer. 

Comments

[valkgurl]

I used to work for an eye MD and the way to not "Knacker up" (love that!!!!) the lenses is to wrap them in a cool DAMP cloth when you heat treat the stems. This is done in a special vat of HOT plastic or glass beads at your MD's office BTW.

A few uses for those like me who live in the Cold North:

DEFROST your CAr windows on those wicked cold days

UNFREEZE your car DOORS on those wicked cold days--this is very helpful after those rainy days when it gets so cold that your seals freeze and your doors are stuck closed.

Use it to tighten up the WINDOW FILM you put on over your windows to keep drafts and insulate--the heat makes the plastic shrink and makes the seal work,

Blow down pesky cob webs from your ceilings

Blow dry your pets---this seems obvious but it is not always to some people. Use LOW heat and blower for this--esp if the paws are involved--can be useful to get ice balls out from between tender paw pads.

To thaw your fridge without ruining your dryer--place a large bowl or flat pan of BOILING WATER--pour into bowl that you place in freezer BEFORE you add H2o---and close the door for a few minutes. This might take a few re-fills but it works without having to use a potentially dangerous ice pick or knife on the sides and or top.
You can use the dryer to dry up the last bits of water in there to avoid NEW glacial formations!

[Kris T.]

My hair dryer's been collecting dust ever since I cut my hair boy-short. Now I have a reason to use it again.

[doo da do]

If you have room for a candle under the mirror, light it and it will keep most of the mirror fog free. Save energy (be sure to put it out before you leave).

[damon1600]

This works well with wax in carpet as well. Use the hair dryer to melt the wax and absorb it with paper towels or newspaper. It may make a few times but it really works!

[cody.lomas]

they also make a great forge motor for black smithing

[koolfool]

Just saw this tip on, "The Doctors". Use a hair drier to remove band-aids and/or adhesive medical tape. Haven't tried it myself, but it seems like a good idea, especially for kids.

[Pixie Puddle]

i used mine to defrost my freezer but using it for that length of time created to much heat and it fussed the switch inside so it wouldn't turn off also the damage to it made it dangerous as it gave me a couple of shocks after that, now I have a new hair dryer i don't use it for anything but hair, :) but I have to say it did come in handy back at uni after a year of drinking and partying and little work to create my final pieces I did them all in acrylic and dried them off in no time at all, when my tutor sat there and told me she could see I had put a lot of time in inside I was laughing, I soon realized I was the fool as I was paying all that money out for the year but could do the work expected of me in a day, uni took me for a mug and without my hair dryer I would not have realized. :) in a round about sort of way anyway. :D

[Ace193]

You have to be careful about drying shoes too quickly though. It is easy to deteriorate adhesives in the soles of shoes without noticing until they separate months later.

[Gr3at_Whit3_North_Guy]

no offense to the people who put the work into these instructables but doesn't it seem fairly obvious to use a hair dryer to dry clothes or windows.

[jack_of_all_everything]

polish boots/shoes? works great after you rub in some polish hit it with the hair dryer for a very high gloss shine, buff with a wet cotton ball after it cools a little!

[CraftBear]

So true!!! And much safer than attempting to melt polish with flame which can end up with boots going up in flames and just a pile of rubber left... =D

[joey99]

how about useing it to pinch a lacrosse stick?

[STCVKR]

What about to remove dents from pingpong/table tennis balls?

[ArtsyFartsyGirl]

I quickly dry my nails by running water over them. Start with slightly warmer water and increase to cold, it only takes seconds and takes away the stinky nail polish smell.

[TN777]

Another way to custom fit glasses- Boil a pot of water and and dip the trouble leg in it untill soft. Mold to shape you need!

[Rick.Cartwright6]

The loudest hot compress in the world! Never thought of that though, good idea!

[ken256]

i tried and it actually works

[baskinator4]

Just make sure you use cold air for computers! The high heat could easily melt solder connections if left on too long, rendering your expensive equipment useless and broken.

[santy22]

Hmm, this could actually be useful. Anyone remember the "oven" re-fluxing trick?

[DIY-Guy]

Are you saying a normal hair dryer can melt solder with the short duration of "dusting?" That seems difficult to do under normal "dusting" conditions, even on high heat. I wish my hair dryers were that powerful.   :)

On another note, I had to buy a special heat gun like a super-powered hair dryer to help me melt solder to recycle electronic parts off of old circuit boards. Even then it took a long time and the components did not just fall off without some effort.

[kedwa30]

Hair dryers are limited to 140 degrees F for safety. A hot air gun may be able to melt solder, but one would never use that to dry ones hair. I agree with your point that heat is bad for electronics in general; I just think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say a hair dryer could melt solder. 90 degrees C is 194 degrees F.

[mostertbj]

How hot is your hair dryer? I'd really start to worry if my dryer start to melt solder (melts from 90 to 450 degrees Celsius and computers can run at up to 80 degrees without damage)

[baskinator4]

Well most hair dryers will run between 100 and 140 degrees, they need to be hot enough to dry your hair in a reasonable amount of time. Also, that's why you don't point them in one spot for too long because you can burn yourself.
Computers can withstand more than 80 degree temps, as the cpu in my macbook pro is running at around 120 degrees right now. However, prolonged exposure to high heat from a hair dryer is certainly not good for any electronics, especially if it was recently turned on and running hot. Many laptop fans are barely proficient enough to cool them down, and I know from experience that lots of older computers suffer from this problem. Same situation with the Xbox 360.
Simply put- any heat is bad for a computer.

[Tamaresque]

My hairdryer has a 'cool' setting which is only lukewarm; I can also have it blow just cold air. It's not new, it's years old, so I'd be surprised if more modern dryers didn't also have these settings.

[Gryt]

Your macbook is running at 120 degrees? Are you boiling water with it?

[dfc849]

I think there's some unit mismatching here! I've had my smartphone get up to 60°C (that's 140°F!) while charging, and those components are much smaller. I know someone that fixes electronic components with a special heat gun, and those things have to get really hot. The only 'computer' I know that can't handle heat was the first few batches of Xbox 360 units.. ;)

ASIDE from all discussion, this instructable is going to serve as a wonderful reference for me! I've been seeing 'unusual use' how-to's in my newsletters lately, and I love it!

[baskinator4]

TamarGirl- Yes, most hairdryers have a cool setting, which is my point that it should be used in this case.

Gryt- All computers get this hot, it is simply what happens when they run. The processor itself will fluctuate between 120 and 140 degrees doing light work. That doesn't mean the case gets that hot, in fact it runs quite cool.

dfc849- Units are correct, smartphones will get pretty hot as they have a whole lot of processing power packed into a very tight space, requiring much smaller circuitry. The small space also allows less room for any type of heat dissipation (i.e. fans, heatsink, liquid cooling) which a computer uses. My Droid 2 sometimes gets hot enough to feel through my pocket. The temperature of a computer relies solely on how well it's components are cooled with these devices. The first Xbox 360s did not have a big enough heat sink, which caused the solder connections to come loose on the graphics chips. All they did to later batches was increase the heatsink size. I fixed my 360 which had this problem, as well as seen this happen with many iBook G3s I've worked on. A heat gun is a temporary fix, and WILL melt solder connections (that's the point).

But you are right, this is a great instructable. Merely pointing out a precaution that should be taken when working with these things.

[flamekiller]

My desktop peaks out at about 45 C under a relatively heavy load. That's from polling the CPU's on-board sensors, just the same as it probably is with your MBP.

Your units are wrong ... if your hair dryer was running at 100+ C, it wouldn't just dry your hair, it'd flash that thin coating of water to steam, severely scalding you in the process, in addition to the rapid burning caused by the hot air.

Sure, you can use a hair dryer to melt things. Ice, for example ... I've also used a hair dryer to melt hot glue to replace a hockey blade in a stick shaft, but it took a long, long time and it didn't fully melt the glue. The likelihood of it melting solder (90+ C) is pretty much nonexistent.

That said, yeah, you should use the "cool" setting. I'd be more worried about a photograph on the shelf than a computer though. ;)

[lukeyj15]

No actually. When you put something in a 200 C oven the water doesn't flash to steam.

[baskinator4]

My units are still not wrong. When I say degrees I mean farenheit, not celsius. I never use celsius.

But like I said again, heat + electronics = bad, and if you have the $500+ to replace a computer on a whim, be my guest.

[jstarkmuth]

For the dust removal purpose, it would be a good idea to use an old dryer that only blows, but does not produce heat any more, in order to save energy and money - and to protect heat-sensitive targets. In that case, you could also add a nozzle (made of paper or similar) with a smaller opening to get a stronger air stream.

[pcooper2]

Most hair dryers have no-heat setting, or at least a low-heat setting that uses little power.

It's a dubious use of the hair dryer, anyway. All it does is redistribute the dust in the house. If I have something with intricate contours that needs to be dusted, such as my desktop computer, I take it outside and blow it clean with a compressed air at about 40 psi.

[kedwa30]

Using compressed air on electronics boards is not advisable since you could end up blowing the dust under the chips or deeper into the appliance. The age old custom of dusting was just that... redistributing the dust off the furniture so that more of it would settle to the floor where it could be swept up. Nowadays we would hope one has central air with a filter. Any dust blown off ones nick knacks would get sucked into the filter. If you can't have a feather duster, then using a hair dryer for multiple purposes is the next best thing. :-)
It's just like a leaf blower but for dust!

[pcooper2]

"Using compressed air on electronics boards is not advisable since you could end up blowing the dust under the chips or deeper into the appliance."

40 psi with a rubber-tipped blowgun is sufficient to remove all dust, even UNDER the chips. It is less likely to cause damage than most other methods. Sometimes I help the process along with a 1-1/2" natural bristle paintbrush, particularly if the dust has caked a bit due to exposure to moisture, since natural bristles don't generate an appreciable static charge. As an electronics industry professional, I've been doing this successfully for many years with no damage to any devices.

[jblanton1]

Actually, the old feather dusters did not just redistribute the dust to the floor, the static electricity in the feathers attracted the dust and it would cling to the feathers. You need to periodically take it outside and "redistribute" the dust that it has collected outside the house by shaking it or beating it on the side of the house or whatever.

[jstarkmuth]

There are special dusters with plastic fibers which really attract a lot of dust - you can rub them on a wool carpet to charge them electrostatically before use. Though I'm not sure whether that electricity would pose a threat to electronics if you touch the components directly. But I use that duster to clean all my devices, lamps etc. from outside. Even if a part of the dust is just redistributed, it will mostly settle on the floor or other areas where it can be more easily removed later.

[pcooper2]

You're correct to be concerned about static charges in the duster damaging sensitive electronics. In classes and technical seminars we were taught that the charge build-up on a Styrofoam coffee cup just brought NEAR MOSFETs or CMOS circuits without actually touching could create enough of an electric field in the devices to damage them. Sometimes they'll still work, but then experience latent failures. Once installed on a circuit board and surrounded by resistors and other passive components they're less vulnerable, but I prefer not to take chances..

[sarawelder]

If you are impatient watching paint dry you can speed it up with a moving hairdryer... ditto spackle... can also get minor wrinkles out of clothes especially if you mist with water first... and if you make jewelry with Precious Metal Clay it can be used to speed up drying time.

[Wezard]

Be careful if you try this not to heat the lenses.

If you have any coatings on the lens then overheating can cause issues.

I'm sure it SHOULDnt with good quality lenses and coatings, but just had to take a pair of glasses back because the optometrist managed to knacker the lens coating during initial fitting.

[spicetrain]

hairdryer also works really well to get charcoal briquets hot and glowing red and ready for cooking. especially when its cold out(winter BBQ )