Dynamic AirForce Max blower

The Dynamic AirForce Max blower easily blows most of the water out of your bike’s nooks and crannies – chains, mechs, cassettes and the like. It’s loud but not obnoxious and tough enough to survive in a shed or car, but it can’t truly dry tricky parts. Unfortunately that means you’ve still as much chance of seeing corrosion as if you rely on a towel and a good shake.

This is either the greatest gadget you could possibly get a cyclist or a symbol of a consumerism that has long since stopped making sense; it’s really up to you. If it worked as well as a compressor for drying inaccessible nooks I’d be in the former camp, but it doesn’t.

On full power it’s still impressive, shifting 95% of the water from things like chains and mechs with some well-aimed close-quarter blasting. That has its uses: perhaps you want to guard against unexpected drips before putting your bike back in the car or carrying it into the house. You’ll still have to give the bike a good shake as well, however, and in reality it’s far quicker and easier to dry most of it off with mild violence/a towel than with this.

The trouble is that 5% it can’t shift: that’s still going to create rust. it’s just not powerful enough to truly force all the water out of your drivetrain. For me, that’s a killer blow – yes, it’s nicely made, shoves air pretty hard and has an exciting name, but it doesn’t actually solve any problems. Whether I used the additional smaller nozzle or not, it just couldn’t do what compressed air does.

Don’t go thinking it’s weak, however. Turn it on and you can feel it thrusting backwards in your hand; lay it on the floor it spins enthusiastically in circles. It generates some pretty powerful suction on the back too, so you’ll want to keep the protective mesh there clean and clear.

It runs for just over 10 minutes on the highest setting (of three), and at least for bikes I didn’t find any use for the two lower ones (it’ll do a claimed 1hr 15 minutes on its gentlest waft). Ten minutes is plenty to get bored of chasing water around, especially given the racket it makes doing it. The AirForce Max shuts down abruptly when flat, rather than gradually slowing.

In addition to the three regular modes there’s Turbo, which you get by holding the button down. I could neither hear nor feel a difference in fan speed between Turbo and Mode 3, however – Dynamic says it’s ‘perfect for when you’re in a hurry’, so presumably the name is about the speed of access rather than the speed of the fan.

I didn’t find the normal way (press once to switch on, twice more for full power) particularly time-consuming in the first place.

Dynamic claims 89 decibels on full blast, and likens that to a crowded bar. Apparently it’s also the same as a typical food blender, a kitchen sink garbage disposal, or a freight train going past 15 metres away – so not what you’d call quiet. It’s less invasive outdoors than inside, though, and no worse than my wife’s apparently weapons-grade hairdryer.

Recharging is via USB-C, and takes 3hrs 10 minutes from flat. The simple LED indicators are red until it’s done, when they turn green.

Value

At £119.99 this isn’t really an impulse or gift buy, and it has a pretty niche use. On the other hand, if you want a portable, handheld device for blowing puddles out of your bike before throwing it in the car or shed, you’re not exactly spoilt for choice. The quality and performance here do help to justify the price.

Amazon stocks all kinds of similar-looking blowers for around £40-50, though as most are aimed at keyboard cleaning and general dusting they’re unlikely to be as powerful. There are a few outdoor-capable options, it seems: the manly-sounding Wolfbox offer an allegedly gusty MF200 model for £129.99 (though it was discounted at the time of writing, to nobody’s surprise, and actually only £84.99).

If you want a genuinely effective blower for home use, you can’t beat a compressor with an airgun – these are easily capable of blasting components completely dry. Basic, mains-powered 24L compressors also start at around £120, though heavy discounts are common – the Titan TTB797CPR from Screwfix is a good example at £117.99, discounted at the time of writing to £67.99.

Supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi sell similar compressors around the £60 mark. They’re good for plenty more besides, of course, but on the downside they’re heavy, bulky, noisy and require mains power. Despite the wheels you can’t seriously call them portable.

Other rivals? Repeatedly picking up and dropping your wet bike doesn’t work quite as well, but it’s almost as good at shaking water loose and costs nothing. Blue workshop roll will blot away plenty of water for not much money, while an old towel is even cheaper. None will fully remove the moisture from your bike’s tiny moving folds and jagged bits, but unfortunately, neither will the AirForce Max.

Overall

If you want to shift the majority of the water from your bike by just pointing at it, this will absolutely do that for you. It’ll get more out that mere shaking and towel-drying will manage, too, though it takes longer. Unfortunately it’s just not powerful enough to truly force out every single drop from corrosion-prone chains, which for me means the job is not done. As a consequence, it’s hard to justify the expense, noise and recharging requirements of this gadget over existing ways of doing the same thing.