PHILIPSEssential Care BHC010/10 hair dryer Essential Care BHC010/10, 1200 W

Very good BASIC item, light,handy for everyday home needs.

Excellent

Excellent value

A small gift to my mum and she's pleased!

Nice and sturdy, quite strong for the size,I took of one star because the cool shot is very weak, compared with the hot setting.

At no point in the description does it mention the rather crucial detail that this does NOT come with a UK plug. Useless. Is going straight back.

I am for ever on the lookout for good hair dryers. Before pandemic I was “on the road”, more like in the desert of on the high seas for 6 to 9 months of the year. This is the reason I favour “travel dryer” design especially if it is multi-voltage enabled. Every few years I want to change whichever one I was using because they don’t last forever and if & when they do burn out, I won’t be able to get another one until I return home. This is a good reason why there is always at least a good working spare one at home.Until two weeks ago my favourite use at home model was a T3 Fit Compact (single voltage only) because it had cold shot button and was quiet. However, with much disappointment the cold shot button (or the temperature control) malfunctioned such that it stayed at the low cool or tepid temperature no matter which switch settings were selected.Straight away replaced it with the next dryer on the wishlist, i.e. this Philips Essential BCH010/10. Yes the handle folds but it is only single voltage (220-240V) suited to UK and EU. It came with EU Schuko plug, which is what I want for travelling. Most of the work assignment destinations I get sent to use this socket, far more than those using UK sockets. A few use AU and US but far fewer in comparison. So far so good. Switch it on, cool to tepid air; fine, no problems. Turn swiching next notch up to low heat. BIG problem. Too loud.Loud enough for me to dig out the noise meter. Below are noise output for various model of dryer in the photo at the low heat setting. If the dryer has cold shot or a cool setting in the switch, there is another reading. I am no expert on noise; seeing as the HSE regulation give figures in dBA, that is the unit I use on the noise meter. (It is in the middle of the photo.) All measurements were made 10cm from the meter as that is about average distance I move the dryer about my (ears) head.Dryer Model, Low Heat reading, Cold Shot or Cool SettingBraun Travelair 1000 104Philips Discovery Travel 1200 101Philips Silence 1500 99Optima Silver Travel 99 105Philips BHD006 (1500watts) 106 101Innocare HD1600 102 102Braun HD350 107T3 Compact 106 109Philips Essential BHC010/10 113 102(The reveiws do not allow tabulated results.)As you can see in the tabulated results, this Philips is by bar the loudest. Bear in mind a 3dB increase is doubling in sound (as the decibels are on a logarithmic scale not linear scale) you can see why I am too scared to use it, for I fear to loose my hearing.For the life of me I can’t understand why the designers made it so loud. The cool setting is 102 which is not that far off the others at low heat settings so all the designer had to do was to increase the temperature. NO, they not only did that but put the fan on full blast also – yes, the fan is on the same speed as at high heat. Why ? Why not keep the fan on low speed as the cool setting ? I never use any dryer on high heat setting for fear of damaging hair or scalp (and now I have to consider noise too).

Please be aware that the hair dryer doesn’t have a UK plug, it’s a European one! I don’t understand why it doesn’t say this in the product information! Especially as I am in the UK. Complete pain, I can’t send it back, as I need it for a UK trip tomorrow. Will have to hunt for an adapter now