The world’s largest hairdryer, which was invented by children and built by South Yorkshire-based Kids Invent Stuff, containing fastenings from precision component distributor Accu, has received a Guinness World Record title.
The fully working hairdryer measures 1.7556m long and 1.6m tall, almost seven times the size of a standard household model. It has earned Sheffield inventor Ruth Amos, Co-founder of Kids Invent Stuff, another Guinness World Record title and a double-page spread in the newly published Guinness World Records 2027 book.
The project began as a competition run by Kids Invent Stuff, the YouTube challenge where young people have the chance to get their invention ideas built by engineers, in association with Huddersfield-based Accu and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. Children in the UK and overseas were challenged to invent something worthy of a Guinness World Record title and more than 5,000 ideas came in from inventors aged 4 to 11.
The winning concept, a giant hairdryer, came from two young inventors, Kiki and Thea. Ruth and her team of engineers then had to work out how to build it. With no blueprint to follow, the team designed the hairdryer from scratch, scaling up a standard 25 cm dryer by 6.88 times. Inside, a large motor-driven fan pushes air past oven heating elements and through steel ducting. The outer shell is made from expanding foam, filler and fibreglass resin, finished in glossy purple paint. The hairdryer was tested for real in a hair salon on a volunteer and then back at Accu’s warehouse.
Having Accu’s backing meant we could focus on making it work, knowing the fixings were right. I hope it inspires every child who sees it to think ‘I could build something amazing too.’
Ruth Amos, Co-founder, Kids Invent Stuff
Accu supplied all the fixings for the build, including stainless steel washers, rivets, self-drilling screws, domed nyloc nuts and socket countersunk screws. These components hold the internal structure, ducting and body together and let the hairdryer run safely at full power.
Alastair Morris, Managing Director of Accu, said: “We were really excited to work with Kids Invent Stuff to support a children’s engineering challenge worthy of being a Guinness World Record breaker! Every fastener in the build had an important job to do and it’s brilliant to see our precision components helping to turn these young peoples’ idea into a world record.”
Ruth Amos, Co-founder of Kids Invent Stuff, said: “There was no rulebook for this one. We had to work everything out from first principles and that’s exactly what engineering is about: imagination, problem-solving and making ideas real. Having Accu’s backing meant we could focus on making it work, knowing the fixings were right. I hope it inspires every child who sees it to think ‘I could build something amazing too.'”
The world’s largest hairdryer is the latest collaboration between Accu and Kids Invent Stuff, which have previously worked together on projects including creating combat robots to show young people that engineering is a creative, exciting career path.
The Guinness Book of World Records 2027 is out now. The full build story can be seen on the Kids Invent Stuff YouTube channel.
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