Accu x Kids Invent Stuff: Together We Built The World’s Largest Hairdryer (and showcased it at Accu Stadium)
Two children drew a hairdryer the size of a sofa. Ruth Amos and the Kids Invent Stuff team built it, we supplied the fixings, Guinness World Records made it official, and on Saturday 10th October 2026 almost 20,000 matchday visitors got the chance to stand next to it at Accu Stadium.
See the full World's Largest Hairdryer build video here:
On this page:
- A drawing, a challenge and 5,000 entries
- What we put into the World's Largest Hairdryer
- Showcasing a World Record on a Matchday at Accu Stadium
- Nuts About Bolts
- Featuring On BBC Look North
- Why we do this
- Frequently asked questions
- Further reading
A drawing, a challenge and 5,000 entries
Last year we teamed up with Kids Invent Stuff, supported further by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, on a simple challenge run in partnership with Guinness World Records. Children in the UK and abroad were asked to invent something worthy of a Guinness World Records title. We expected a decent response. We got more than 5,000 entries from children aged 4 to 11.
The winning idea came from two of them, Kiki and Thea. It was a hairdryer. An enormous one. Kiki hoped it would be powerful enough to topple a chair. Thea wanted it to double as a leaf blower.
Ruth Amos and the Kids Invent Stuff team built it in their Sheffield workshop over three weeks. Metal ventilation ducts and aluminium straps formed the shape. The gaps were filled with 14 cans of expanding foam and 12 litres of car body filler, then layered with resin and fibreglass matting before sanding and painting. Inside sits an industrial fan and two large oven heater elements, giving it 5,000 watts against the 1,800 to 2,000 of a normal hairdryer. It is so large it takes four people, or an engine hoist, to move it.
On 22nd April 2026 Guinness World Records measured it at 1.755 m long and 1.6 m tall, about eight times bigger than a normal blowdryer, or roughly the height of an adult. It was tested on a volunteer in a working hair salon, and it actually dried her hair!
Official GWR shot. Credit: Paul Michael Hughes / Guinness World Records
What we put into the World's Largest Hairdryer
Every big machine comes down to small parts and that is the bit children rarely ever get shown. We helped the Kids Invent Stuff team build the hairdryer by gifting the stainless steel fixings used in the assembly: the rivets, screws, nuts, bolts and washers that hold the whole thing together.
Ordinary components doing an entirely extraordinary job. The same components you can order from us today, made from the same stainless steel, holding a Guinness World Records title holder in one piece while it blasts warm air that really does dry hair.
Official GWR shot. Credit: Paul Michael Hughes / Guinness World Records
Showcasing a World Record on a Matchday at Accu Stadium
On Saturday 10th October 2026, ahead of Huddersfield Town v Sheffield Wednesday, the world's largest hairdryer went on public display for the first time.
We put it in the fan zone from 12:30pm, free to anyone who wanted a look, no match ticket needed. Almost 20,000 people came through the Accu Stadium that afternoon.
Inside the Terriers’ Community Hub, Accu and Kids Invent Stuff ran a set of mini Guinness World Records style challenges, designed to be suitable for under-16s:
- Build the tallest LEGO tower
- Draw your own invention, exactly the way Kiki and Thea did
- Take the best selfie with the hairdryer and tag @accucomponents and @kidsinventstuff
- And our own one, "Accu's Nuts About Bolts challenge" which gets its own section below.
Every activity was a chance to win a copy of the Guinness World Records 2027 annual, plus Accu Stadium prizes.
Plus, we even had a visit from Kiki to see the finished build for herself.
Nuts About Bolts
Our mini Guinness World Record-inspired challenge was the simplest thing on the table and, judging by the queue, the most addictive. Six bolts stood upright, fixed onto on a stainless steel plate, each a different thread.
Twelve nuts sat loose in a tray beside it. Six fitted, six did not. The task was a simple one, find the right nut for each bolt and thread it on. Thirty seconds, fastest time on the leaderboard.
It is a game, but it is also exactly what our customers do every day: find the right component, fast, out of hundreds of thousands. Watching an eight-year-old spot that an Imperial Nut will not go on a Metric Bolt, and work out why, is the whole point of the afternoon in about four seconds.
Featuring On BBC Look North
On Thursday 15th October 2026, Ruth and our UK Managing Director Alastair Morris were interviewed on BBC Look North talking about the build, the partnership and what happened at the stadium activation.
Credit: BBC Look North
“Every invention we build starts as a drawing from a child who has been told to think as big as they like. What Accu gave us was not just the parts, it was a partner who took that drawing as seriously as we did. Standing in a football ground watching thousands of families queue to see a hairdryer two children dreamed up is about as good as this job gets.”
Ruth Amos
Co-Founder of Kids Invent Stuff
Credit: BBC Look North
“We put our name on this stadium to be truly be part of this community, not just to showcase who we are, but to demonstrate exactly what Accu was built to support - engineers of all ages creating exciting things. A world record built from two children’s drawing, held together with our fixings, in front of twenty thousand people on a Saturday afternoon is precisely what we had in mind. Ruth and the Kids Invent Stuff team make engineering look like the best fun you can have, and that is the message we want every child in Huddersfield to hear.”
Alastair Morris
Managing Director of Accu Limited
Why we do this
Engineering has an image problem with children and it isn't because the work is boring. It's because nobody shows them the good bits, the exciting stuff that fuels that passion for problem solving.
A giant purple hairdryer that actually dries hair does more for that than a simple careers leaflet. So does letting a child find out that a nut, a bolt and a steady hand are a genuinely satisfying combination.
This is not a one-off. We have worked with Ruth and Kids Invent Stuff before, including a challenge we presented at Makers Central in 2025, featuring our AccuBots combat robots and another brilliant kids invention - a cheeseburger fighting robot!
STEM outreach is written into our partnership with Huddersfield Town. Beyond the stadium, we back the next generation of would-be engineers through the Accu Scholarship and through academic partnerships with school, college and university engineering teams, from Formula Student to rocketry and hyperloop. You can read more about our commitment to STEM here.
'Building Tomorrow' is not a strapline we reserve for the website. It's a Saturday afternoon in a fan zone with a tray of nuts and bolts and a queue of kids who want a go.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the World’s Largest Hairdryer?
It measures 1.755 m long and 1.6 m tall (5 ft 9 in by 5 ft 3 in), as measured by Guinness World Records on 22nd April 2026. That makes it about eight times bigger than a normal blowdryer, or roughly the height of an adult. It takes four people, or an engine hoist, to move it.
Does it actually work?
Yes. It has an industrial fan and two large oven heater elements, giving it 5,000 watts against the 1,800 to 2,000 watts of a normal hairdryer, and it was tested on a volunteer in a working hair salon. At the Accu Stadium it was displayed static and unpowered for safety.
Is it an official Guinness World Records title?
Yes. The record for the largest hairdryer is held by Ruth Amos (UK), verified on 22nd April 2026, and features in the Guinness World Records 2027 annual, published on 10th September 2026. It is Ruth’s fourth Guinness World Records title, after the largest electric toothbrush (2.008 m, with Shawn Brown), the tallest supported 3D-printed interlocking plastic brick Christmas tree (1.81 m, with Accu's own engineer Ellis Ware) and most people making popcorn cannons simultaneously (157). Read the official World's Largest Hairdryer Guinness World Records story.
Who built it, and how long did it take?
Ruth Amos and the Kids Invent Stuff team, in their workshop in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The build took three weeks: metal ventilation ducts and aluminium straps for the shape, 14 cans of expanding foam and 12 litres of car body filler, then resin and fibreglass matting, sanding and paint.
Who designed it?
Two children, Kiki and Thea, whose idea won a competition run by Kids Invent Stuff in partnership with Guinness World Records, supported by Accu and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. Over 5,000 children aged four to 11 entered.
What was Accu’s role?
We supported the competition and gifted the stainless steel fixings used in the build: the rivets, screws, nuts, bolts and washers. We then hosted its first public display at the Accu Stadium.
What happened at the Accu Stadium?
On Saturday 10th October 2026, before Huddersfield Town v Sheffield Wednesday, the hairdryer went on free public display in the fan zone. Inside the Terriers’ Community Hub, children took part in mini record challenges including a tallest LEGO tower build, Accu’s Nuts About Bolts Challenge and an invention drawing station, with copies of the Guinness World Records 2027 annual and Accu Stadium prizes for the winners. Almost 20,000 people visited the stadium that day.
Can I see the hairdryer?
Kids Invent Stuff plan to display it at their invention shed at Gulliver’s Valley. Follow Kids Invent Stuff on YouTube for the build video and updates.
How does Accu support STEM?
Through partnerships like this one with Kids Invent Stuff, through STEM outreach built into our Huddersfield Town partnership, through the Accu Scholarship for engineering students, and through sponsorship of university engineering teams. Read about Accu’s commitment to STEM.
Further reading
- Accu x Kids Invent Stuff: Guinness World Records needs you, the original challenge article
- The Accu Scholarship: empowering the engineers of tomorrow
- What is STEM? Shaping tomorrow’s world
- YouTuber Ruth Amos secures spot in GWR 2027 with another supersized household item, Guinness World Records official article
- How to get a copy of the Guinness World Records 2027