Get the very best blowdryer

For Vancouver hair stylist Trish Barchuk, a great blowdryer is essential -- especially one that's quiet.

"(I like) something that's quiet, that's light and has a lot of power to it," she says.

Her 'Bespoke Labs T3' is very fast, but costs $400.

That's more than many want to spend so Consumer Reports put 10 lower priced blowdryers to the test, including top-selling Conair. The blowdryers cost anywhere from a mere $20 all the way up to $200.

In a temperature and humidity controlled room, testers dipped samples of human hair into warm water then dried them with each of the blowdryers.

"We had 10 panelists take them home and try them out. They all dried at about the same speed," says Sue Perry with Consumer Reports ShopSmart magazine.

And although dryers tout things like pure ceramic technology and tourmaline ionic, these didn't seem to affect the drying rate. But there were big differences in how noisy the blowers were.

The lowest-rated dryer, the Conair Ionic Cord Keeper, is as loud as some lawnmowers.

In the end, the quietest dryer is also the top-rated one. It's the 'CHI Pro GF 1505'. At $135 it's a splurge, but panelists really liked it.

"Panelists said it was lightweight, dried hair quickly, and one even said it made her hair extremely shiny," says Perry.

But if a fabulous haircut is what you want to splurge on, SharpSmart says consider the Revlon 'RV544 Tourmaline Ionic'. At just $30 Canadian, it's a bargain.

"It's got a great feature that the more expensive brands actually lack -- separate heat and speed settings so you can control temperature and air flow," says Perry.

And if you want more professional results, Barchuk recommends a dryer with a cold shot feature.

"The cool air is going to set the hair so it's going to hold the style."

You'll see hair dryers all have different wattages. But Consumer Reports' tests show the number of watts is no indication of how well a dryer dries. Blowers with lower wattage did just as well as those with higher -- and lower wattage means they are cheaper to use.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen