Hair Dryers
Revlon SmoothStay: What the Published Specs Say
The cheapest dryer we cover draws more power than every flagship here. It also tells you less about itself than any of them.
Updated September 2026 · Sawyer V.
Revlon publishes 1,875 W, three heat settings, two speed settings, a 1 inch triple-coated ceramic grill with tourmaline ionic technology, and coconut oil infusion. It publishes no weight, cord length, attachment list, voltage rating or warranty term. It costs about $22.35 a year to run.
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The number that embarrasses the category
1,875 W. Revlon publishes it plainly on their own product page, and it is the joint highest figure in our entire registry — tied exactly with the ghd Helios, a salon-brand dryer that costs several times more.
It is 275 W more than the Dyson Supersonic and 575 W more than the Dyson Airwrap. If wattage were what the money bought, the price structure of this whole industry would be upside down.
It is not, and the honest explanation matters. Wattage measures how much electricity the heating element can convert into heat. It does not measure airflow, and airflow is what removes water from hair. Nobody in this category publishes airflow in comparable units, so the one number that would settle drying speed is unavailable everywhere — the fuller argument is on the wattage page and the drying time page.
What 1,875 W does tell you is that this dryer can put a lot of heat into your hair. On robust hair being rough-dried before styling, that is exactly what you want.
What it costs to run
What it costs to run for a year
$22.35 a year
1,875 W × 65 hours a year = 121.9 kWh, at 18.34 cents per kilowatt-hour. The hours assume 15 minutes a session, 5 days a week — that is an assumption, not a measurement, so swap in your own if it is wrong.
$22.35 a year makes it the joint most expensive dryer on this site to run, which is the direct consequence of being the joint most powerful. The Dyson Airwrap, at the other end, costs $15.50.
Nobody should buy on running cost — the whole spread is under seven dollars a year — but the direction is worth noticing, because it is the opposite of what people assume. The cheap dryer is not the cheap one to own; it is the one that draws the most power. Full arithmetic on the running costs page.
The five blank rows
Our standard spec block has ten rows and it runs identically on every product on this site. Here, five of them are empty.
Revlon SmoothStay against the two dryers it ties or beats on wattage
| Specification | Revlon SmoothStay | ghd Helios | Dyson Supersonic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wattage | 1,875 W | 1,875 W | 1,600 W |
| Heat settings | 3 | Variable, with a cool shot | 4, including a cold shot |
| Speed settings | 2 | Variable power control | 3 |
| Weight | Not published | Not published | 1.8 lb |
| Cord length | Not published | 9 ft | 8.6 ft |
| Attachments | Not published | Not published | 3, listed |
| Dual voltage | Not published | Stated: not universal voltage | No — 120 V |
| Warranty | Not published | 2 years consumer | 2 years limited |
The warranty row is the one that would change a purchase. Revlon publishes a four-year limited warranty on their One-Step Volumizer Plus hot air brush — the longest term in this registry — and nothing at all on this dryer. Two products, one brand, opposite disclosure.
The attachment row is the one that decides whether it suits your hair. With no published list, you cannot confirm a diffuser or a concentrator is in the box, and on curly hair the diffuser is the entire purchase — why that matters is here.
Two speed settings is the real limitation
Three heat settings is modest. Two speed settings is the specification we would actually push back on, and it is the fewest of any dryer we list.
Air speed is what disturbs a drying curl pattern, and it is what makes a dryer uncomfortable to hold near your face. With two settings, the “low” option is a division of the highest wattage in this registry — that is not the same thing as a gentle setting, and it is why this dryer is our named skip on the wavy hair page and on the curly-hair dryers page.
On straight or wavy hair being rough-dried and then ironed, two speeds is genuinely enough. The tool is not badly designed; it is designed for a narrower job than the marketing implies.
Coconut oil, ceramic and tourmaline
Revlon publishes a 1 inch triple-coated ceramic grill infused with coconut oil, plus ceramic tourmaline ionic technology. These are real published claims and it is worth being precise about what they can and cannot support.
- Ceramic coating spreads heat more evenly across the grill than bare metal. Reasonable, and universal at this point — almost every tool in our registry publishes a ceramic surface of some kind.
- Tourmaline ionic is the standard vocabulary of the category. It appears on premium and drugstore tools alike, which is precisely why it stopped being a differentiator — the ionic page works through what the claim is and is not.
- Coconut oil infusion in a grill coating is a claim we cannot evaluate. No published figure quantifies it and we have not tested the dryer, so we neither repeat it as a benefit nor call it nothing.
Who this is for
- Robust, straight or wavy hair that just needs drying. Joint most powerful dryer here, at the lowest price. This is the honest case and it is a good one.
- Anyone rough-drying before an iron. The styling is happening later; you want the water gone.
- Second dryers. A gym bag, a spare bathroom, a holiday house.
Who should skip it
- Fine, colored or damaged hair. Six heat-and-speed combinations, the fewest here, on the most powerful element here. See the color-treated page.
- Curly hair. No confirmable diffuser, and two speeds.
- Anyone traveling. No published voltage rating at all — and a blank row is not a yes. Why that matters.
What we cannot tell you
We have not used this dryer. We do not know what it weighs, how long its cord is, what comes in the box, how loud it is, or how long Revlon will stand behind it — because none of those figures appear on the product page we cite. That absence is the review.
For the direct head-to-head against the salon dryer publishing the same wattage, see Helios versus SmoothStay.
The tools on this page
Prices come from the live price layer. Where none is available the button says so rather than showing a number we cannot stand behind.
Revlon SmoothStay Coconut Oil-Infused hair dryer
The highest published wattage in this registry attached to the thinnest published spec sheet — Revlon states the watts and almost nothing else.
ghd Helios 1875W advanced professional hair dryer
A premium brand publishing exactly the same 1,875 W as a drugstore Revlon — the clearest evidence on this site that wattage is not what the money buys.
Dyson Supersonic hair dryer
1,600 W is less power than a drugstore dryer draws, and Dyson publishes that openly — the pitch is airflow and heat control, not wattage.
Questions people actually ask
How many watts is the Revlon SmoothStay?
1,875 W, published by Revlon. That is the joint highest wattage in our registry, tied exactly with the ghd Helios, a salon dryer costing several times more.
Is the Revlon SmoothStay dual voltage?
Revlon publishes no voltage rating for it at all. A blank row is not a yes — check the rating plate on the handle before assuming anything, and do not plug it in abroad without doing so.
Does the Revlon SmoothStay come with a diffuser?
Revlon publishes no attachment list, so it cannot be confirmed before buying. On curly hair, where the diffuser is the whole purchase, that blank row is disqualifying.