Talk:Hand dryer

Apparently, a study in England refutes the cleanliness advantage of hand dryers over towels. In fact, it claims that hand dryers actually greatly increase bacterial counts on hands after use.

http://www.lee-county.com/healthdept/data/Dryers.htm

This article makes a claim of 80% energy reduction, but the reference for this claim is someone's personal blog on which they've QUOTED THE STICKER on the dryer itself!

An additional claim of 90% comes from the Web site of a manufacturer, as does the claim of no maintenance.

A claim is made that paper towels can't be recycled. There is no reference to support this claim.

This article is essentially an ad for electric hand dryers and should be removed.

Ctgoat 14:16, 4 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I've removed a couple of lines from the article:
 * Hand dryers are eco-friendly.
 * What exactly does "eco-friendly" mean?
 * "Eco-friendly" in relation to what? Paper towels, I presume, although I shouldn't have to.
 * Where is a reference to support this?
 * Energy use (on a life cycle basis) is claimed to be reduced by as much as 80% in comparison with paper towels...
 * The reference given was the blog of someone who was allegedly copying this text almost verbatim from a sticker on a particular unit; not exactly a trustworthy source.
 * Even in that reference, the quoted 80% energy saving was NOT when compared to paper towels, but when compared to other, "standard" hand dryers.


 * I also added a reference to back up the assertion that paper towels cannot be recycled.


 * There is plenty more that needs to be done with this article, but I can only spare a few minutes to goof of at work and edit Wikipedia.


 * Nezuji (talk) 02:11, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree that this article is poor, but it is a topic that many are casually interested in, so I believe an article should exist. I think it would be more constructive to amend it than delete it.--Jrsnbarn 17:01, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Hand dryers are also less hygienic if people don't use them at all because they are too slow or if people use them incorrectly (neglecting to shake off excess water). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Danjdan (talk • contribs) 07:57, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The article states that paper towels are less popular, however I have seen lines for both towel dispensers and the blow driers so that does not justify not giving customers a choice as to which to use. Also paper towels in public restrooms tend to run out relatively early in the day, perhaps because they are so popular, and the receptacle for disposing them tends to overflow which is NOT hygienic. Maybe some form of waste compaction may solve the problem, however that begs the question of whether that takes more energy than heating air or accelerating it at a jet dryer. So I would not trust paper manufacturers to write the rules on public restrooms, and hygienic disparities depend more on maintenance than being inherent to any one form of hang cleaning.
 * I tend to believe electricity costs are more variable than the cost of tissue paper, I wonder if there are any studies by anyone who pays the maintenance bills on how these compare across industries. In any case, I am not sure either system is more popular for household use than washable hand towels}}, replacing them with dispensers OR blow driers may mean less laundering (some (Washing machines have different cycle settings for towels and linen or garments).
 * 24.46.46.43 (talk) 04:32, 6 April 2022 (UTC)LeucineZipper

Developments section
The "Developments" section's tone is inappropriate. Two specific concerns: (1) It's written like a Dyson advertisement/press release (2) The phrase "It seems that the Dyson Airblade may be a copy of" is non-encyclopedic in tone; it sounds like original research. Given the fact that it's sourced, it should be rephrased to a more definite, professional tone (i.e. "The Dyson Airblade is a copy of...") -- if that cannot truthfully be said, then it's non-encyclopedic knowledge and therefore has no place in the article. Thanks. Mr. P. S. Phillips (talk) 02:42, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

To make this more than a simple ad for the hand dryer industry, it would be interesting to tell the history of hand dryers, when the first one was introduced, by which company, what the sales are per year, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.209.118.163 (talk) 03:58, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

I'll start turning it into more of a history section. Takinzinnia (talk) 00:06, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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The most famous hand dryer brands by country
U.S.A - Dyson Brazil - Dakmark secador de mãos France - Italy - Japan - — Preceding unsigned comment added by Renatodellisola (talk • contribs) 14:21, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

NYT Story
Here's a story about the Facebook posting, which cites several scientific studies which are more recent than the ones quoted in this article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/health/hand-dryer-petri-dish.html Are Hand Dryers Actually Full of Bacteria? A Viral Photo Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story By MAGGIE ASTOR New York Times FEB. 9, 2018

--Nbauman (talk) 17:10, 9 February 2018 (UTC)