I dislike pulldown hand towels.

[RockinZ28]

Sickening. Also air dryers are nasty too, have to stick my hand under my shirt to open the door since there are no paper towels.

Much prefer the motion sensing towel dispensers. If its a manual, I crank out the paper before washing my hands.

 

[0roo0roo]

Oh I find those pale in comparison to any motion activated sink faucets, many only dole out water for 2 seconds. I mean really? Such places pretty much tell you they are encouraging their employees to have poor hygiene if it is a restaurant or whatever. Pretty damn gross.

 

[Locut0s]

Oh I find those pale in comparison to any motion activated sink faucets, many only dole out water for 2 seconds. I mean really? Such places pretty much tell you they are encouraging their employees to have poor hygiene if it is a restaurant or whatever. Pretty damn gross.

I think you are referring to the spring loaded auto shut off faucets. You know the ones where you have hit the big round button on top and then get like 3 seconds of water while the spring pushes the button back up to shut the faucet off? Hate those things. All the infrared motion activated faucets I've seen dispense as much water as you want, course you have to keep your hands moving cause it's a "motion" sensor.

 

[Howard]

i hate the one that ratchets out one sheet at a time and perforates the next piece and has that star wheel or kitchen stove dial looking handle you have to touch if the previous cut towel got sucked back in the dispenser.

there is a technique involved in being able to pull the first sheet and letting the next one pop out. a technique that nobody apparently knows but me.

We have those at work, and they work quite well. Perhaps the type that you have was not designed well?

 

[Wanescotting]

I don't understand. I prefer old fashioned knobs on the sink and paper towels. Why would you think air dryers are more sanitary? they spread fecal form bacteria as well as anything else..

I would be more concerned about this: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=182722

 

[DrPizza]

I *loved* having one of those cloth towel dispenser things where I worked. One of the local linen supply companies convinced my boss to try one for a week. It worked great! Two people could easily turn an unwilling coworker into a mummy. A roll had enough towel on it so that you could prop the mummified coworker against a wall at an angle, so he'd be completely unable to move. (If left standing upright, there was enough flexibility at the ankle to allow one to hop away, albeit not quickly enough to avoid being recaptured.


Also, there's been a big debate over the years between which is better - air dryers or paper towels. Any environmental arguments (oh noes! Think of the trees! Then again, save the wheat fields - recycle toast!) are purely secondary to arguments about which is more sanitary. There have been a few articles in nursing journals about paper towels being more sanitary. Risk (as mentioned in this thread) of air dryers blowing bacteria contaminated droplets is pretty high. Also, iirc, the warm surfaces (not the heating elements) inside a blow dryer provides a good place for bacteria to grow. I took a look on Google Scholar for articles. I found none that bashed paper towels. But, there seems to be some debate on the blow dryers - some studies didn't find them bad - about equal to paper towels. Other studies found them to be definitely worse. Regardless, even of the studies that found them on the same level of sanitation as paper towels, they still don't recommend blow dryers in critical areas of hospitals.

Gould D. The significance of hand-drying in the prevention of infection. Nurs Times. 1994; 90(47):33-5

Lee M. Paper and cloth towels found to be more hygienic than air dryers. Health Facil Manage. 1994; 7(8):114, 116

Ngeow YF, Ong HW. Tan P. Dispersal of bacteria by an electric air hand dryer. Malaysian Journal of Pathology. 1989; 11:53-6.

 

[0roo0roo]

I think you are referring to the spring loaded auto shut off faucets. You know the ones where you have hit the big round button on top and then get like 3 seconds of water while the spring pushes the button back up to shut the faucet off? Hate those things. All the infrared motion activated faucets I've seen dispense as much water as you want, course you have to keep your hands moving cause it's a "motion" sensor.

no, those at least you can manually wack to restart over and over. these are the electronically controlled units which are as reliable as auto flush toilets are, wave your hand over it and hope..hope it turns on for 3 seconds. there might be a time out between activation's or something as well. i guess there are some that stay on, but there are others that are really stingy and turn off over and over. doesn't matter if you keep moving, you are rationed 3 seconds of water

 

[Locut0s]

no, those at least you can manually wack to restart over and over. these are the electronically controlled units which are as reliable as auto flush toilets are, wave your hand over it and hope..hope it turns on for 3 seconds. there might be a time out between activation's or something as well. i guess there are some that stay on, but there are others that are really stingy and turn off over and over. doesn't matter if you keep moving, you are rationed 3 seconds of water

Hmm I may have come across one of these but it's not the norm. Most just allow you to use as much water as you want so long as you keep moving your hands. Now the automatic soap dispensers that ejaculate into your hand is another thing.

 

[flvinny521]

If the Dyson Airblade were a bit deeper and have a drain at the bottom, it would be the perfect solution. I have relatively small hands, so it is my favorite because I don't face the issues described here.

From reading some of the comments, though, it seemed like somebody wasn't using it correctly. You should put your hands all the way in, and then pull them out slowly, so your hand is dried from the wrist to your fingertips. You shouldn't "end up" with your fingers in the bottom.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've ran into one of the "loop" towel systems. I figured today where you see hand sanitizer everywhere you go, that these would be out. Kinda gross to think that the towel gets reused. Got to wonder how often they even replace them.

 

[cerebusPu]

I saw alot of those loop cloth towel dispensers when i was visiting the UK. i also saw alot of tiny urinals so close to each other that you were touching the next person over when peeing. heh...shiver.

 

[feralkid]

dyson airblade isn't deep enough. by the time you get the heel of your hand in the thing your fingers are in the nasty water collecting at the bottom.

You're doing it wrong.