In the past, when people used public restrooms all they had available to dry their hands with after washing was cheap paper towels. The wastebaskets would fill up with paper towels that needed to be thrown away after having been used. Inevitably paper towels would end up on the floor rather than in the wastebasket. A restroom attendant would have to empty the wastebaskets when they became full, and round up all the paper towels that never made it into the basket. The attendant would have to restock the paper towel dispenser whenever the paper towels ran out.
Not Quite Up To Par
Then came electric hand dryers. At first, people resisted the new trend. This invention didn’t seem like much of an upgrade. Bathroom hand dryers took too long to dry a user’s hands. Even after several cycles under the hand dryer, which could take several minutes, their hands were not quite dry. People were assured that the new hand dryers were better for the environment, but all they saw was that when they left the restrooms their hands were still wet. These old-style hand dryers were just not quite up to the task.
Next Generation
Newer hand dryers for bathroom are not like their predecessors at all. The time it takes a hand dryer to dry a user’s hands is down to about 12 seconds. With automatic sensors, the user no longer has to touch a button on the machine that could be spreading bacteria. The biggest advantage to using modern hand dryers is to the business who owns the restroom. Reports show that operating costs for modern electric hand dryers can be as low as 10% of the cost of paper towels. Paper towels require constant re-stocking, and removal of waste. Quality hand dryers require almost no maintenance, and they can have useful lifetimes of many years. Once a hand dryer is installed, they can basically be left alone to do their thing requiring very little attention. The only recurring cost of these hand dryers is really the electricity they consume, and modern models have become very efficient.
The Better Alternative
With all the benefits of bathroom hand dryers, the only possible downside would be the higher up-front cost for installing hand dryers. Of course, with all the savings a business will see, electric hand dryers will actually pay for themselves in a fairly short length of time.
