Cordless doorbells outdone....

[The Medway Handyman]

I was in the cleaning equipment game for 30 years before I became a handyman, the hand driers v paper towels argument was a regular feature in the trade press.

The paper manufacturers are huge multi nationals, the hand drier manufacturers are largely SME's.

The paper guys have two competitors - other paper guys & hand driers.

They compete with each other buy offering free dispensers which only take their paper, until a 'patent part' paper roll is introduced, then they change again.

The problem is they can't get into the huge high volume market with paper towels; shopping malls, airports, motorway service areas - because of the huge logistics problem - storing paper, replenishing supplies, removing waste.

So they constantly make the claim that hand driers spread bacteria.

However, if you have just wased your hands in a biocidal soap, there are no bacteria to be blown about.

[dennis]

Why do you think the NHS use lever taps or press button taps. You don't have to touch them after washing. Also you can always wash the taps while washing your hands.

[dennis]

I don't really trust any claims made by someone who insists secondary smoking is harmless. Especially when secondary smoking makes me ill.

[The Medway Handyman]

Life has made you ill, you sad git.

[Nightjar]

I would not class Rentokil Initial as an SME.

That is making the, probably invalid, assumption that the person washing their hands has been trained in how to wash their hands in a manner that ensures all parts are cleansed and that they do it properly. It is also irrelevant in the majority of toilets, which are unlikely to pay for a biocidal soap, and ignores the fact that a lot of bacteria can breed inside the hand dryer.

Colin Bignell

[Nick Odell]

Not something I worry too much about since I'm going to wash everything off my hands moments later. Push-down taps that you don't have to turn off or, as Dennis mentions, lever taps make it better too.

No, the thing that gets me - after I've done the right thing and washed and dried my hands - is that I'm going to have to touch a door handle that's been touched by someone who hasn't (done the right thing.) My technique in a small, individual public toilet is to dry my hands then use the paper towel to switch off the light (if required) and unlock and open the door, throwing the towel in the bin on the way out. In a communual facility I wait for someone else to go out or in and follow them through or flick the door further open with my shoe.

Nick

[Dave Liquorice]

If you believe that a "safe" biocidal soap kills everything, think again Gunga Din. It'll certainly reduce the bacterial load but there will still be millions of 'em about.

Quite, how often do you see people just dibbling their finger tips into a dribble of cold water for 3 seconds as "washing their hands".

Most toilet do have soap these days wether it is a biocidal one is another matter. the bigger problem is the water, it's normally cold, not even the "safe" 43C tepid. If there is hot it will most likely be 60C+ and scalding...

[The Medway Handyman]

Do we have any stats on how many people contract the dreaded lurgy from public toilets?

[Adam Funk]

Do you have electric hand-driers in your house? Why not, if they're so great?

[The Medway Handyman]

I don't have paper towels either.

[The Medway Handyman]

Hand driers are a tiny part of their overall business.

Not in a high volume washroom.

[ARWadsworth]

I don't have one because I would have to remove the bathroom tiles to get the supply cable in.

[Nightjar]

What is important is not how much of their business is in hand driers, except, possibly as an indication of the relative demand for them, but what penetration they have into the washroom business. They are a major player and they supply all types of equipment. The same option is open to any large towel supplier, so they don't really need to falsify data.

Do you have microbiological data to back up that claim? As I said, the study is consistent with my experiences from running a clean room and that is based upon daily bioburden testing over a period of 15 years.

Colin Bignell

[Adam Funk]

If you were redoing the bathroom, you'd actually consider using one? The noise & the irritating waste of time wouldn't bother you?

[docholliday93]

On Wednesday, August 29, 2012 5:31:51 PM UTC+1, The Natural Philosopher wro= te:

Not long after moving to my present place of work (before the mobile phone = became ubiquitous) I had to drive about 130 miles to a customer because the= y'd lost signal on the fibre link we'd supplied them. By the time I arrived= , at around 7p.m., they had discovered the fault for themselves and fixed i= t - the bodge they were using to connect to the electrical input had finall= y given up and one of the connector pins was broken. Subsequent discussion = disclosed that the connector they had specified - which had cost us enormou= s effort to source - was not really the one they wanted; they'd have prefer= red the one we normally used! Still, they had the decency to buy me dinner, and it was long enough ago th= at I could charge full mileage rate for the whole journey...

[ARW]

That's the ex wife and ex gfs you are talking about:-)

But the noise would be a problem if others were asleep in the house.