Saturday, June 28, 2014

Hand Dryers

EVIL!
Written on June 14, 2014
 
Public bathroom users, we have a modern day crisis: Hand dryers are invading the modern public restrooom. It's true. When you go to wash your hands, instead of being provided with the customary paper towel, you get this contraption. They are singularly ruining the public bathroom experience as if it wasn't bad enough.
 
Here's a fun fact: hand dryers don't freaking dry your hands. I mean, theoretically they do. If you stand there for like fifteen minutes, maybe your hands would actually be dry. But who has time for that? I don't. So I usually have to end up putting it under there for a little bit and then wipe it on my pants. And then that leaves me with a wet butt. Like who wants a wet butt?
 
Now, they say it's for the environment. I'm sure there are some eco freaks who buy into that argument. I mean, you're cutting down waste and all because less trees are being chopped down and all that jazz. After all, on the surface, it makes sense. Really, though, it doesn't, because you have to remember that oh yeah, it doesn't actually work. So it's useless. There might as well be nothing there. 
 
Anyway, I know these places love to pretend like they care about the environment, but, in reality, it's all about the money. Sure, a paper towel dispenser might be cheaper to install at first, but I guess in the long run, it saves money since they don't have to keep replacing public towels. Excluding rest stops, most of these places make more than enough money to cover the costs, though, so this is a pretty lame reason to me.
 
Yeah, yeah, I should be happy it saves some trees, but it's a little hard to be grateful when I have to walk outside with a wet butt.
 
So call me Tree-Killer but I really need good-old paper towels.
 
Much better

5 comments:

  1. One of the things that a lot of people don't think about, too, is that hand dryers are basically a factory for bacteria and germs. Moist, warm environment that isn't exactly getting cleaned all the time...yeah. It's better, health-wise, to skip trying to dry under the hand dryer at all. Personally, I just rinse my hands, skip the hand soap, try to flick as much water off as possible, and dry off on my pants. Handwashing is mostly to get rid of the physical stuff on your hands that could provide a breeding ground for bad stuff, so washing hands makes sense there, but I keep hand sanitizer in my bag and I'd rather just use that than try to rinse off soap with the tiny little trickle of automatic hand-sensing water that shuts off a dozen times while I'm rinsing.

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    Replies
    1. I didn't even think of that point. Another reason to skip hand dryers!

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  2. Wonderful ! I came accross a very interesting website with more info on this product: http://www.archiexpo.com/architecture-design-manufacturer/hand-dryer-270.html

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  3. Modern hand dryers are efficient at drying your hands. The old fashioned ones (as pictured) were useless and relied on blowing 'hot air' onto your hands in an attempt to evaporate the water. Obviously evaporation is a tedious process. Modern high speed dryers instead 'blow' the water off your hands, and should be able to dry your hands quite well in less than 10 seconds.

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