Germs aren’t just gross, they’re potentially dangerous—and you don’t need to be germophobic to understand the dangers they present. Now is the perfect time of year to keep you on your toes with germ awareness and show you how our line of high-efficiency hand dryers can help alleviate your germ concerns.
Even if you’re a firm paper towel believer and won’t use anything else to dry your hands after thoroughly washing them, we think by the end of this ‘debate,’ you’ll be pro-Electrostatic HEPA (eHEPA®) hand dryers! Check out what great facts Excel Dryer has to offer about hand hygiene resources:
What are the top Reasons to Avoid Paper Towels?
As crazy as it may sound, paper towel dispensers can be high-maintenance. Keeping up with them takes time, money, and energy. With a paper towel dispenser, almost constant touches are required of staff — filling the dispensers daily (or more often for commercial facilities), as well as cleaning up both properly discarded towels in garbage bins and improperly discarded towels left on floors or in sinks and toilets. In this way, paper towels create much hassle and strain on custodial staff, while also requiring them to touch many surfaces on a daily basis.
Limiting touches has become more than an option or piece of consideration for architects, designers, and facility managers. It’s now a requirement, one that could become a deciding factor in how customers choose which businesses they visit. When considering a restroom, it’s widely discussed how much bacteria is located on various surfaces — toilet handles, sink handles, soap dispensers, door handles, and light switches are just some of the places that are known to be covered in bacteria.
Paper towels aren’t as effective as hand dryers for various reasons. From their negative environmental impact to the chemicals used to make them, they aren’t as reliable as many think. While their durability isn’t as strong, they require more to be used in one sitting, leading to more waste.
Do Hand Dryers Blow Around Germs?
Stopping the spread of germs starts and ends with proper handwashing. If hands are washed properly, the spread of germs is no longer a concern. To give guests peace of mind, try including a sign above the sink area with directions for proper hand washing:
Wet your hands with running water—either warm or cold.
Apply soap to a cupped hand.
Lather well.
Rub your hands, palm to palm, vigorously for at least 20 seconds.
Rinse well.
While properly washing your hands is key to getting rid of the germs and bacteria living on your hands, using a hand dryer will not “blow around” other airborne pathogens or particles. Drying your hands immediately after washing them is important. Using a touchless hand dryer right by the sink helps you avoid touching additional surfaces, thereby reducing the risk of picking up germs and blowing them around.
Excel’s hand dryers remove 99.97% of potentially present bacteria at 0.3 microns from the air stream. With this high percentage, you’re guaranteed to have a positive hand-washing and drying experience. Since hand dryers are touchless, you aren’t at risk of picking up additional germs like you are when touching the surface of a paper towel dispenser. Take a look at our hygiene case study to learn more.
How Cost-Effective Are Hand Dryers
Operating costs to keep up with paper towels can be detrimental to your yearly budget. Investing in touchless eHEPA hand dryers can save you thousands of dollars annually, allowing you to put that money elsewhere. At first, the hand dryer can be an expensive cost, but your return on investment will take less than a year to earn back.
If you’re a consumer looking to make this leap and purchase a hand dryer but are genuinely curious about the cost savings, check out our savings calculator. This can help you determine your ROI, annual savings, and annual climate change benefits. If you are a small business owner but may potentially expand your business, you can increase the scale to review the total savings and get an idea of how much money you can save. Of course, larger businesses or facilities would use more paper towels, leading to a shorter ROI and higher annual savings.
Why Choose Hand Dryers Over Paper Towels?
With the aforementioned, choosing the hand dryer route seems like a no-brainer. With decreased operation costs, a focus on energy efficiency, and giving consumers the proper hand-washing experience, Excel Dryer stands ready to serve as a partner in this journey. We want to help guide consumers toward a more sustainable and cost-effective future. Let’s join hands in positively impacting both our bottom line and the planet.
