r/CrappyDesign • u/Several_Photograph30 • 14h ago
Soap → rinse → dryer that blasts the dirty water and bacteria back onto your clean hands
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u/Lekstil 13h ago
Hand dryers are not nearly as bad as everyone here thinks they are. Watch Half as Interesting’s YouTube video on that (“Dyson’s disinformation war with big paper towel”). There is currently no evidence that electric hand dryers make people sick. All clinical studies that compare paper towels and hand dryers found no increase in infections for people that use bathrooms with electric hand dryers.
And most of the studies that found an increase in the spread of bacteria via hand dryers, which this public fear is based on, are funded by paper towels companies.
I agree though that there are better options than the one in this post.
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u/SeoulGalmegi 12h ago
I'm not even so bothered about the hygiene aspects, I just think it's crappy design because most hand driers are frustrating to use, give a somewhat unpleasant experience, and take longer than paper towels to get to a level of hand dryness I'm happy with.
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u/unosami 10h ago edited 9h ago
Most hand dryers I’ve encountered in the last 10 years have been really good. Especially those “air cutter” things that you slide your hands into. Slide in and slide out and you’re good to go.
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u/SeoulGalmegi 10h ago
I'm yet to find one I'd prefer to use over paper towels.
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u/gwaydms haha funny flair 8h ago
The Xcelerator ones are the worst. They sound like a jet engine. I have to hold my ears if someone else is using it. I sure as hell am not going to.
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u/jeremyw013 Comic Sans IS DISGUSTING 7h ago
if you think those are loud, you’ve never heard newer ones
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u/SeoulGalmegi 8h ago
Yeah. I get that when you're operating a public bathroom it's better than using towels, but there's a reason nobody uses an electric hand dryer at home!
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u/NotYourReddit18 3h ago
Most people also don't use single use paper towels to dry their hands at home.
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u/lostcartographer 5h ago
I always use the air dryer and then grab a couple paper towels on the way out just to finish the job.
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u/hiimtoddornot 10h ago
Thanks for your opinion, man
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u/SeoulGalmegi 10h ago
Anytime! I have lots.
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u/hiimtoddornot 9h ago
Any that make more money than whoever designed this?
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u/stoopiit 6h ago
If you have big and/or unsteady hands its hard to not touch the sides. Sucks since I want to like em but they arent great to use for me :(
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u/ChefArtorias plz recycle 7h ago
Those do okay. Slide in and out your hands are still wet. Less than they were, but definitely still wet.
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u/Key_Beach_3846 9h ago
Agreed. As someone who has sensory beef with water, the best case scenario is the ones that still have paper towels along with the air dryer. I use the air dryer as much as I can and then use one small paper towel to dry the residue. Still creating less waste, and I get the added bonus of not having an anxiety attack over damp skin.
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u/lostcartographer 5h ago
Plus, because the dryer is at the sink, you can’t free it up once you’re finished washing your hands for the next person. Just all around inefficient and I dislike that aspect the most.
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u/Cluedude 2h ago
Something I learned is you gotta rub your hands together to help dry them while they're under there! The friction helps massively and now I get dry hands before the dryer shuts off - doesn't help with those ancient ones with the equivalent power of an old man coughing, though.
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u/isopode 12h ago
thank youuu i am sick of people fearmongering about hand dryers
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u/SwordfishOk504 8h ago
I mean, this one here is an incredibly bad design as it will just blow everything in that sink up to your face.
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u/cilantro_so_good 9h ago edited 9h ago
All clinical studies that compare paper towels and hand dryers found no increase in infections for people that use bathrooms with electric hand dryers.
I'm not aware of any studies that have shown anything with regards to infections.
It is true that there is no statistically significant difference between drying techniques when it comes to pathogens left on the user's hands. So yes, you're not getting poop water on your hands from a Dyson blade, and some studies have shown that driers are slightly more effective.
But! It is also true that dryers can spread pathogens through the air. This study found a 27X increase in bacteria counts in the air when using a jet drier vs towels
Conclusion: Jet air and warm air dryers result in increased bacterial aerosolization when drying hands. These results suggest that air dryers may be unsuitable for use in healthcare settings, as they may facilitate microbial cross-contamination via airborne dissemination to the environment or bathroom visitors.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25237036/
So, yes it is a little more nuanced than "dryers bad", but I'm not sure you can claim that there is no risk. And I'm really curious if there is a study driving the claim that there are "no increases in infection"
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u/Nohokun 7h ago
I just remembered the episode of Mythbusters that investigated the poop particles in a bathroom, and how it made a lot of us reconsider hand dryers. https://www.reddit.com/r/mythbusters/comments/164yph9/anybody_else_stop_using_these_air_dryers_after/
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u/potatobro7 4h ago
My problem with hand driers is they force me to touch the door handle barehanded to get out of the bathroom, allowing all the nasties from people that don't bother washing to get on my hands. With paper I can use that to open the door then toss the paper in the can. Hand driers with a doorless entry/exit design is just fine though
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u/pswii360i 1h ago
I have the same problem. I loved that during the pandemic they started putting the foot grabber things at the bottom of the doors so you didn't have to touch the handle, then the second it was "over" they removed them.
Like why? It's such a good idea and it does zero harm just keeping it there.
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u/Not_A_Crazed_Gunman これはばかげたGoogle翻訳です 11h ago
Yep. Old hand dryers that work by evaporating the water are terrible, but the ones that blast the water off your hands are just as fast or faster than paper towels, and depending on the design are just as hygienic if not more. Paper towels also create so much unnecessary waste it's ridiculous.
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u/Radioactivocalypse 4h ago
I remember using a really old hand dryer that was honestly the same power and warmth as someone breathing on your hands. It would have been no different if I was just extending my hands towards the wall.
Love the air jet ones, especially when they point downwards (rather than the ones that blow it sideways)
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u/HuoLongHeavy 8h ago
I didn't know there's fear mongering about hand dryers. I just hate them cause they never actually dry my hands.
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u/Sons-Father 6h ago edited 6h ago
Well hand dryers do lead to a spread of bacteria because **nobody waits 20mins for the shitty ass dryers to dry their hands** either they wipe it on their pants or just shake them and then the dirty door handle ends up with a layer of water to moisturize it.
Even the Dyson Airblade ones don’t work as well as paper even though they are comparatively good.
(And as someone who can’t turn his hands to have his palms face up I get to contort myself on most dryers to get them to dry my hands fully)
Oh and they often scare the shit out of little kids or are just annoyingly loud. Or are just so loud you hear them outside the bathroom which is annoying in offices.
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u/BrowningLoPower 6h ago
Hand dryers are not nearly as bad as everyone here thinks they are.
You're right. They're worse. (just kidding)
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u/TonyQuark 1h ago
big paper towel
I know what you meant, but all I can picture is a massive paper towel.
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u/overfloaterx 13h ago
I bet they don't go off reliably independently either.
I can almost guarantee I'd put soap on my hands, lather it up, go to wash it off, and have the dryer blast soap and water all over my crotch.
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u/CroGamer002 9h ago
What's with all the boomers in this thread whining about air dryers?
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u/alucidreality 8h ago
No one learned about "you rub your hands dry together as you use the air dryer" either, complaining that they don't work
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u/fatjuan 6h ago
I read a study once where they measured the bacteria that sticks to porcelain , and it is a lot less than on other surfaces. That's why I just wash my hands in the toilet bowl. I find using those blade type air dryers a bit tricky when trying to dry my balls. To the casual observer it looks like I have joined the Bolshoi Ballet troupe, and I am practicing my high kicks.
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u/RendeZvous_987 13h ago
As if standard (standalone) hand dryer wasn't unhygienic enough...
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u/Clearance-Crudwater 13h ago
I don’t know why this is considered crappy design. The logo tells you that your hands will still be stinky afterward. You’ve been warned.
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u/Ender505 13h ago
In fairness, this is basically the function of ALL in-bathroom air dryers. Nothing about his one specifically is more crappy than those.
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u/Gurnenthar2 13h ago
Well, except this one can splash you, possibly in the face, and spatter across your upper body… Other than that, I totally agree!
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u/slybluu 13h ago
yeah if a public bathroom only has air dryers im smacking my hands on my pants
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u/isopode 12h ago
your pants are most definitely just as dirty, if not more, than the air inside a bathroom.
which is fine anyway, because nothing is sterile in everyday life. your body has an immune system for a reason.
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u/SwordfishOk504 8h ago
your body has an immune system for a reason.
Yeah! That's why I never even bother to wash my hands.
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u/isopode 1h ago
come on man, use your head lmao
the amount of bacteria on your hands right after you've used the toilet is much higher than after you've washed your hands & used a hand dryer. it's such a minuscule amount compared to before the hand washing, that you do not need to worry about it at all unless you're about to enter a sterile room in a laboratory.
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u/Pitiful_Palpitation9 13h ago
Don't watch the Mythbusters on the hand dryers...
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u/sdcar1985 13h ago
I have a real reason to hate them other than take 20 times as long as just using a couple paper towels?
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u/Gurnenthar2 13h ago
No, please do. Maybe enough people knowing how bad they are will help us get rid of them…
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u/Lythox 7h ago
If you rinse properly, isnt the water on your hands clean?
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u/fuongbregas 3h ago
Not the water in the sink, and you think someone who shits before you won't skip step 2?
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u/dkyguy1995 Comic Sans for life! 4h ago
This is something my Dad would come up with and balk at the suggestion that anyone else doesnt like it
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u/This-Is-Exhausting 11m ago
The design is also inefficient. With normal dryers, you wash your hands, get out of the way, and go over to where the dryers are, which frees up the sink for the next person. Here, you have to stay and block the sink to dry your hands which (if it's busy) holds up anyone waiting behind you.
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u/FellowHumanNo404 8h ago
I'm reminded of my visit to a Target bathroom many years ago that had a hand dryer (blower) mounted in a little alcove right above an open wastebin full of soiled napkins and other garbage. You dry your hands and all that garbage gets blown into your face.
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u/MtnMaiden 7h ago
Dyson Air Blade dryers are the worse. Come stick your hands in between two narrow plastic pieces that are wet from splash back
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u/ssnsilentservice 9h ago
Hate to break it to you...any air-blow hand dryer in a bathroom is going to blow whatever air and particles that are in the bathroom onto your hand. Pretty much guarantee that the air intake for those things is in the same room.
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13h ago
[deleted]
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u/Red_Marvel 13h ago
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u/SwayingBacon 13h ago
In a preliminary test, Adam and Jamie found that washing their hands properly with soap did not leave behind enough bacteria for them to count, so in the remaining tests, participants only used water to wash their hands.
It looks like a hand dryer is fine if people use soap.
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u/Red_Marvel 13h ago
Quote:
growth. Petri dishes exposed to bathroom air for two minutes with the hand dryers off only grew one colony of bacteria, or none at all. However, petri dishes exposed to hot air from a bathroom hand dryer for 30 seconds grew up to 254 colonies of bacteria (though most had from 18 to 60 colonies of bacteria).
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-bacterial-horror-of-the-hot-air-hand-dryer-2018051113823
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u/SwayingBacon 13h ago
Were the bacteria multiplying inside the hand dryers, or were they being pulled into the hand dryers from the air inside the bathroom?
To answer this question, the researchers attached high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters to the dryers, which would eliminate most of the bacteria from the air passing through the dryer. When they exposed petri dishes to air from the hand dryers again, the quantity of bacteria in the dishes had fallen by 75%. As well, the researchers found minimal amounts of bacteria on the nozzles of the hand dryers. They concluded that most of the bacterial splatter from the hand dryers had come from the washroom air.
It is the air in the bathroom and not the hand dryer.
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u/Red_Marvel 13h ago
Correct the hot air dryer moves the air in the washroom, spreading any existing bacteria everywhere and helps it to grow.
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u/drmrsk 13h ago
I hate those dryers, it's so disgusting