When hand dryers were first introduced there were no options. If you wanted to purchases and install a hand dryer in your office, store, service station, etc it was a big cast iron box that was operated with a push button. As the product developed it wasn’t long before an automatic hand dryer became available. These units employed a sensor that activated the unit when hands were placed under the warm air outlet.
The obvious advantages of an automatic hand dryer:
An automatic hand dryer has numerous advantages, the first is hygiene. With an automatic unit there is absolutely no reason to touch anything after the hands have been washed and rinsed.
Energy savings are also a major advantage. Older units that were operated with an on-button ran through a cycle, with an automatic hand dryer it only runs until the job is done. Modern hand dryers are far faster than previous generations, many units can completely dry hands in 10 seconds while a push button unit dry cycle is often 30 seconds or more.
Durability and ease of maintenance:
There is no denying the fact that when automatic hand dryers were first introduced they were less reliable than push button models that were available at the time. The sensors that were used were quite sensitive and had rather short life spans.
This is no longer an issue; improved electronics have made these problems a thing of the past. Sensors have no moving parts; the same cannot be said for push buttons.
An automatic hand dryer is convenient, hygienic and energy saving. As the industry continues to mature fewer and fewer manual hand dryers will be available. Regardless of what model automatic hand dryer you use, you will never have the problems that are inherent with paper towels; bacteria and litter being two of the worst.
