They must be hard to open for people with weak grips like kids, old people and those with arthritis. Not to mention if you have slippery hands.
The image search also turned up a door knob gripper, so obviously it is a problem for some.
Why aren’t door handles used instead. Much easier to open for those with weak grips/wrists and if you have your hands full just press down with your elbow.
My experience with door handles is that I have to approach them cautiously, or risk stubbing my fingers. Also, when carrying 3 or 4 shopping bags, and trying to get through a door with a handle, it’s quite easy to get your free hand jammed under the handle. Plus, I’ve lost perfectly good shirts to the unwanted embrace of a door handle; rips the buttons right off before you even notice there’s a problem.
Some of us do have door handles at home. It’s especially common in newer apartment buildings.
I personally think door handles are kind of ugly, and doorknobs are much more attractive (though that second picture of a door handle you posted isn’t bad-looking, but the first one is butt-ugly IMO). I’d want doorknobs unless someone who actually needed door handles was living in my home. We don’t close doors at home often enough for the hands-full or slippery-hands issues to be a problem.
It’s also possible for pets to open doors that have door handles (my mom’s cat had figured out how to do it, by jumping up and grabbing the door handle with her paws), but it’s much harder for them to open doors with doorknobs.
And there’s also the problem of catching clothes, grocery bags, or other objects on door handles- I’ve managed to do that more than a few times. Door handles are much more likely to catch things than doorknobs, especially if they have a hook on the end like the first picture you posted.
I agree, mass production. I think sometimes Europeans forget how big the US is. Most European nations are about the size of one US state. When you’re that small, mass production is less important.
Some people forget how big Europe is (UK+France+Germany = two-thirds of the US)
No way is mass production the explanation. They’re going to produced on a huge scale in Europe, too - and with sales across the continent, not in individual countries. In any case, I don’t see that having to manufacture two versions of a handle design suddenly makes it an uncompetitive product - the economies of scale don’t halve just because the production of each version halves.
I spent a large portion of my life living in a house that had handles instead of knobs on all the exterior doors. I hated it. They were forever catching clothing or shopping bags; I cannot count the number of times I almost gave myself whiplash. Plus, our dog almost figured out how to open them (my parents moved just as he was starting to master it). It is easier to open a door with your hards full, but still… I prefer knobs, even if I hadn’t given it much thought until today.
UK + France + Germany = 1,276,689 km[sup]2[/sup]
US = 9,631,418 km[sup]2[/sup]
I think you mean some people forget how populated Europe is.
UK + France + Germany = 205,333,000 people
US = 297,446,000 people
Perhaps not to manufacture, but it might to stock it: now the distributor has to carry two versions of one style on his shelves; with round he could carry two different styles.
I can’t see either design having significant advantages. One may be more useful for the elderly or for people with a weak grip but takes more raw material to make and more room to store the necessary versions; the other is more universal and takes less raw material but infinitesmally less easy to use.
That’s what I was (poorly) trying to say. Now I need you to come explain what I mean in all the other threads.
It seems like the round, plain knobs are the purely functional and easily interchangeable ones you need on hand to replace in offices or apartments where nobody much cares what they look like. I can see a potential shipping and stocking headache because you always have too many of one and not enough of the other. Again, though, I’m completely talking out of my ass here and readily defer to any doorknob experts.
Um, people? Unless the door handle has an integrated lock or something, you don’t need two versions. You want to put it on the other side of the door, you just turn it around.
You don’t need to turn it upside down. Just rotate it 180 degrees around the up-down axis.
In fact, handles aren’t really on the left or right side - it just depends on where you’re looking from. If you notice that the handle on a door is to the left, walk through the doorway and look at the door from the other side. The handle will magically have moved to the right.
(UK+France+Germany = two-thirds of the US)