I find that the electric dryers don’t save money at fast food places, because most people walk over to the napkin dispenser, grab a handful. And dry their hands that way.
However, the McDonald’s near me has installed some high powered electric dryers that really dry! And I was impressed when I was in England, at the number of places that had Dyson hand dryers. Those things work.
I don’t think they have a time limit, since usually you can find a “sweet spot” where if you hold your hands there water will continue to flow indefinitely.
The sensor usually seems to be aimed at the space in the center of the sink, so I don’t think people walking by would be a problem.
I think they’re sold mainly for supposed reasons of cleanliness. If you were mainly concerned about conserving water, you’d get the kind with the knob you have to push in to turn on the water, which slowly rises back up and shuts off the water when it does, giving you a 5-10 second supply of water. The whole point of these touchless things is that you don’t have to touch them. I have a friend who’s a serious germophobe, and he vociferously complains if a bathroom features any other type of fixture than this one. Some people can’t stand the idea of touching something that was touched by someone else who just went to the bathroom and hadn’t washed their hands yet when they touched it.
Indeed, and my own anecdotal evidence (to add to a thread full of the same) is that they are often aimed where I don’t want them to be. I wash my hands below the level of the countertop so that I don’t splash water everywhere. I find these faucets are often aimed such that I can only get a steady flow if I keep my hands at or above the level of the countertop. (Some of them seem simply poorly designed more fundamentally, of course, with delays sitting near typically reaction times and whatnot, inducing all sorts of hand-dancing.)
Am I the only one who does NOT hate automation? Seems find to me.
If I need more paper towels, for example, I just wave my hand again after I’m done with using the first paper towel.
I don’t see the problem?
The problem is that frequently (though not always) the dispensers give out a sliver of towel that is too small to do any meaningful drying with, and the sensor is strategically placed so that you have to tear off the first sliver before you can get a second sliver. And by the time you get enough slivers to dry your hands you’ve used about twice as much paper as if they gave you a reasonably sized sheet in the first place.
Just curious, how old are you? My kids are in their late 20s and they love all the new automated stuff.
Interesting that people seem more frustrated with the paper towel dispensers than the faucets. In my experience, the former work at least passably most of the time, whereas the latter never work acceptably. Sure, I may have to wave my hand several times to get enough paper towel to dry my hands adequately, but that’s not hard to do, and the frequency with which I have to stand there and wait, waving my hand but getting no towel, waiting longer for the sensor’s inactive period to pass, waving again, etc., is pretty low. With the faucets, on the other hand, I can never just keep rubbing my hands together under the faucet and have the water keep flowing the way I want to. I usually wind up finding that “sweet spot,” then holding one hand there to keep the water flowing while rinsing the other hand, then swapping hands. This makes rubbing both hands together under flowing water impossible.
I’m very far from any twenties at all & I’m fine with the automated bathroom accessories.