Relevant thread on the same subject from two weeks ago:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837</a>
Hand dryers need to die.<p>Their primary benefit is lower cost of operation for the facility, but other than that, their environmental impact is at best marginally better than paper towels, and worst is their hygienic aspect.<p>Various studies have found up to a two-fold increase in bacteria count on users' hands, as well as a risk of contaminating the surrounding area with bacteria blown off of the user's skin:<p>"In 2009 a published study was conducted by the University of Westminster to compare the levels of hygiene offered by paper towels, warm air hand dryers and the more modern jet-air hand dryers. It found that after washing and drying hands with the warm air dryer, the total number of bacteria was found to increase on average on the finger pads by 194% and on the palms by 254%; drying with the jet air dryer resulted in an increase on average of the total number of bacteria on the finger pads by 42% and on the palms by 15%; and after washing and drying hands with a paper towel, the total number of bacteria was reduced on average on the finger pads by up to 76% and on the palms by up to 77%." [1]<p>The noise aspect discussed in this article is yet another reason air dryers need to die. I hadn't even considered the effect they might have on kid's ears, and I'd imagine most adults probably haven't thought about it either. I find them positively annoying, but having your ears at the same height as these monstrosities must be horrible.<p>Kudos to Miss Keegan for her wonderful research!<p>1: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_dryer" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_dryer</a>
> In response to these results, Dyson confirmed to NPR in an email that an acoustics engineer would be meeting with Nora to discuss her research.<p>You <i>go</i> girl. Rock on! No matter what happens, what an awesome response from Dyson to look at this girl's well thought out research and go, "Huh. Yeah, we should probably give that a second pass."
I don't understand why they have to be so loud.<p>I recently bought a Miele vacuum cleaner, and compared to other cheap vacuums I've had before. It's significantly quieter whilst still having effective suction.<p>Is it cost cutting or is this the best kind of motors possible for hand dryers?<p>As a side note:
I wonder what the testing conditions are like for these dryers.
Like there's one of the Xcellerator driers at my local bouldering place's toilet.<p>It's a very small tilled room.
I went once and the sound caused my ears to ring for hours.<p>I don't go in without my noise cancelling headphones now haha.<p>But I imagine if the room was a lot bigger that would not be an issue.
I read the previous post on this that appeared on HN a couple of weeks back. <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837</a><p>My 3 year old used to close her ears anyways when near any of these hand dryers but now i warn her when one is about to turn on.
“In response to these results, Dyson confirmed to NPR in an email that an acoustics engineer would be meeting with Nora to discuss her research. “<p>Good for them. And good for her. My son (4) hates these things. He dries his hands on his shirt instead.
Some air dryers start with a motion detector and and it was impossible to get most of the kids to even enter the toilet because they were afraid that it would start the dryer accidentally. I myself was confused why their reaction was so extreme but didn't think that the noise is much louder at their height and that their ears are more sensitive to loud noise too.<p>Interesting that it needs a kid scientist to take this on them because adults with their height bias didn't measure at those spots.
I wonder how sanitary they are, considering that they are basically using a bunch of bathroom air blasted at your previously-clean hands, too.<p>I would hate those things even if they were silent.
My 3 year old covers his ears in any public bathroom regardless of whether anyone is even in there.<p>Hand dryers are one item but there are some toilets that are also excessively loud as well.
I honestly hate hand dryers, half the time I end up drying my hands on the sides of my pants if I'm wearing jeans...
My kid hates the sound of them too so it totally makes sense that they're actually bad.