Comments on: Press button, wipe hands on pants ... NOT!

Press button, wipe hands on pants ... NOT!

ZenMasterThis — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:25:10 -0800

Press button, wipe hands on pants ... NOT! FINALLY someone has done something about those crappy hand driers that never really worked in the first place. I encountered my first XLERATOR in the men's room of my local pool hall the other night. For a moment I feared it would blow the flesh off my tender hands. But no flesh-tearing was to occur; it performed its intended function flawlessly in about 10 seconds. My profound and everlasting gratitude to its inventor. Best news ever? Do I need to get a life?

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:33:26 -0800

Saving 10 seconds in the bathroom while saving the planet is priceless.

By: Flat Feet Pete

Flat Feet Pete — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:47:38 -0800

I've seen driers in Japan based on a pair thin strong streams of hot air at the top of a wide slot you poke your hands into. Super quick and it worked great. Haven't seem them elsewhere.

By: raygun21

raygun21 — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:52:27 -0800

I've seen driers in Japan based on a pair thin strong streams of hot air at the top of a wide slot you poke your hands into. Super quick and it worked great. Haven't seem them elsewhere. That's because everyone else has read Dune and don't think they can pass the test.

By: jjray

jjray — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:54:15 -0800

Picture of legendary awesome Japanese hand dryer.

By: crank

crank — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:56:12 -0800

I'm pro-hand dryer in theory, but in practice... not so much. It's cheaper sure, and they (the dryer manufacturers) say it's more sanitary to not have soiled paper towels strewn about the bathroom, but I need a paper towel prophylactic to open the bathroom door on my way out. If everyone washed their hands it'd be one thing, but a hell of a lotta people don't. They don't even pretend to wash their hands after touching their junk at the urinal, or worse- emerging from the stall.

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:32:13 -0800

i once was in the toilets of a pub and the button ws missing from the hand dryer so i stuck my wet finger into the hole to press the stick thing that looked like a switch. the shock through me across room. luckily (pub toilet floor) i didn't fall over.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:46:23 -0800

Brit's (site of the next minneapolis meetup?) has driers like these... ever see 1950s era footage of high g-force test subjects? Yeah, your hands kinda look like that.

By: meech

meech — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:50:02 -0800

I once heard a man from a hand-dryer company say, on the radio, that "Yes hand-dryers were a little unhygienic" because they blew the germs all over the place. A quick google gave me handwashingforlife.com which backs up my man - albeit with a different reason.

By: dabitch

dabitch — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 16:11:52 -0800

I'll take recycled paper towels over electricity-wasting-inefficient hand "dryers" any day.

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 16:14:46 -0800

...was just going to post about the japan hand dryers. Everytime I wash my hands in a public restroom I wonder why I have to whipe my hands on my pants. ..unlike my trip to japan.

By: Postroad

Postroad — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 16:28:50 -0800

Much better for environment NOTY to wash your hands (don't yhou clean your privates in the morning in batroom? Do you pee on your hand in men's room?)...or use your pants for quick wipe

By: sohcahtoa

sohcahtoa — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 17:34:04 -0800

Not to derail, but I saw once, on a hand dryer with no words but the pictograms of a finger pressing and red waves of hot air coming out of the nozzel, the graffiti "PUSH BUTTON, GET BACON".

By: dg

dg — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:01:14 -0800

Yeah, I use that justification for not washing my hands too Postroad ;-)

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:02:56 -0800

I've always liked the somewhat old-fashioned big-captive-loop-of-cotton-towel style of hand dryer.

By: evening

evening — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:25:51 -0800

I actually like those hand dryers. They leave my hands feeling soft and not dried out like paper towels. So a 10 sec one would be great. Those Japenese ones look really great. By the time we get anything like that in Vermont I'll be old and have forgotten about this thread. But then again, there are a lot of hippies in Burlington.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:40:45 -0800

I hear you, crank. I'm a take-a-towel-to-the-door type myself. I once saw a guy feeding out paper towels and then washing his hands, presumably because of the lever. Made sense, but I'm not there yet. If I did that, some dude would cruise up and rip them off, and then I'd have to get my ass kicked. To my experience, your average Tokyo resident likely carries around a tissue or two expressly for the purpose of touching things like door knobs, clip boards, human flesh. The war against cooties has been fortified by Excel!

By: eatitlive

eatitlive — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:59:21 -0800

Do you pee on your hand in men's room? Urine is antiseptic. Every man should pee on his hands before leaving the men's room. But you know, the best hand dryer I've come across was in a rest area in Kansas, somewhere just past the Chisolm Trail. There was an air compressor outside the door, and they had snaked a hose through the men's room walls. These were hooked up to two or three nozzles opposite the sinks—which offered no soap, I might add. There were no buttons or—ughh—hand sensors, just a constant high-pressured blast. (Speaking of hand sensors, have you seen those sensor-activated paper towel dispensers? What decadence.) The damn things tossed the water straight off your hands better than any nancified dryer. That's the sort of utilitarian ingenuity that won the West, my boy. And a plain kinda comfort too: You could stick your wet palm on the nozzle and make the absolute loudest farting noises.

By: majick

majick — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 19:09:27 -0800

Am I the only person who finds the standard hand dryer not at all ineffectual nor particularly in need of improvement?

By: Hackworth

Hackworth — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 19:54:55 -0800

Every man should pee on his hands before leaving the men's room. Ahahhaha. I want to post this on theback of the door at work, where the knob is perpetually moist.

By: tsarfan

tsarfan — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 21:05:39 -0800

al gore invented the internet and i have dsl in my home precisely for these sorts of threads. thank you, God.

By: ac

ac — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:24:09 -0800

ten seconds? are you people actually realizing how long that is? Not much better than regular hand dryers. Paper towels are two seconds, tops. Just count to ten slowly. In today's urban, high-paced go-go lifestyle, who's got ten seconds to spare?

By: halonine

halonine — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:27:04 -0800

There is an Xlerator drier in a McDonald's that recently opened near me. Maybe other new McDonaldses will get them, too. But the flapping-skin effect unnerves me. Raygun21: classic!

By: ALongDecember

ALongDecember — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 00:09:26 -0800

I saw once at Disney's Animal Kingdom, was so amazed I washed my hands twice. More hand dryer graffiti: I saw a hand dryer at an amusement park in Ohio that had a little sticker on the button saying "Press for a message from your local Congressman."

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 08:32:13 -0800

Much better for environment NOTY to wash your hands (don't yhou clean your privates in the morning in batroom? Do you pee on your hand in men's room?)...or use your pants for quick wipe "I wash my hands before I touch my dick."

By: Marquis

Marquis — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 09:28:14 -0800

There are XLERATORs in the new Eaton Centre bathrooms in Montreal. When I visited, I was blown away (har har). It's a truly exciting, almost revivifying experience. I went home and talked to my roommates about it. A week later, my girlfriend - whom I had not talked to about this - calls me to tell me about her "hand-drying experience." A worthy FPP!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 09:42:36 -0800

And a plain kinda comfort too: You could stick your wet palm on the nozzle and make the absolute loudest farting noises. And could quite possibly give yourself an injected air embolism, too! High-pressure air and human contact are a very, very poor combination. Please don't do it. I don't understand why bathroom doors don't open outward. It'd solve all the need-a-towel door handle problems. And, finally, the towels I tend to like best are the endless-length cloth ones. Hygenic, afaik, and they dry better than paper or hot air.

By: icetaco

icetaco — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 10:34:40 -0800

Just curious - all you folks who use a paper towel to open the bathroom door: do you think the horrible germs on people's hands suddenly die once they leave the pathroom environment? Or do you open ALL doors with paper towels? I've never understood that. What's worse is when the door-opening towel ends up behind the door, on the floor. At least take it with you and toss it.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 11:27:45 -0800

I see your point, icetaco (although the web site on your profile page I cannot see). Speaking for myself, I try to use my backhand or foot or shoulder for most public doors, if possible. I think most cootiephobes are particularly careful to use a towel in restrooms when they're at a restaurant and are going to be eating straight away. Regarding the taper towels around the door, I'm a take-and-toss type as a rule, but business owners should ideally have the foresight to put the trash can near the door.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 12:51:11 -0800

This is why airport lavatories have IR-activated everything and doorless entries and exits. If they could just figure out the stall door problem you could get in and out without ever touching anything. Which is good because I don't want the dirty nasty foreign diseases that you pervy sonsabitches are swapping in your state, I only want the good, decent god-fearin' diseases that my local good people are dyin' of.

By: shepd

shepd — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 15:32:01 -0800

>I don't understand why bathroom doors don't open outward. Because then it'd be easier for members of the opposite sex to peek in. Also, for a locked door, in an emergency, it's easier to beat a door in than pull it out. Just my guess. Hey, look, they came up with the design when "member of the opposite sex" was a perfectly common phrase. Everyone, QUIT WORRYING ABOUT DOOR HANDLES AND STUFF! Good lord, they're usually made of stainless steel. It doesn't carry germs. Germs have half-lives of like 2 seconds on stainless steel. Bunch of hypochindriacs! :-D Oh, and I hate infrared anything. That shit just don't work. Thank you for posting something that disproves something I had always thought was true -- that electric hand dryers used more electricity than paper towels used energy. Clearly, I'm wrong!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 18:56:00 -0800

You just know some miscreant teenager with anger issues has given his asshole a good scratching, and then made sure to handle the washroom doorhandle. Damn near guaranteed, especially in shitholes like McDonalds or your typical family-style restaurant. Which is a mighty fine reason to use a paper towel when handling the doorknob. And over in the pub, chances are some syphilis-dripping cockwringer has forgone handwashing just a minute ago. Again, a great place to use a paper towel.

Separate issue: why oh why is it that most of North America, in my experience, hasn't learned that the only decent men'sroom design includes courtesy dividers between urinals? "Shy kidneys" isn't an exactly uncommon trait. Lot more men would benefit by the courtesy divider than will ever benefit from those huge wheelchair-friendly toilet stalls. Yet, despite being cheap and reasonably effective, damn near no washroom has 'em. Bizarro.

By: biffa

biffa — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 12:57:42 -0800

To hell with hand dryers. There's a bloke here who must let off what amounts to an arse hand grenade every morning just after the cleaners have left, and is incapable of picking up the brush to clean up after himself. The ideal bathroom machine imho would be the one that grabbed him round the throat and forced his ignorant head into the bowl to clean it up as best he can.

By: ramakrishna

ramakrishna — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:29:00 -0800

Majick: Yes, apparently you are.

By: dg

dg — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 15:26:59 -0800

Also, for a locked door, in an emergency, it's easier to beat a door in than pull it out. Just my guess. Here, toilet doors have to either open outward or have "lift-off" hinges so that the door can be easily removed should someone collapse in there. With a room that small, it is almost impossible for anyone to get in to help with an unconscious body slumped against an inward-opening door. Public toilets are only exempt from that if they have sufficient space at top or bottom for someone to climb over or under the door.

By: Tubes

Tubes — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 23:30:03 -0800

"And could quite possibly give yourself an injected air embolism, too! High-pressure air and human contact are a very, very poor combination. Please don't do it." More on this please? I've never heard of the phenomenon. Sounds interesting.

By: xmattxfx

xmattxfx — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 06:46:50 -0800

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 09:42:01 -0800

Tubes: here. Back in the days when the telco monopoly cared about its employees, it held regular safety training courses. When running wire through conduit a "mouse" (spool of what's basically dental floss) is blown through the line using compressed air, then a feeder rope drawn through, and then the wire drawn through. One of the safety courses emphasized the hazard of directly the compressed-air stream at one's skin; danger of embolism. While searching up a relevant link, I noticed a message about a guy with a small skin cut. He tried blowing the dust out. Instead, he forced air between the layers of skin, both shredding the outer layer and creating a huge air pocket. ICK!

By: Miles Long

Miles Long — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 13:05:05 -0800

You just know some miscreant teenager with anger issues has given his asshole a good scratching, and then made sure to handle the washroom doorhandle. posted by five fresh fish at 6:56 PM PST on July 17 You don't 'just know' anything. Realize that this is all in your mind. relax. Don't sweat the small stuff. or, as my significant other (who is a doctor) likes to say: "what's your immune system for?"