C/D : Pressing the paper towel dispenser lever 5,000,000 times just to dry your hands

Do they press the lever with their feet?

First the shower, then the toilet now this. We are on environmental kick this week.

I swear my office is the only place left in the world where they still have ROLLS of CLOTH TOWEL dispensers. And by about halfway through the day, we are out of clean towel, and the last bit of ragged towel that comes off the roll is all that's left to dry your hands on and everyone uses it until it gets all soggy and gross. Now *that* is disgusting.

I want my paper towels back. :-(

At a hostipal I saw a hand dryer that actually Sucked hot air.

Was quite good.

where did it suck it from?

People's lungs.

Aw, Mark, is that like the super amazing hand drying machine at the Social?

I hate the Social almost as much as I hate hand blowdryers, but that thing is a marvel of engineering. You put your hands in it, and then draw them out, and they are DRY.

I've never tried one of those - I do like the super turbo jet engine ones that make your hands look like they're in one of those superfast 20G NASA centrifuge spinny things.

I like touch-free bathrooms period. Automatic toilet flush (although they sometimes annoyingly flush twice, when sitting and standing), sensor faucets and wave for paper towels.

xpost it sounds like it, yes.

It's in the lobby of the particular hopsitle, maybe it's not actually in the toilet itself as people might actually try to 'enjoy' the experience, inappropriately (unless they ask if anyone minds, etc..)

since i moved to minneapolis i've noticed many more places here have the old time-y cloth towel dispensers, which I adore (except when they run out, of course). i've also tried the super suck hand dryers to which i exclaimed, "why didn't they do this the FIRST TIME?!" i think the one i tried was made by dyson, the vacuum people.

So basically it sucks the water off of your hands? Does it dry out your skin less than the other kind?

Yes, it was Dyson that's right.

australia has the finest hand dryers, FACT. they only use as much energy as they absolutely need (ie they know the air temperature), they heat up gradually and they look extremely cool. There.

I only noticed that it dried my hands but left my skin feeling pretty normal & not in dire need of lotion. It was pretty perfect, actually.

the only thing more dud is trying to fucking blow your nose with the brown sandpaper that is dispensed. Like, no matter how neat you are with your wiping action, you slime the side of your face.

i guess you could use the suck thing

The Dyson Airblade, is what you're thinking about.

It doesn't suck hot air. or suck water off your hands. or has hot air at all.

It fires a thin wall of extremely fast air (400mph) that you move your hand upwards through, the air works like a gate, as you move your hand up the water is trapped by the airgate/blade and is basically shaved off your hand, and drips down into the basin below.

Someone I saw at the social said "I've had worse shags than this"

fast air! the best kind

i guess you could use the suck thing

Always

Was ILX always this boring?

dude! fast air used as a gate!

Fast air razor!

yes, you were cool interesting to notice it the first time round

xxpost

cool interesting = too interesting with a slight hint cool

slight hint cool = less than having a slight hint of cool

use the suck thing ken

and a film with Newman, Paul

directed by suk thing ken

Was ILX always this boring?

well, it seems that people are much more interested in discussing advanced hand drying technology than discussing the stupid and destructive behavior i was actually trying to generate discussion about. alas.

A roll of paper towels with 5 million sheets would only encourage such behavior.

yeah, because counting the number of paper towels ppl use is obviously way less dull than talking about hand vacuums!

Someone I saw at the social said "I've had worse shags than this"

this remind me of a friend of mine who once opined that his best shit was a superior experience to his worst shag...

That seems perfectly plausible to me.

yeah, because counting the number of paper towels ppl use is obviously way less dull than talking about hand vacuums!

Maybe when you set it up like that-- but it seems to me that my topic was about reckless human behavior and our complicity in causing damage to the planet. like, what the fuck is going on in those people's minds? do they really think they are utilizing all that paper, or do they take as much as they can because it's free? Do they leave the faucets on in hotels because the water there is 'free'? I guess I just find this idiocy fascinating in some way, more than shiny blowing devices.

That's only because you haven't had your hands dried by a DYSON BLADE yet. They are amazing (they have them in Bristol airport. I swear, everyone checking in for our flight was talking about it).

maybe you're right... maybe this is the key to solving the paper towel problem.

As noted above, we here in Minneapolis have solved the paper towel problem by clinging to outmoded hand drying technology.

The most charming thing about the roller towel machines is the "DO NOT ALLOW CHILDREN NEAR THIS DEVICE, LEST THEY BE STRANGLED BY FILTHY TOWEL" warning plaque.

Does it really say "filthy"?

No. I'm paraphrasing, due to my lack of proximity to said machine of child garotte potential.

Well that would be great if it did.

i think that 80% of "ppl taking too many paper towels" is purely accidental.

THATS WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK.

it seems to me that taking too many paper towels is no less wasteful than most electric hand dryers anyway!

I like touch-free bathrooms period. Automatic toilet flush (although they sometimes annoyingly flush twice, when sitting and standing), sensor faucets and wave for paper towels.

This is my office bathroom.

Was ILX always this boring?

I heard it was a holiday in France and India and some other place but I didn't know it was a holiday in FUNTOWN because it seems everyone from that place I just made up isn't posting today. Seriously, like 5 threads responded to in the past 10 minutes? Two were me? C'mon, it's not like ilxor.com is down or anything...

i think that 80% of "ppl taking too many paper towels" is purely accidental.

I'm talking about the dispensers with levers. There's no fucking way that someone could press the lever 50 times on accident.

it seems to me that taking too many paper towels is no less wasteful than most electric hand dryers anyway!

I agree with this too. Seriously, I use my pants most of the time, or if I can't because I'm wearing formal wear, then I just let the dry by themselves. They're usually dry by the time I'm 5 steps away from the bathroom. It just angers me that so much waste goes into getting a tiny bit of water off our hands. I certainly hope that someday when scientists are looking at our bathroom the way we look at the Pyramids, they say JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, WHAT A WASTEFUL BUNCH OF FUCKING DICKS

Boring? Where?

Dyson Airblade Controversy!

http://uk.gizmodo.com/2006/10/09/dyson_airblade_copied_mitsubis.html

Why don't people understand that they are usually wearing the best hand dryers of all? YR PANTS! seriously. wash your hands, use your wet hands to open the door (you'll LEAVE water on it, and therefore TAKE no germs with you! this is airtight logic, fuck you!), and after you escape the bathroom, stick dem hands in dem pockets. You'll be dry by the next time you pee!

Man, I hate those towel dispensers you are supposed to wave your hand in front of, because it never senses me and I stand there for three minutes shadow dancing with my wet hands in front of the sensor.

do you have small and/or translucent hands?

Maybe I don't have a soul, I don't know.

forget Japanese hand dryers -- I don't know about the UK, but most Americans are familiar with the "air razor" technique from every automated car wash ever

i seem to remember reading something once where an engineer who worked on auto-sensing bathroom thingies talked about always seeing black people struggling with the sensors in airports and getting a kick out of tipping them off to use their palms instead of the backs of their hands -- sensors are not optimized for darkness

i am generally in support of will's pants theory, except that it will not appeal to germophobes: the majority of germ removal in handwashing comes from rubbing your skin against whatever you use to dry it off

do you have small and/or translucent hands?

She bumped into her mother in 1955 and is slowly disappearing.

Why don't people understand that they are usually wearing the best hand dryers of all? YR PANTS! seriously.

Exactly! your pants are made of the same material that people would dry their hands with at home. so why not use your pants? :D

wash your hands, use your wet hands to open the door (you'll LEAVE water on it, and therefore TAKE no germs with you! this is airtight logic, fuck you!)

hhehe. actually, now that you mention it, the fact that there is a door at all defies logic. even if your hands are dry, you still have to open the door. the fact is, there are germs everywhere. if you think you're 'getting clean' by washing your hands, you are sadly mistaken. obsessive hand washing and all that anti-bacterial bullshit is just a by-product of our society's obsession with cleanliness-- which, incidentally, is probably responsible for the observed weakening of immune systems globally.

and after you escape the bathroom, stick dem hands in dem pockets. You'll be dry by the next time you pee!

this part is true.

No, hand-washing is important and does make a difference. Sanitation, such as hand washing, was recently voted (by a couple thousand doctors) the world's most significant medical advance, above transplants, vaccines, and antibiotics.

Just ask your avg spinach picker with no access to hand washing facilities from your hospital bed while laid up with E.Coli.

No, hand-washing is important and does make a difference. Sanitation, such as hand washing, was recently voted (by a couple thousand doctors) the world's most significant medical advance, above transplants, vaccines, and antibiotics.

yeah, but that's in a medical setting. That is a huge advance in that environment. but constantly sterilizing countertops, your hands, and all kinds of other surfaces around the house doesn't do much in the long run except ensure that your immune system isn't hardy enough to handle basic levels of everyday bacteria. i guarantee you that people in india and china don't get colds as frequently as people in europe and USA-- cuz they're surrounded by shit, and their immune systems have built up strength because of it.

Well feel free to stop washing your produce or your hands after you crap and then tell us how you feel in a year.

Everyone I know who gets colds all the time is a smoker. I think there's a correlation.

Hand-washing makes a difference in every setting, not only hospitals post signs saying employees must wash their hands.

I can't believe I'm arguing about whether it's important or not to wash your hands. The doctors voted sanitation because once the general public started using it, health improved dramatically. See: John Snow and his famous water pump, an early mega-breakthrough in health and epidemiology.

Handwashing good, obsessive use of antibacterial and sterilizing cleansers bad. 'k?

Handwashing good, obsessive use of antibacterial and sterilizing cleansers bad. 'k?

That's pretty much it. My main point is: don't press the goddamn level 85 times to wash your hands.

level = lever

Yeah, I was about to say -- constantly sterilizing countertops is a far cry from, like, periodically rinsing gunk off of your hands.

Letting cats walk on countertops, c/d?

I use enough paper towel to get my hands dry which is slightly more than the one or two lever presses that most people do (I can't see how they can get their hands dry at all). Also, I use the same wad to open the door.

I think the most wasteful towel dispensers are the ones that have an opening at the bottom and dispense wrinkled paper towels which have far less usable surface area for absorption.

Also, I use the same wad to open the door.

There should be more wastebaskets directly outside the restroom for this purpose.

YES.

If you're germophobic enough to use paper towels to open the door, you should probably be carrying your own personal wastebasket around with you, though, to keep your trash from getting dirty.

?

UNNECESSARY TRUCULENCE; 10 YARD PENALTY. REPEAT 1ST DOWN.

I believe his implication is that only anal-retentive pussywimps would care about door germs.

The whole issue can avoided by developing the non-magical ability to open doors with your butt!

Swinging doors yes, but handles?

I feel like I rarely see handles in multi-person public restrooms, and single-person restrooms are usually (a) lower-traffic, and (b) outfitted with locks that are going to require your fingers anway.

OR TOES

or butt, as discussed

I see handles all the time.

http://www.mnight.com/images/movies/sixthsense/malcolm&cole1.jpg

Hmmm, like the last one I get it, but I fail to see the point and especially the intended humor.

Dude, I'm just bored at work, not meant as any personal affront.

OK, cool. been there.

I should probably just bookmark Dan's "SANDY DOUCHE" thread for my general use.

It's a quality reference to be sure!

I generally dry my hands off on my pant legs, after briefly washing with plain water. I hate the smell of those public bathroom soaps. Can't have that shit on my hands.

Shit meaning soap. If I have actual shit on my hands I might consider soap. But most times I wipe my ass with toilet paper rather than my bare hand.