If there’s one overriding concern customers have about hand dryers, it’s the price. The upfront investment can seem daunting when budgets have already been trimmed beyond recognition. However, if customers can be convinced of the long-term savings, health benefits, decreased waste and lower maintenance requirements, the advantages of hand dryers should put price concerns to rest.

Cost, however, is not customers’ only consideration when they’re looking to outfit a washroom with a suitable hand-drying system. The decision-making process centers on three main points: cost, need and the alternatives. To sell a new system, upgrade an existing system or convert from paper to hand dryers, it is important for distributors to understand how each aspect of a customer’s decision relates to his or her individual needs and benefits.

Clean Appeal
With communicable diseases such as SARS on everyone’s mind, hygiene has increased in importance for decision makers, thus touchless washroom fixtures have become an attractive option. They address hygiene concerns and decrease the washroom workload for cleaning staff.

The risk of cross contamination multiplies when users come into contact with toilets and urinals, levers on faucets and soap dispensers, and crank handles or push buttons on paper dispensers or dryers. For this reason, greater significance is being put on hygienic washroom fixtures.

Simply put, “People are afraid of germs in the bathroom,” says Catherine LaFave, president of Newton Distributing Co., Newton, Mass.

Users are more concerned than ever about maintaining sanitary conditions in restrooms, says Darrel Kirksey, owner of Allied Hand Dryers in San Antonio. For these people, touchless hand dryers can be a perfect fit.

“When you present people with the option of a touch-free washroom, it is more appealing and they see that as beneficial,” says Linda Silverman, vice president of sales and marketing for Maintex, City of Industry, Calif.

If users are presented with one touch-free fixture, they assume that they all are.

“When you walk away from a urinal, it flushes, then the faucets are touchless and that’s how they want hand dryers to be,” says Irving Waxman, owner of Prestige Dryer Limited in Highland Park, Ill.

Hand Dryer Myths
Although it may seem like hand dryers are a logical answer to a problem, some customers have misconceptions about them that need to be addressed.

“We’ve heard customers say hand dryers blow out dirty air,” LaFave says.

This belief likely stems from a 1994 University of Westminster, London, study. The study’s findings were later cited in other reports, including the State of New Jersey’s Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s report, “Washing Away Misconceptions About Hand Washing.”

The Rutgers report states that: “Hot air hand dryers can actually increase the amount of bacteria on your hands after handwashing. Bacteria can grow inside of hand dryers because they provide a warm moist environment. When the dryer is turned on, the air that comes out is filled with bacteria.”

However, an article published by Mayo Clinic in 2000 refutes the findings. In the report, “Effects of 4 Hand-Drying Methods for Removing Bacteria from Washed Hands: A Randomized Trial,” there are “no statistically significant differences between pre-wash and post-dry absolute counts of bacteria when any two hand drying methods were compared.”

When the drying methods were ranked in order of the greatest amount of bacteria removed, forced warm air dryers removed the most, though not by a significant amount. “The results of the current study suggest that there are no differences in the efficiencies of removing bacteria from washed hands when dried using paper towels, cloth towels, forced warm air or spontaneous drying.”

“With hand dryers, there are a lot of misconceptions because of an old study,” LaFave notes. “The air is actually heated to a point beyond pasteurization, so we believe that it kills the bacteria.”

Affordability Factors
Still, many times a decision boils down to the bottom line. Will the hand-drying equipment save the customer money?

Distributors identified four key elements that add up to the hand dryers’ total lifetime cost for the customer. The first and typically the biggest cost is the dryer itself; second, the cost of installation; third, the labor necessary to maintain the dryer, and lastly, the cost of running a hand dryer.

Touchless hand dryers typically cost more than a paper towel dispenser or a push-button dryer, depending on the model and features. When attempting to overcome cost objections, it is important to reiterate the long-term benefits and savings.

“Dryers themselves can be fairly expensive, in terms of the initial unit,” explains Silverman. “The savings is long-term, however, because they have eliminated the cost of the paper.”

One touchless hand dryer can run more than $500 or less than $200, depending on the specific dryer’s features.

Cost can also dissuade some customers from buying multiple dryers at the same time. However, distributors can explain that the money saved by investing in the first dryer can be put toward the purchase of the next one, and so on, LaFave suggests.

The initial cost for hand dryers is probably twice that of paper systems, but total ownership is less, says Chris Carney of Carney and Co. of South Elgin, Ill.

The second aspect of purchasing a dryer is the installation. The most common situation that adds to the cost is if there are no electrical outlets near the hand dryer’s desired location.

“Installation definitely varies depending on the building and if there is electricity in the bathroom,” LaFave says.

Buildings with concrete or cement block walls can make it difficult to get power to the dryer within the wall, and can require running conduit on the wall to carry the wires, she adds.

“Installation requires the customer to bring in their own electrician, and if there is not an outlet near, that can cause major work,” says Charles Maltos, vice president, Affordable Custodial Supplies of Dallas.

Even though there is little required maintenance after installation, it is crucial that when something goes wrong it gets fixed. If a user sees an out-of-order dryer, they’re likely to assume that the units are always broken.

Often, inexpensive heating elements are to blame, and they can be replaced easily. Other times, a faulty or worn-out timer can cause the breakdown. Either way, broken-down hand dryers leave a bad impression, Kirksey says.

Hand dryers all have similar parts that are vulnerable to defect or overuse, such as timers, heating elements, fans and switches. Touchless hand dryers have fewer moving parts, so they are less likely to wear out. They are also less susceptible to vandalism because there are fewer parts to damage.

According to distributors, the touchless machines have not been installed long enough that any recurrent problems have been identified. But, because touchless dryers have similar components to older hand dryers, distributors are able to predict what those problems might be.

“An increasing number of hand dryers in public areas are 6 to 10 years old and have never been worked on,” Kirksey says.

Many older hand dryers have never been cleaned or maintained properly. This lack of attention can cause the dryer to prematurely wear out or perform at diminished levels.

Most hand dryers that don’t work are old and have already saved that company thousands of dollars, but now the owners haven’t taken the time to fix them, Kirksey says.

Hand dryers typically have a warranty that will back the product for up to 10 years, depending on the model, a period that may cover only a fraction of its lifespan.

“The dryers have a lifespan of about 20 years without much maintenance or replacement,” Waxman says.

Along with saving the customer money on the unit’s maintenance and upkeep, hand dryers also cut down on the labor and time that facility cleaning staffs have the spend in the washroom.

“Labor costs are rising, paper costs are rising and hand dryers eliminate these costs,” Waxman says.

Hand dryers don’t produce waste, so there’s less litter on the floors, less emptying waste cans and less chance for vandals to clog sinks or toilets with paper towel.

The cost of the electricity to power the unit is also significantly less than the cost of the paper needed to keep the unit stocked.

Many distributors say hand dryers produce around a 90 percent total savings over the use of paper. Low-energy touchless models claim even greater savings.

“It probably costs between $40 and $50 per year for the electricity to run a dryer. And the typical paper cost for a restroom is between $100 and $500 per year, per restroom,” LaFave says, adding that the large venues realize more-immediate savings when they convert to dryers.

“The Heinz Convention Center in Austin has purchased a number of hand dryers, and in their application they will save hundreds of dollars a year by eliminating paper,” LaFave says.

A Lifetime of Savings
Determining the best hand-drying unit for a facility and convincing the customer of the lifetime savings and convenience of a hand dryer can make all the difference.

When customers look for the best hand drying system, many only think about getting what they need to get the job done in the least expensive way. Taking the customer past the idea of the end result — dry hands — to a focus on saving money and using a healthy system can make the sale.

“For the most part, hand dryers are always a second-tier thought process. Somebody is responding to a vandalism problem, or needs to save money and then they think of hand dryers,” Kirksey says.




POSTED ON: 8/1/2003