Social Question

nightwolf5's avatar

Do you prefer the hand blow dryers or paper towels?

Asked by nightwolf5 (2958points) March 24th, 2016

Like in a public restroom after washing your hands do you like the hand blow dryers or the use of paper towels better to dry them off?

I do like paper towels better for the fact that they do seem to be a little more effective and faster in drying, but I understand the need to reduce the cost of replenishing the towels and the waste in using them, as a result quite a few have gone to the blow dryers.

So, which do you prefer?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

31 Answers

jca's avatar

I like paper towels because they’re quick. I won’t usually bother with the hand dryers and so I’ll just walk out of the restroom with wet hands, which I don’t prefer.

jca's avatar

I should add to the above that even on the rare occasions when I will use the hand dryer, I don’t get my hands as dry as they are when I use paper towels.

Earthbound_Misfit's avatar

Paper towels. Like @jca, when the only option is a hand dryer I usually walk out with wet hands. Hand dryers are breeding grounds for germs too. I don’t use them.

JLeslie's avatar

Towels. I hate how noisy a hand dryer is, and in the last 10 years they have even noisier ones on the market now that supposedly dry faster.

Plus, if the door swings in I prefer to have a towel to grab the door handle.

NerdyKeith's avatar

I like the more modern hand dryers. Some public bathrooms have hand dressers in which you insert your hands into a slot, and a high speed gush of hot hair dries them.

johnpowell's avatar

I just use my pants.

JLeslie's avatar

@NerdyKeith That link is one of the incredibly noisy dryers. I hate them.

ucme's avatar

Our butler comes with me & dries my hands with a whicker woven hand fan left to us by my late uncle Farquad the Earl of Wessex.

ragingloli's avatar

paper towels.
faster, more hygienic, and trees regrow.

Seek's avatar

I do like the Dyson Airblade, but between the “receive bacon” dryers and towels, I prefer towels.

LuckyGuy's avatar

Paper towels. When I wash my hand I instinctively wash my face and I can’t dry it reasonably with a a hot air blower or air curtain dryer.

(Someone should work out the real energy balance. I’m not volunteering.
In a hot climate the hot air dryer blows hot air into the room wasting energy. If air conditioning is in use that hot air further needs to be cooled down to room temperature wasting even more energy.
In a cold climate it is virtually free. The hot air helps heat the building.

JLeslie's avatar

^^Wash your face? As a woman I can’t even imagine that. If I saw a woman washing her face in a restroom I would think she was either, upset, sick, or overheated.

jca's avatar

@JLeslie: If I’ve just eaten or had something to drink, I’ll take my wet hand and wipe my mouth. If I’ve just eaten, I may also take some water and swish it around in my mouth and spit it out. If I have a paper towel, I can dry my mouth with it. If there are hand dryers, I have to walk out with the bottom of my face wet.

Pachy's avatar

I’m a paper man all the way. To me, having to stand with my hands under or in an ear-piercing dryer is really annoying (and a waste of electricity). And how do you dry your face?!

ibstubro's avatar

Paper towel only..
The old blow dryers were incredibly slow and the new blow dryers are incredibly loud.
I recently saw a continuous loop hand dryer that seemed to have a material other than the old cotton towel in it.

I hope to see one of these in a restroom soon!

At least they’re still working on better options.

Edit.
“Air-based dryers in fact spread bacteria and other germs in tiny droplets, like a really disgusting aerosol.”
Ha, ha.

cookieman's avatar

I just use @johnpowell‘s pants.

JLeslie's avatar

@jca Interesting.

Most women can’t just splash their face though. Most women have make-up on.

jca's avatar

@JLeslie: I don’t splash my face, as I have make up on and I don’t think splashing my face is necessary. I just wipe my mouth with some water. The only thing I wear on my whole face is clear moisturizer. On my cheeks, it’s powder blush but the cheeks are not touched by the water.

JLeslie's avatar

@jca I understood. I was just commenting on one reason women can’t even think about splashing water on their face. Then there is the whole hair thing too.

Coloma's avatar

Paper towels, all the way. I hate the blow dryers, they do not work well. If there are no paper towels I go back into a stall and grab a couple toilet seat covers and dry my hands with those.

elbanditoroso's avatar

I think that blow jobs are more effective than paper. But as someone said above, they take longer.

Unless I’m in a hurry, I wash my hands but let them air dry. No paper, no blow.

Coloma's avatar

@elbanditoroso Well, being a man I am sure you prefer your blow jobs to take a little longer. LMAO!

ragingloli's avatar

@elbanditorosoI think that blow jobs are more effective than paper. But as someone said above, they take longer.

You need to practice more, then.

Rarebear's avatar

I hate blowy hand driers with the white hot heat of the cores of a thousand suns.

ibstubro's avatar

Noise pollution.
I hate that noise.
If they could make them silent, I might try them.

Nah…

Earthbound_Misfit's avatar

^ that’s why I avoid them @ibstubro. That and the fact they don’t work well. Paper towels dry your hands more efficiently and more quickly.

MollyMcGuire's avatar

I want paper towels and I don’t want to have to touch anything.

Response moderated (Spam)
smudges's avatar

With toilet plumes shooting bacteria into the air, the last thing I want is to hold my hands under a blower that actually concentrates all those microbes. They haven’t come up with a definitive distance as to how far the bacteria travels (2.5 – 6 ft) but I keep my toothbrush safely tucked away and close the lid when I flush.

chefl's avatar

Paper towel as long as it’s in a dispenser, (not sitting on the counter getting contaminated by people who didn’t wash hands properly, or one that had fallen on the floor got picked up maybe who knows) Or just shake hands, wipe them on the clean part of clothes.
No hand dryer is please esp the heavy duty ones they damage your ears:
https://www.hear-it.org/hand-dryers-can-blow-away-your-hearing
https://evatingsound.com/why-super-fast-hand-dryers-exclude-people-from-public-spaces/
I don’t know the sites.

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.
Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther