Hand Drying

Hand Drying is as important as Hand Washing. Why go to the lengths of washing your hands if you’re not going to dry them?

When you have washed your hands you need to DRY – this is just part of the procedure to have Clean Hands. The drying process simply finishes off the washing process, the hands should be rubbed and dried thoroughly to remove any remaining bacteria and dead skin cells.

Unfortunately what most children do after washing their hands is wipe them on their clothes, usually because they are in a hurry to play or go to dinner or get back to the classroom.

The effect is that warm moist hands are a haven for bacteria so no sooner have you got rid of the germs after washing than your wet hands begin to collect them again … beginning with the handle on the door of the washroom!

Don’t forget - One single bacterium can become

64 in 2 hours
32,768 in 5 hours
1,073,741,824 in just 10 hours !

Request your free ‘Clean Hands For Schools Campaign – Part II’ a Guide for Head Teachers and Your School Community … this gives you advice and information on hand drying methods.

Freephone 0800 542 8024

To go with this guide you can also download other material to help your campaign:

Roland Wipe A4 Poster
- Blue | Purple | Red
Roland Wipe A5 Posters
- 1 & 2 | 3 & 4 | 5 & 6
Hand Drying Method Fact Sheet
One Hand Towel ONLY Poster
- Red | Blue | Purple
Roland Dispenser Location

YOUR CHOICE

If you need to update your facilities or just want to reaffirm that you have the right method already in place then we hope the following advantages and disadvantages about the three most popular ways of drying hands will be a helpful guide for you.

LINEN

ADVANTAGES

Extremely quick method of drying hands
Four times more absorbent than paper
68% drying efficiency
Linen towels are reusable and therefore produce very little waste in the environment apart from the laundry chemicals
A fresh portion of towel for every user
Easy to install dispensers

DISADVANTAGES

Not suitable for all ages – young children do not have the ability or knowledge to get a clean portion of towel and therefore many children use the same part of the towel – increasing cross contamination.
High maintenance as they often become jammed and need regularly changing. On site maintenance is recommended.
Laundry chemicals have a slight impact on the environment
Old towels are rarely recycled and end up in landfill
Generally they are only supplied on a contract basis which means that you will normally be tied into a 2-3 year agreement.

HAND DRYERS

ADVANTAGES

Extremely cost effective to run
No litter which reduces vandalism and abuse
No end product to take to landfill sites
Small foot print on the environment
On duty 24 hours a day
Yearly clean and general weekly / monthly checks means very little maintenance
No personal contact needed with fully automatic models, mean improved hygiene possibilities.

DISADVANTAGES

Slowest method of the three for drying hands taking an average of 43 seconds, this creates queues in the washroom resorting to children not bothering to dry.
Even when used it has been proven that rarely does anyone complete the drying process and infact only dry their hands 55-65 % leaving the washroom with moist warm hands for the bacteria to start breeding on again.
Hand dryers are not the most hygienic method, bacteria have been found to live in the outlet of the dryer and as it draws in air from the washroom environment there is potential to blow bacteria straight back onto the hands. As some bacteria thrive on warm air by using a hand dryer you increase the general bacteria count on the hands by an average 225%
Expensive to buy and replace and requires installation by a qualified electrician.
Contracts are generally long term and expensive

PAPER

ADVANTAGES

Paper has been proven to be the most effective method for drying hands in relation to removing bacteria. It has been shown that paper can reduce bacteria counts by 58%.
It is a quick method taking on average 12-14 seconds, helping to reduce queues.
Paper is easily dispensed and easily used and dispensers are easily fitted.
Great choice of dispensers and paper to suit every washroom

DISADVANTAGES

Can be costly due to wastage
Prone to vandalism and can be used to block drains and cause floods
Can be messy
Can be high maintenance
Environmental impact can be high

RECOMMENDATIONS

We have had experience of all of the above systems and strongly recommend that the use of paper is more user friendly in schools. Whilst paper products have had there fair share of bad publicity the advancement in today’s paper and dispensers now overcomes most if not all of the problems.

We have researched many types of paper dispensers and the papers that go in them and we believe that perhaps the easiest of all papers is the ZFold and CFold types but the Roll offers a unique way of saving time, wastage and money which are worthwhile considerations.

Ultimately this final decision of which paper is appropriate lies with you as we have seen all of them work when in the right place. Be aware of the problems your staff and children are currently facing and hopefully one of the following systems will overcome them and successfully help you help your children to DRY Their Hands!

ZFold or Interleaf Paper Towels as they are sometimes known are a hand towel that is interleafed with the next towel, therefore when you pull one out another is immediately ready for the taking. The plus side is that this makes it very easy for the younger children to dry their hands, the downside is that because the next towel is immediately available some children think they ‘need’ it and therefore often take more than they can use resulting in many unused towels in the bin or on the floor.

CFold Hand Towels are folded individually which means that you have to put your fingers into the dispenser to pull out each towel. The plus point of this is that as the towels are not freely given there is not as much wastage as with the ZFold however the downside is that younger children can quite often find it difficult to get these towels out and when they do they rarely unfold the towel to get maximum use. Try testing these with your youngest children first to see how they get on.

It may be that you need a combination of both of these dispensers for your school

Generally CFold and ZFold prices are about the same but there are normally more ZFold towels in a box – so as a cost comparison you can afford to waste a few more ZFold towels – although obviously this isn’t environmentally friendly! For the children the standard Green or Blue towel is fine but for the staff you may want something a little softer so choose white towels.

TOP TIPS FOR ZFOLD & CFOLD HAND TOWELS

To STOP the children from taking more than they need put up posters telling the children they should only use 1 towel to wipe.
Show the children how to unfold the towel fully before wiping.
If your maintenance staff aren’t on site during the day ensure that there is sufficient supply of towels for the whole day – never put loose towels out as these offer a temptation to be thrown around simply put in an extra dispenser if you need to.
Don’t overfill the dispenser, tell your staff! This makes it extremely difficult to get towels out without tearing them. Children either don’t bother drying their hands or you end up with thousands of little ripped bits on the floor!
Don’t put CFold towels into a ZFold dispenser! You will struggle to get them out.
Don’t put too small a towel into a CFold dispenser as they will be loose and will fall out resulting in a lot of wastage.

GUIDANCE NOTE : The difference between a CFold and ZFold dispenser is the opening where the towel comes out. On a CFold unit the hole is usually the same width all the way across and you can easily put your fingers in to pull the towel out. On a ZFold dispenser the hole across is a much thinner width which allows the towel to be pulled through but not the fingers to be put in, usually there is a finger hole just in the centre so that you can pull the first towel through from each new pack.

PAPER ROLLER TOWEL
This may be the answer to all of the problems associated with paper. Again there are many different styles of units but in our search for one that we can confidentially recommend we came across a range that were far superior to any other on the market. We tried and tested them and being convinced of their benefits we joined partnership with Bay West, a manufacturer for quality washroom dispensers.
The Bay West dispensers have many advantages for you to consider:

The dispensers are lockable and robust making them extremely vandal resistant. There are no levers to pull or buttons to press so small children can operate them easily a simple pull and tear which is a natural movement
A measured length of unfolded paper is dispensed each time so children don’t have to struggle unravelling a towel which saves time and therefore reduces queues.
The dispensers are high capacity allow a part used roll and a new roll in the dispenser at the same time – this stops the last bits of rolls or stub rolls being put around the washroom which inevitably get wet and end up in the bin thus further reducing wastage.
The design is neat and tidy and simply turns a messy washroom into a tidy washroom and the brightly coloured dispensers attract the children to using them and match the soap dispensers.

The main advantage to this dispenser is that it is available in a deal package and it is also available free on loan.

PAPER ROLLS – for the paper we recommend the heavier stronger blue paper because of the way children hold and tear, although there is a softer white available. The blue paper rolls each give 574 wipes, that’s 6888 dries per case of 12 rolls costing just £56.25 + Vat … that’s less than a penny per wipe!

Once again we recognise that not every system is for every premise, the downside to the Bay West dispenser is that it can be too bulky for smaller toilets or you may not have any serious issues with wastage and therefore the benefits may not exceed the benefits of the standard paper towel.

If you think this might be a system that you want to investigate then we strongly recommend that you try a deal package first. Simply set up a deal package in one of your washrooms and monitor its use.
If you would like further details on this then please email or call 0800 542 8024.
TRIAL PACKAGE £39.99 + vat: Roller Towel Dispenser (any colour) including fittings
2 Rolls of paper – 1148 wipes
Delivered directly to your school
Roland Wipe Poster
DEAL GUARANTEE: If you put the dispenser up and trial it for 30 days and for whatever reason don't think it is for your school then simply return the dispenser and we will give you a full refund.
DEAL OFFER: If you like the dispenser and want to keep it but feel you only require one dispenser, then we will give you 10% off your first box of paper.
Want More?: If you want more dispensers because you recognise how brilliant it is then we could in most circumstances give you free dispensers on loan and we will also throw in a box of paper free of charge.

The JANITOR Ltd 204 Sunbeam Studios Sunbeam Street Wolverhampton West Midlands WV2 4PF
Company Reg no 03480595. Reg Office, Brittannia Court, Moor Street, Worcester, WR1 3DB
Tel: 0800 542 8024

|Terms & Conditions |