It’s an issue in the world of public bathroom accessories: we know how important handwashing is, but people still don’t do it properly. While teaching people about hand hygiene is part of the solution, these efforts only work for a little while they’re on their own.

Whether or not someone washes their hands depends on a mix of factors. This includes how they feel psychologically, what they see and experience in the environment around them, and how clean they think the facilities are.

Public Bathroom Accessories: Behavior and Environment

Researchers behind public bathroom accessories have looked into the psychology behind today’s public handwashing topic, suggesting three reasons people act the way they do. First, there are things we do out of habit when triggered by something in our surroundings.

Next, there’s motivated behavior. This is driven by wanting to get rid of bad feelings, like disgust after using the toilet, or wanting positive things, like fitting in socially.

The third type is more thought-out behavior, where we consciously plan our actions to reach long-term goals, such as protecting ourselves or our families from getting sick. Many efforts and nudges to encourage handwashing try to tap into those automatic and motivated responses.

One’s environment plays a big part. For example, some studies have found that simply having paper towels appear automatically from a dispenser, without needing someone to wave their hand or push a button, led to a significant increase in both paper towel and soap usage. This simple visual cue showed that everything was ready and easy to use, encouraging people to wash their hands more thoroughly.

Similarly, putting arrow stickers on the floor pointing from toilets to sinks boosted handwashing rates noticeably in other experiments. The success of these subtle changes suggests handwashing is something people do without much conscious thought, more out of habit.

Because of this, strategies that make washing hands easier, more automatic, or just a natural part of the process after using the toilet are likely to work better than approaches requiring thinking, or trying to scare people into washing. Both usually don’t last long.

This has implications for how restroom dispensers should be designed, how space should be laid out, and generally how a guest moves through your facility’s restroom.

Psychology and Reality of Restroom Handwashing Habits

When we talk about handwashing in restrooms and public bathroom accessories, the environment around us plays a big role in what we actually do.

“Although the health hazards of ‘dirty hands’ are widely known today, regular hand-washing is far from universal, with one study indicating that a mere 5 percent of Americans wash their hands in line with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s standards,” according to the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Economics.

The fact that small prompts work so well tells us something important: washing hands isn’t always a deep, thought-out decision for many people. It’s just a quick habit, or something they might forget to do.

This is why things that make washing your hands easier, or a part of moving through the restroom, are more likely to stick than other factors. Understanding this changes how we should think about designing restrooms, from where the sinks and dispensers are placed to the entire layout someone navigates.

“Despite efforts to increase public awareness, hand hygiene compliance rates are difficult to influence and remain stubbornly low,” states the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information. “In particular, increasing hand-washing rates after the use of public restrooms has been challenging. Interventions have been tested in numerous settings; however, no single intervention has produced consistent and lasting improvements in hand-washing rates.”

Public Bathroom Accessories and the Impact on Perception

The state of a visitor restroom, especially the handwashing area and public bathroom accessories, says a lot about a business or place. It’s a key point of contact with customers and employees, even if people don’t always think of it that way.

A huge majority of restroom visitors in public facilities report that a dirty or unpleasant restroom leaves them with a bad feeling about the entire establishment. This feeling is backed by surveys, where most consumers and business customers felt that a dirty public restroom suggested the whole business wasn’t clean.

Spending money on well-kept handwashing facilities and accessories isn’t just a cost or expense. It’s a smart move for marketing, keeping customers coming back, and protecting your reputation.

What do people want most in a public bathroom? Consistently clean facilities and making sure there’s always soap and paper towels available – things directly tied to being able to wash your hands properly.

Users also want modern features. Surveys say most Americans would rather go to a place that has touchless restroom features, and over half get a bad impression if a business doesn’t have them. In fact, the far majority of consumers think touchless fixtures are important in public restrooms.

This strong preference is really about avoiding germs, a concern that’s only become more important with things like pandemics and flu seasons. As long as people are worried about germs, the demand for touchless technology will likely keep growing, becoming less of a nice-to-have and more of a basic expectation.

The ‘No Soap or Towel’ Conundrum

The fact users really value a good restroom experience and appropriate public bathroom accessories is also clear from other findings. Other studies show that well over one-third of Americans are willing to pay to use cleaner, better-stocked public restrooms.

This shows there’s a gap between what’s often provided for free and what people actually want. It could even mean businesses have a chance to stand out by offering better restrooms, maybe even tiered options in some places.

For anyone managing a facility or running a business, the message is straightforward: making sure your restrooms are clean, well-stocked, and thoughtfully designed. It’s often a direct route to making customers and employees happy.

“80% of Americans think it’s important for public restrooms to have touchless fixtures,” states the National Association of Convenience Stores. “A top reason for skipping handwashing in a public restroom is that there’s no soap and/or paper towels available.”

Smart Public Bathroom Accessories and Dispensers

Soap dispensers and other public bathroom accessories, something we probably don’t think about much, have come a long way. They’ve gone from simple push pumps to really advanced devices, some even connected to the internet.

Big changes happened around 1999 when certain companies introduced the first widely available foaming soap and dispensers, later adding alcohol foam hand sanitizer. Foam soap itself was a sneaky step-up; it’s easier to use, you don’t use as much soap, people like the lather, and it’s better for the environment. It potentially saves a lot of water when you wash your hands.

Looking ahead, the market for soap dispensers is booming, expected to hit $2.2 billion globally by 2030. This growth is happening because people are more aware of hygiene, technology keeps improving, and there’s a bigger focus on sustainability. Automatic dispensers are particularly popular.

This market trend, along with people clearly preferring touchless options, shows a big shift in what users expect. Manual dispensers might start seeming less clean and out-of-date, putting pressure on businesses to upgrade to keep up a modern and safe image. Facilities that don’t adopt touchless technology could end up looking bad and foster less-satisfied users.

Today’s materials for soap dispensers and other accessories are also changing, balancing the practical with looking good. You see plastic because it’s light and cheap, and stainless steel, which is popular in businesses because it lasts long and looks sleek. Glass and ceramic are also used.

Right now, the trend is leaning toward more upscale materials like marble accents, wood, and specific types of stainless steel, which look better and hold up against rust. Cool finishes like matte black or physical vapor deposition are also in style, adding a touch of luxury. Some businesses use stainless steel and brass for touchless models.

Focus on Maintenance and User Experiences

What users actually experience with public bathroom accessories and dispensers is a big deal for whoever manages the building. There’s nothing more frustrating than an empty or broken dispenser. It’s one of the main reasons guests skip washing their hands and a common complaint, especially in online forums where consumers vent.

Beyond just being there, the soap matters. Some people really dislike that strong, clinical smell of typical public restroom soap, while others might even bring their own because they find the provided soap too harsh.

On the flip side, when touchless dispensers work well, people generally like them. They appreciate how much cleaner and more convenient the foam soap models are. Users praise features like the sensor always working when it should, being able to adjust how much soap comes out, the batteries lasting a long time, and the nozzle not getting clogged.

For those in charge of maintenance, these high-tech units come with their own set of issues. Staying on top of power issues, like dead batteries, or cleaning sensors so they aren’t dirty or get blocked are important.

Some maintenance employees install the wrong kind of soap, which is terrible for properly working foam dispensers that need a specific thickness of liquid. Dried soap can block a nozzle, even with sensors being set up correctly.

These challenges show that while they are advanced, smart dispensers need careful maintenance plans and possibly specific training for staff. A surprising number of refillable bulk soap dispensers – as many as one in four – can be full of harmful bacteria. If that contaminated soap gets on someone’s hands, it completely defeats the purpose of washing them.

This link between the dispenser design and health risk is a strong reason for facility managers to invest in systems that use sealed soap cartridges. 

Paper Towel Public Bathroom Accessories vs. Hand Dryers

There’s a long-running debate in the public bathroom accessories arena about whether paper towels or air dryers are better. A good amount of studies suggest paper towels are more hygienic. The act of wiping physically removes more bacteria from your hands, and the used towel traps the germs, helping prevent the spread..

Conversely, some research points out that air dryers, especially older ones or those without good filters, can pull in bacteria and viruses from the restroom air and blow them right onto your hands and around the room. Jet air dryers have been shown to spread particles over a wider area than the older hot-air types.

Organizations like the World Health Organization and Mayo Clinic have often recommended paper towels, especially in places where preventing infection is important. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges both methods can work, but stresses that getting your hands completely dry is key. Users achieve this better with paper towels because they might not wait long enough for a slower air dryer.

However, hand dryer companies argue that their modern machines with HEPA filters are very clean, claiming they can remove a huge percentage of viruses and bacteria from the air stream. They often push back, saying studies that favor paper towels might not be fair or truly reflect how people use dryers in the real world.

The reason you see conflicting results in studies often comes down to how the research was done and, sometimes, who paid for it, highlighting the need for more independent, real-world testing. It’s also worth noting that what people think is hygienic versus what’s actually microbe-free plays a big part in what people prefer and what equipment facilities choose to install.

Dryer Cost, Sustainability, Preference, and Noise

Beyond the hygiene debate, choosing between air dryers and paper towels in the public bathroom accessories discussion also comes down to money, environmental impact, what people prefer, and even how noisy they are.

Air dryers usually cost more to buy and install upfront. However, over time they tend to be cheaper to run because you don’t have to constantly buy paper towels, restock them, or deal with trash. Some estimates suggest air dryers can be significantly more cost-effective over their lifespan compared to paper towel systems, perhaps anywhere from two or three times cheaper to much more.

Paper towel dispensers are less expensive initially, but you have continuous costs for the towels, the labor to keep them stocked, and managing the waste they create.

From an environmental standpoint, modern, energy-efficient hand dryers are generally seen as better for the planet. They cut down on paper waste, which means fewer trees are needed, and their overall carbon footprint can be much smaller than that of paper towels. The process of making paper towels, transporting them, and disposing of them, even if they’re made from recycled material, still takes an environmental toll.

However, when you ask people what they prefer, surveys pretty consistently show a strong leaning toward paper towels. Visitors and guests tend to like them because they feel like they dry hands faster and more completely, they’re convenient, and you can grab one to open the door afterward.

Comparison and Features of Public Bathroom Accessories

People can get impatient with slower air dryers or public bathroom accessories and might not dry their hands completely, or just wipe them on their clothes. Since we know wet hands spread more germs than dry ones, a dryer that might be theoretically more hygienic but isn’t used properly may lead to worse hygiene than having readily available paper towels.

Finally, there’s the issue of noise. Those high-speed jet air dryers can be really loud. The noise levels can sometimes even be above what’s considered safe by workplace standards, which is a frequent complaint from users and something facility managers must consider.

Here’s a comparative overview of paper towels versus various types of air dryers:

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Accessories and More

When businesses choose to upgrade their restroom fixtures or public bathroom accessories, the money side of things is a huge factor. It’s not just about how much something costs to buy initially. You have to look at the total cost over its entire lifespan.

This includes everything from the soap and paper towels you constantly need, to maintenance and labor costs, as well as waste disposal. It also includes even the less obvious expenses, like employees getting sick or customers being unhappy because of poor hygiene. Soap is an interesting example.

Foaming hand soap can actually save a good amount of money compared to the regular liquid kind. Studies show you can get almost double the number of hand washes from a single refill of foaming soap, potentially cutting the cost per wash by half. For example, a school with a thousand students might save over $2,000 each year just by switching to foaming soap.

Beyond the type of soap, the dispenser system matters for hygiene and cost. While bulk refillable dispensers might seem cheaper upfront, they come with a higher risk of bacterial contamination. Some studies found that as many as one in four are contaminated, defeating the purpose of washing your hands.

Systems with sealed soap cartridges cost more for the refills but are much safer because they prevent contamination.

Touchless soap dispensers and water faucets usually cost more initially than the old-fashioned manual ones. However, they can pay for themselves pretty quickly, sometimes within six months. This is because they control how much product is used, potentially cutting soap or water usage significantly.

Sensor-controlled faucets also save water. Plus, there’s less mess and touching. Some manufacturers might even give you touchless dispensers cheaper or for free if you agree to only buy their specific soap refills.

Public Bathroom Accessories and Your Expense Strategy

While this can lower your initial public bathroom accessories cost, facility managers need to be careful about the long-term expenses of these refill contracts and getting locked into one supplier. Choosing systems that aren’t tied to a specific brand’s refills can give you more flexibility down the road.

Overall, investing in smart restroom systems that use Internet of Things (IoT) technology can prevent expensive problems and make operations run smoother. Having a restroom that’s unexpectedly out of order or out of supplies can be incredibly costly for a business, potentially running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour in some cases.

Smart systems help avoid this by giving alerts for maintenance needs and tracking supply levels in real-time, making sure restrooms are always working and stocked. This lowers your overall running costs.

Plus, surveys suggest that businesses renting space might even be willing to pay more for buildings that have smart restroom technology. It guarantees facilities are consistently clean and well-supplied.

Here’s the bottom line: look at the total cost of ownership when deciding on restroom accessories. Things that seem cheaper at first can easily end up costing more in the long run once you factor in the ongoing expenses.

American Specialties, Inc.

American Specialties, Inc. (ASI) develops your public bathroom accessories by taking functionality and user experience to the next level. For customers who demand innovative products, ASI offers a complete collection of commercial and office washroom equipment.

Additionally, ASI Group designs, engineers, and manufactures from a single source. This includes fully integrated washroom accessories, partitions, lockers, and visual display products. It’s just the beginning of what ASI has to offer.

By incorporating must-have accessories, you can create a commercial restroom that is both stylish and functional.