Whether you are opening a new venture, updating the fittings in an existing venue, or simply looking for a replacement hand dryer, there are a number of factors that you should consider when choosing the right hand dryer for a restaurant.  With a range of different options available on the market, finding the model that best suits your needs can be difficult, but by narrowing down your goals, it becomes easier to identify what is best..

The Importance of Atmosphere

Creating a welcoming environment for diners is essential to the success of a restaurant. The focus of attention should be on the food, and any distractions are unwelcome.  While light music, the sound of conversation, and the clinking of cutlery on plates adds to the ambience, loud noises coming from the bathrooms do not.  Conventional hand dryers can be extremely noisy in use which can distract guests from enjoying their meal and compromise their experience.

In the past, many restaurants would choose to use disposable paper towels in the bathrooms to prevent noise, but in an increasingly environmentally and cost conscious world, these towels, with their high ongoing cost are falling out of favour with many venues who are instead opting for wall mounted hand dryers.

Quieter hand dryers are ideally suited to use in a restaurant because they minimise the amount of distraction and noise getting out into the dining areas.  Models such as the Mitsubishi Electric Wave u02 create just 57dB of noise in use which is comparable with a normal conversation.  As such, they are less likely to affect the experience.

Cost Considerations

In a busy restaurant with many covers, bathroom supplies and electricity bills can become expensive. For every 100 daily uses, the cost of paper towels is almost £300 annually.  Conventional hand dryers are much more cost effective – a typical push button dryer will cost around £33 per year for comparable use.  More energy efficient dryers such as the Mitsubishi Electric Wave range, which are both quieter in use and use less power, can be two thirds less than a conventional model, which can lead to significant savings over time.

Environmental Impact

A key selling point for many restaurants is authenticity and sustainability, and this should extend to choices made around the environmental impact of the appliances they use.  Opting for more efficient designs means a lower carbon footprint, which is important in meeting sustainability commitments.

Disposable paper towels are far from carbon neutral. For every 100 daily uses, the manufacturing process for paper towels will generate 624KG of CO2 annually, and for each tonne of towels produced, about 17 trees will need to be cut down and processed.  In addition to this, as a hygiene product, on disposal, paper towels will usually be sent to landfill.  Each year, globally, 254 million tonnes of paper towels are dumped.

Choosing efficient hand dryers for your bathrooms reduces the carbon footprint of the restaurant – the annual CO2 emissions associated with a Mitsubishi Electric Wave hand dryer is approximately 35Kg- more than 90% lower than paper towels.

Fit and Finish

When choosing a hand dryer for your restaurant, it is important to ensure that it is well suited to both the available space in bathrooms, and the overall décor of the venue.

In smaller bathrooms and restaurants that attract families, wall mounted “hands under” dryers are often more suitable as they take up less space in the bathroom and can also be mounted lower on the wall to suit the needs of younger guests.

For larger bathrooms, or a more modern aesthetic, a “hands in” dryer might be preferred and also brings hygiene benefits to the venue because water from the users’ hands is collected in a tank after being blown off the skin.

Different finishes and designs can help to complement the venue too.  The Mitsubishi Electric Wave hand dryers are available in metallic, as well as black and white finishes.  They are manufactured with antibacterial materials which means that the surfaces are easy to clean as well as providing a robust finish that will complement other aspects of your design.

Maintaining Good Hygiene

Ensuring that staff and guests maintain proper hygiene standards at all times is essential in preventing the spread of bacteria or viruses in the venue.  Fast, efficient hand dryers that use jets of air to dry the skin can be a better choice for users.

With conventional warm air hand dryers, the drying action is evaporative which can leave a residue of soap or germs on the skin.  This can lead to transmission of infections around a venue as well as affecting skin health.  Jet hand dryers simply blow water off the skin which leaves it cleaner.

Find out More

If you’re in the process of choosing hand dryers for your restaurant and would like to learn more about the Mitsubishi Electric Wave range, please contact a member of our team to request a demo of our products and see their benefits.