How Many Hand Dryers Should i Fit

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Planning bathrooms and hand dryer requirements for buildings

Ensuring that your building has the appropriate number of facilities for occupants is an important factor in maintaining an environment that is both hygienic and efficient. In both workplaces and schools, significant time can be lost over the course of a year if there are not sufficient facilities for the number of building users, and this can have an impact on productivity.

If bathrooms do not have enough hand dryers, users may forego hand drying as part of their visit, and this can have an impact on health and wellbeing. Installing too many hand dryers is an unnecessary cost that can affect budgets in other areas.

What Bathroom facilities are Necessary

The number of bathrooms and toilets in a building will be determined by the size of the building and the number of people it contains. According to the HSE, the number of WC facilities should be accessible and well maintained with the following minimum provision on each floor of a building:

1 – 5 people: 1x toilet, 1x washbasin
6 – 25 people: 2x toilets, 2x washbasins
26 – 50 people: 3x toilets, 3x washbasins
51 – 75 people: 4x toilets, 4x washbasins
76 – 100 people: 5x toilets, 5x washbasins

In a mixed workplace, male only bathrooms can be installed with the following minimum provision in addition to the mixed bathrooms listed above:

1 – 15 men: 1x toilet, 1x urinal, 1 washbasin
16 – 30 men: 2x toilets, 1x urinals, 2x washbasins
31 – 45 men: 2x toilets, 2x urinals, 2x washbasins
46 – 60 men: 3x toilets, 2x urinals, 3x washbasins
61 – 75 men: 3x toilets, 3x urinals, 3x washbasins
76 – 90 men: 4x toilets, 3x urinals, 4x washbasins
91 – 100 men: 4x toilets, 4x urinals, 4x washbasins

How many hand dryers should bathroom facilities have?

The number of hand dryers should be proportional to the number of washbasins fitted in the bathroom. In smaller bathrooms, with only a single washbasin, one hand dryer should be fitted. In larger rooms, there should be a minimum of one hand dryer for every three washbasins.

In many cases, facilities managers will choose to fit more than the minimum number of hand dryers in each bathroom to ensure that the room can be used more quickly and help to avoid queues.

On average, the average time spent by men in the WC is 210 seconds while for women, the time is shorter – around 90 seconds on average. If your building uses older evaporative hand dryers, this can extend the length of time spent. A conventional warm air hand dryer can take more than 30 seconds to work, whereas a more modern jet hand dryer such as the Mitsubishi Electric Wave i01 will work in as few as 10 seconds.

Choosing a faster hand dryer can mean that fewer need to be fitted above the minimum specification while still ensuring that people can use the bathrooms efficiently. This can reduce the cost of upgrading or refurbishing bathrooms in a building significantly.

Find Out More

If you are planning to upgrade or refurbish the bathrooms in your building, we can help provide you with advice and support about specifying Mitsubishi Electric Wave products. Contact us today to request a demonstration of our range today or download our brochures.

Wave i01
Wave u02