Guest Writer - Bobby Beaver

I don't usually have "guest writers" for ViewPoint, but a good friend has some very good points. Take a look at what Bobby Beaver has to say about World Dryer Corporation...


I hate World Dryer Corporation.

Oh, I'm sure they're a fine corporate citizen; presumably bringing jobs to hundreds of Illinois citizens, paying taxes, and manufacturing a fine product. It's not the actual company I have a problem with, nor the product they produce. I contend that the product they sell is based on a flawed model.

World Dryer Corporation is arguably the largest producer of hand driers, those commercial hot air machines found in restaurants and other retail establishments. They would have us believe that these dryers are the best way to dry your hands after washing them. Can these dated relics make it in this fast-paced internet based world of today?

World Dryer would have us believe that their devices are good for the environment.
Are they? The average dryer consumes 20 amps of electricity, quite a bit. Imagine twenty light bulbs all burning. Two and a half vacuum cleaners. 30 small televisions. Where does this electricity come from? Fossil fuels, spewing smoke and particulates. Nuclear power plants emitting radioactive waste products. So friendly for the environment...

World Dryer also would have us believe that they eliminate restroom waste, making for cleaner restrooms. Retailers obviously think so, for it leads to restroom neglect. Making some of the nastiest restrooms imaginable. Plenty of waste. All of it all over the floor.

The company would also have us believe that it "eliminates chapping." Aside from the occasional obsessive-compulsive person, I couldn't think of anyone getting chapped hands from drying them with a paper towel.

So much for dubious claims. Now, for facts.

While World Dryer dryers are admittedly reliable, I have seen dryers which blew, but did not blow hot. I've seen dryers that got hot, but didn't blow. And the most egregious example was a 220V dryer hooked to a 110V power line, which neither blew nor got hot to any satisfaction.

World Dryer dryers are natural targets for vandalism. Usually by "modifying" the printed instructions by scratching out key letters. "Press Butt..." and that’s the only part I can print in such a public article. I've also seen dryers which someone attempted to forcibly removed, some clogged with debris, or others that had their nozzles ripped off.

You cannot blow your nose in a World Dryer dryer. You also cannot blot a spilled drink or food product from your clothes. You can't wrap food in it. Or any number of other things a person does with a paper towel. It is, as its name suggests, a hand dryer. Nothing more.

The average World Dryer dryer does not dry your hands with a single press of the button. Two presses are required. Actually one and a half. Why the shortened drying time? Because most people walk off in frustration after the first press.

Drying hands takes time. You can dry your hands with a paper towel in less than 5 seconds, and this can be done while walking. However, this process with a World Dryer dryer takes almost a minute, an eternity which you are tethered to the dryer's six inch or so range. With both hands occupied. Time wasted, in a world where time is a commodity.

By their pure nature, World Dryer dryers produce a large amount of waste heat. Heat that collects in the confined space of the restroom. This heat can only be dissipated by the use of air conditioning. Which consumes even more electricity.

World Dryer dryers actually lead to a lack of hand washing. So many have walked into a restroom and groaned when confronted with a hand dryer and no paper towels. So, in the interest of time saving, we skip the sink and walk right out the door, our hands swarming with bacteria and... Well, you decide what.

So exists the evidence that World Dryer has been selling a flawed product for decades.
For the simple effort of trying to save a paper towel, so many of us are subjected to the infuriating delay and lack of dryness created by these unwanted blights of the restroom.