Hand dryers are the unsung heroes of hand drying in the workplace. These trusty machines deliver efficiency, hygiene, user-friendliness and even eco-friendly features. With the proper care and maintenance, these powerhouses can last for years. To help you keep your hand dryers in tip-top condition, we’ve compiled a comprehensive hand dryer maintenance checklist that covers everything from cleaning the exterior and air outlet vents to monitoring airflow like a meteorologist.
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Why Maintain Your Hand Dryers?
A well-maintained hand dryer ensures optimal performance, longevity and an uninterrupted hand-drying experience. Investing a little time and effort in maintenance can avoid costly downtime while enjoying consistent efficiency and keeping your workplace a beacon of hygiene. Here we’ll explore how maintaining your hand dryers is the key to unlocking their full potential:
- Hygiene: Keeping your hand dryers in good working order ensures people don’t leave your washroom with wet hands, which can harbour and spread germs.
- Prevent avoidable accidents: Regular maintenance ensures hands are dried thoroughly and avoid water dripping onto the floor. Wet floors can increase the risk of slips and trips, which can cause serious injury.
- Reduce costs: Proper maintenance can help reduce costs by ensuring the hand dryers operate optimally, reduce energy consumption, and avoid needing repairs or replacement.
- Avoid downtime: Hand dryers that are well-maintained are less likely to break down and be out of service for any length of time, ensuring uninterrupted availability for employees and customers.
- Improve user experience: Maintaining hand dryers creates a positive user experience for customers and employees. It also shows you care about them.
- Avoid extra costs: With regular hand dryer maintenance, you can avoid the need for alternative solutions, such as paper towels, which require ordering, restocking and disposal.
- Prolongs the life of your hand dryers: Hand dryers are a significant investment, and correct maintenance can help extend their lifespans and maximise your return on investment.
- Enhances your brand image: Well-maintained hand dryers reflect positively on your brand by demonstrating your commitment to hygiene, sustainability and customer and employee satisfaction.
How To Maintain Your Hand Dryers
While the humble hand dryer may be a marvel of the modern washroom, they still require regular maintenance to maintain optimal performance and longevity. Here’s our hand dryer maintenance checklist to keep your hand dryers in tip-top shape.
- Follow manufacturer’s instructions: Correctly maintaining your hand dryers means bowing to the manufacturer’s guidelines.
- Regular cleaning: Regular cleaning is key to keeping your hand dryers pristine. However, the cleaning rituals you must follow depend on the outer material of the hand dryer.
- Hand dryers with a stainless steel finish require gentle cleaning to avoid scratching the surface. Use a mild detergent or stainless steel cleaner, avoiding anything abrasive or using scrubbing pads that can scratch.
- Plastic is a much more forgiving material making these hand dryers easier to clean. They just need a non-abrasive all-purpose cleaner or even a mild soap and water solution to wipe down the surface.
- Respect the air vents and filters: Air vents and filters are where dust and debris hide, affecting your hand dryers’ performance. Make it a regular task to check, clean or replace the air vents and filters according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Delve into your hand dryer’s inner sanctum: Inspect the motor and fan for general wear and damage, clean the blades and lubricate any moving parts. If your hand dryers have heating elements, they also need attention.
- Address dryer issues promptly: If your hand dryer is not up to par and making strange noises, its airflow is feeble or the drying performance is erratic, don’t delay and address them immediately.
Other Things To Consider
There are other important factors to consider when embarking on your hand dryer maintenance journey:
- Walls and floors: Take the time to regularly gaze at the walls and floors that surround your hand dryers. Look for signs of damage, such as broken tiles, cracks or water stains. Stagnant water and mould on the wall or floor can also lead to unpleasant odours. Regular cleaning, proper ventilation, and addressing any issues quickly will keep your hand dryers working effectively while upholding the splendour and freshness of your washroom.
- Importance of positioning: Ensure your hand dryers are close to the handwashing area. This will help minimise the distance users must travel with wet hands, sparing your washroom from being drenched with water droplets.
- Delight in good drainage: A well-functioning drainage system is your secret weapon against water spills and excessive moisture, reducing the risk of slips and falls.
- Regular inspections: Schedule regular inspections of your hand dryers and surrounding areas to ensure you stay one step ahead of any issues.
Troubleshooting Hand Dryer Problems
Hand dryers are generally reliable and low maintenance. However, they can experience the occasional hiccup. Here are some of the common problems that can arise with hand dryers:
- Insufficient airflow: If your hand dryer appears not to be blowing out air with its usual enthusiasm, it could be due to clogged air vents, a faulty motor or blocked filters.
- Heating element malfunction: Hand dryers can experience problems with their heating element, producing either insufficient or no warm air.
- Electrical issues: Power surges, tripped circuits or faulty wiring can result in hand dryers not working properly.
- Strange noises: Is your hand dryer making odd sounds as if possessed by a washroom demon? This may indicate that your hand dryer has an issue with internal components or loose parts.
- Sensor problems: If your hand dryers have automatic sensors or activation mechanisms, they can occasionally encounter issues that stop them from working effectively.
Tackling these problems can require technical, specialist knowledge and the right tools.
Fortunately, you don’t have to fix these issues on your own. Worry not if you get your hand dryers through Citron Hygiene. Our team of hygiene technicians will be ready to swoop in and help get your hand dryers back to peak performance.
Regardless of how many hand dryers you have, our dedicated team will provide on-time servicing and will perform regular maintenance checks to avoid any hand dryer downtime and keep them in optimal condition.
Let Citron Hygiene handle all your hand dryer needs. Learn more about Citron Hygiene’s complete range of hand dryers or contact us for a quote today.
