UK's top ten quietest hand dryers

For facility managers, reducing hand dryer noise is high on the washroom agenda – and Quiet Mark is assisting them to make well informed buying decisions by adding the hand dryer category to its rigorous testing programme.

Quiet Mark provides scientific verification and tests acoustic performance across a range of product categories. Reconstructing real life scenarios to ensure that the noise impact on human ears is accurately assessed, the quietest high performance models available within each category are awarded the purple Quiet Mark. This gives consumers and purchasers independent third-party assurance they are buying one of the quietest products available on the market.

For the first time, Quiet Mark have tested a broad range of hand dryers in three categories: Hands-under dryers using hot air; hands-under dryers using high-speed (cold) air; and hands-in (U-shaped) dryers using high-speed air. Only the quietest, high-performance machines were awarded the Quiet Mark.  

The Top 10 (in no particular order) Quietest Hand Dryers were found to be:

• Airdri Quest & Quazar (hands-under hot-air dryers) 
• Intelligent Hand Dryers Dryflow Elite & Elite MK II (hands-under hot-air dryers) 
• Dyson Airblade V (hands-under high-speed dryer)
• Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel (hands-in high-speed dryer)
• Airdri Quartz & Quad (hands-under hot-air dryers) 
• Handy Dryers Dillo (hands-under high-speed dryer) 
• Intelligent Hand Dryers Eco Force (hands-under high-speed dryer) 
• Cannon Hygiene Air Rapide & Air Jet (hands-under hot-air dryer/hands-in high-speed dryer)
• Handy Dryers Gorillo Ultra (hands-in high-speed dryer)
• Intelligent Hand Dryers Jet Force & Stealthforce (hands-in high-speed dryers)

Until now, the sound levels of hand dryers have often been tested in ultra-absorbent acoustic laboratories, rather than in highly reverberant washrooms and toilets, where their loud motor noise can be uncomfortably amplified. They may also be tested without human hands in the airflow, which can add up to 10dB in some cases. Therefore, test results have typically underestimated the noise of the machines. 

Quiet Mark’s acoustic testing, however, was done in an environment like a real washroom, with tiled wall surfaces and hard flooring, which reflect sound. Quiet Mark’s testing partner Sonic Oasis, part of Anderson Acoustics, carried out a decibel noise analysis using a dB1 Duo Class 1 sound level meter. Measurements were taken at adult head height, as if standing next to the dryer, and with hands in the airflow. All this ensures that the Quiet Mark is only awarded to hand dryers that are the quietest in real situations. 

www.quietmark.com