ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

A Savortex hand dryer is claimed to be the first product of its kind to achieve a Guinness World Record title.

The Vortex 550 EcoSmart holds the record for drying the most hands using 30kJ of energy.

Each participant in the record-breaking attempt had to begin with their hands completely wet. Their hands were only judged to be dry once the moisture level had been reduced to less than 40 per cent over the whole hand.

The challenge, which took place at the Savortex laboratory and manufacturing centre in Wiltshire in the UK, was devised in order to measure the energy efficiency of hand-drying units.

The Vortex 550 EcoSmart dried four pairs of hands using 24kJ of energy whereas hand-dryers typically use between 72 and 96kJ of power to dry one pair of hands, according to Savortex.

The dryer uses 550W and employs a heat-recycling technique to reduce power consumption compared with conventional 2400W hand dryers. This means the dryer takes only 15 seconds to dry hands, claim the manufacturers.

Savortex took six years to develop the Vortex 550 EcoSmart and overcome the issue of inefficiency and short life expectancy which they claim is a problem with conventional 2400W hand dryers.

The company says its unit has a life expectancy of 15 years compared with only one to two years for conventional dryers.