How to Prevent Empty Commercial Soap Dispensers

July 7, 2022

Did you know that your guests can leave your restroom with twice the amount of germs on their hands than when they entered?

Using the restroom requires the people in your building to touch multiple surfaces and objects. Whether they’re touching the doors, toilet flush valves, or faucets, there’s a high risk of spreading germs throughout your facility, especially if they don’t clean their hands before leaving.

While some people may just choose not to wash their hands, one of the most common reasons people skip the wash process is empty soap dispensers. If the people in your building don’t have access to hand soap or sanitizer in your restroom, they can spread germs that cause unpleasant illnesses like salmonella, E. Coli, norovirus, and other respiratory viruses.

The commercial soap dispensers that you have in your facility can help you make sure that your guests have consistent access to hand soap in your restroom.

In this article, we’re going to explore 6 dispenser features that can help you avoid empty hand hygiene products in your commercial restroom.

How to Avoid Frequent Empty Hand Hygiene Dispensers?

Hand hygiene dispensers have a wide range of features that will help your commercial cleaning staff keep them stocked and ready for use so you can keep your facility safe and your guests happy.

Some of the most important features to help you avoid empty dispensers include:

Visible Alert Systems
High-Capacity Dispensing Systems
Drip-Free Dispensing
IoT-Enabled Systems
Controlled Dispensing
Battery-On-The-Refill

Visible Alert Systems

It’s important that your cleaning staff know when your dispensers need to be refilled.

If your team can tell how much product is left in your dispenser without having to open or touch the dispenser, they will be able to take just a few seconds rather than a few minutes to decide whether it’s time for a refill.

To help make this process quicker and easier, many new hand hygiene dispensers are designed with clear product windows or LED alert lights.

With these visible alert systems, your staff can see the amount of hand soap or sanitizer left in the dispenser without having to fully open the dispenser.

Visible alert systems not only shorten the time it takes to clean, boosting your janitorial team’s productivity but also reduce the likelihood of staff “waiting till the next check” to replace a refill which ultimately increases the chance of your guests running into an empty dispenser.

High-Capacity Dispensing Systems

High-capacity soap dispensers offer more soap dispenses per unit than their counterparts.

In fact, some commercial soap dispensers can deliver more than 2,500 dispenses per refill, allowing your refills to last longer and increasing the amount of time between maintenance.

These systems are especially beneficial because in busy or high traffic restrooms that receive a lot of use per day, the high capacity unit will keep the dispenser stocked and allow for fewer changeouts throughout the day.

Your staff will be able to spend less time checking a dispenser that doesn’t actually need to be refilled and more time completing other cleaning tasks.

Since your staff will have more time, they can move on to other areas in your facility that require more thorough cleaning and create a more hygienic and sanitary environment in your facility.

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Drip-Free Dispensing

In some hand hygiene dispensers, you may notice that the nozzle drips between uses.

Not only does this affect the appearance of your restroom by creating pools of product on your counters or floors, but it reduces the amount of time that each refill lasts.

When your dispenser drips between uses, the product runs out earlier than planned, leaving your guests without hand soap. Instead of lasting through the number of dispenses that the product is supposed to, some of your product ends up wasted.

With special no-drip spouts, these dispensers help cut way down on drips, countertop messes, and running out of soap

IoT-Enabled Dispenser

Checking your dispensers can be time-consuming and when your janitorial team has to clean and maintain your entire facility, they will likely not be checking your restroom dispensers as often as they could. Failing to check dispensers often leads to empty dispensers, leaving your guests without soap.

That’s why many dispensers have IoT capabilities. IoT, or the internet of things, is a cloud-based connection between the dispenser and a data collection system.

Using this technology, the system can monitor and track use, product levels, and maintenance needs of each dispenser in your restroom.

These apps can be also configured to notify your cleaning staff via app or text when a specific dispenser has low product levels so that your team is aware of a low product level before the dispenser becomes empty.

This will allow your staff to complete their cleaning tasks without needing to stop to address complaints from the people in your building. IoT-enabled dispensers will allow your staff to continue to maintain the other areas in your facility without disruption.

This increases the productivity of your cleaning staff and reduces the amount your business spends on labor.

Controlled Dispensing

An automatic commercial hand soap dispenser can come with controlled dispensing options that can discourage overuse and allow each refill to last longer.

Some dispensers can be programmed to make users wait a certain amount of time between dispenses. This encourages guests to use only the predetermined amount that is given without attempting to take more than they need.

Instead of using 2-3x more than is needed to achieve clean hands, you can program your commercial restroom dispensers to release exactly the amount needed to clean your guests’ hands.

For example, your commercial hand soap dispenser can be set to release 0.4 mL of soap which would allow you to achieve 2,000 dispenses per 800mL refill. If your guests are taking more than they need, you will need to refill the dispenser more frequently.

Battery-On-The-Refill

Dead batteries can commonly be mistaken for an empty dispenser.

This is because your dispenser doesn’t function as it should and leaves your guests without access to the product that they need to clean their hands.

There is an innovative technology that provides a brand new coin cell battery on every refill. This battery-on-the-refill technology eliminates the need for battery changeouts separately from completing a product changeout.

Since each refill comes with its own fuel cell, it will last the entire life of the refill, meaning that your guests will never run out of soap due to a dead battery in your hand soap dispenser.

Final Thoughts

Though empty hand soap dispensers are common, the type of dispenser you choose can be equipped with features that help your cleaning staff better manage and avoid running out of soap.

Avoiding an empty commercial soap dispenser can be as easy as choosing one that helps you and your cleaning staff spend less time checking your restroom.

There are innovative hand hygiene dispensing systems that you can add to your restroom that will allow your staff to maintain the area with less time and labor, ultimately saving you money.

Whether you’re looking to eliminate empty or dripping hand hygiene dispensers, lower dispenser maintenance costs, or enhance productivity, Imperial Dade has a wide range of restroom maintenance products to choose from.

If you are located in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, or Canada, contact a Specialist today for a review of your restroom program to find the best dispenser for keeping your restroom stocked.