Modern hand dryers run their motors extremely fast, which is what dries hands quickly. The side effect is noise: high motor speed moving a lot of air is loud.
In some rooms that matters. One customer replaced an office washroom's dryers because the noise carried into the conference room next door. A nursery replaced theirs after the machine kept startling the children.
Every dryer here is rated between 54dB and 70dB, against roughly 80dB for a conventional high-speed model. Decibels are logarithmic, so a 10dB drop is heard as about half as loud. Your washroom's size and hard surfaces affect what you actually hear as much as the dryer does.
Do not simply buy the quietest one, because you usually give up more drying power than you need. To set the balance yourself, the Handy Dryers AirBOX V2 Sound Control is adjustable. Choose from the full range with our Hand Dryer Buying Guide.
The quietest models we stock
- Handy Dryers TOTO Hands In Blade at 54dB is the quietest on the page, and still dries in around 10 seconds.
- Mitsubishi Electric Jet Towel Smart at 58dB pairs the low rating with a 9-second dry time, the fastest of the quiet models.
- PHS Whisper XL at 59dB, in white, nickel or black for a washroom where the finish matters.
- Warner Howard MR Quiet at 65dB, a warm-air dryer where a jet model would be too fierce.
Hands-in blade dryers tend to sit at the quiet end because the casing contains the airflow. Warm-air models are quieter again but take longer, so the choice is usually noise against how fast the queue moves.
Where a quiet dryer earns its place
- Offices, where the washroom shares a wall with a meeting room or an open-plan floor.
- Hospitals, surgeries and care homes, where noise carries at night and startles patients.
- Libraries, museums and places of worship, which are quiet by design.
- Hotels and restaurants, where a dryer audible from the dining room undoes the atmosphere.
- Schools and nurseries, where a loud dryer can put younger children off washing their hands at all.
The aim is the same in each case: bring the rating down far enough that the dryer stops drawing attention, without dropping so far that people leave the washroom with wet hands.
