One of my biggest kitchen pet peeves is touching a soap dispenser with dirty hands. It may seem minor, but when my hands are covered in BBQ sauce or I’ve been handling raw chicken, I don’t want to touch anything until they’re clean — including faucet handles and soap pumps.
I haven’t upgraded to a touch-activated faucet, but I have used touch-free sensor pumps from simplehuman, and they immediately made my kitchen feel cleaner and more hygienic.
I started with a single sensor pump for hand soap that dispenses a preset amount instantly, with no touching or pumping required. The clear reservoir makes it easy to see remaining soap, and the stainless steel finish complements virtually any kitchen décor.
I liked it so much we added a second unit for dish soap. One swipe of the dish brush picks up the perfect amount of soap so we can move straight to scrubbing. I’ve tried sponge-and-handle dispensers before, but they never worked as well.
Having both pumps creates a coordinated, low-profile cleaning station on our windowsill. Replacing bulky plastic pumps with these sleek dispensers elevated the sink area and helped reduce clutter.
Not all sensor pumps are equal; many earlier models from other brands dripped, were slow, or clogged easily. During a visit to simplehuman, I spoke with their engineers and designers who obsess over these issues and have addressed them in this unit.
When simplehuman first developed the sensor pump, it dispensed soap in one second. The CEO and founder, Frank Yang, thought that was fine, but the engineers pushed for faster performance. They refined the mechanism to dispense in 0.25 seconds. Once you use a faster dispenser, slower ones feel unbearably laggy — much like how internet speeds shaped our patience with loading times.
The pump is so quick we even tested whether you could swipe your hand under it without getting soap on your skin — you can’t. It delivers a consistent, rapid portion every time.
Battery life is the main drawback of any automated pump. We’ve had our units for over six months and changed the batteries only once. simplehuman has also introduced a rechargeable sensor pump that charges via USB and can hold a charge for about three months, which solves the battery worry for many users.
For our family, the sensor pump adds convenient hygiene every day. It’s one of those small upgrades you don’t realize you need until you experience it. An unexpected benefit: our son, who often needs reminders to wash his hands, gets a kick out of the “magic” sensor and is more enthusiastic about washing.
simplehuman offered a giveaway for readers to win their favorite product by leaving a comment about the most innovative simplehuman item they like. They also encouraged sharing on social media for additional entries and asked entrants to include a valid email address so winners can be contacted.
Several fellow bloggers ran the same giveaway to increase entrants’ chances. The original article referenced participating blogs and sites that hosted the same promotion.