Talk:Key:toilets:hands drying

no drying option

What is the appropriate tagging when no hands drying option is available? -Mbeyerle (talk) 20:26, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Mbeyerle: I addded toilets:hands_drying=no to the wiki page, since this tag is already used a lot --Kylenz 12:37, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Resolved

Aharvey (talk) 23:48, 21 September 2025 (UTC)

Distinction between a "towel" and a towel-roll-machine

Currently, the image for toilets:hands_drying=towel shows a machine with a towel roll where can have a piece of towel, which is rolled back into the machine. Quite some toilets don't have anything as fancy and just have a towel hanging somewhere, which is washed regularly (I hope). This distinction cannot be made atm. I propose to repurpose toilets:hands_drying=towel for the latter case and use toilets:hands_drying=towel_roller for the latter. --Pietervdvn (talk) 16:04, 16 March 2025 (UTC)

As there were no towels tagged anyway, I've simply updated this. --Pietervdvn (talk)

Thanks! I've just mapped an example of toilets:hands_drying=towel_cabinet and added a photo to the main page --Kylenz 22:20, 16 March 2025 (UTC)

Resolved

Aharvey (talk) 23:48, 21 September 2025 (UTC)

electric_hand_dryer: automatic vs push button

I have seen many places where the hand dryer used is either automatic (move your hand around the device until it reads your hand and starts blowing because sometimes you can't see where the sensor is) or push button (big silver button usually on the front of the device). Should there be different values for them (since "electric_hand_dryer" covers all electric type of hand dryer) or a different key should be used to define that? On taginfo I don't see any "toilets:hands_drying" value related to this distinction. Jimkats (talk) 21:39, 24 August 2026 (UTC)

Could be eg *:activation=* following crossing:activation=* , which distinguishes different aspects more than light:lit=* (the former still has another crossing:on_demand=* confusingly, and they have problems distinguishing how vs when something is started)

Or *:automated=* from automated=*

This should be coordinated with toilets:handwashing=* and toilets:disposal=flush together. A WC seat fixture can be flushed by foot pedal, remote occupancy detection, or close-up hand-waving sensor. Urinals can mechanically flush periodically from tank water level, and there's even buttons or handles in some water-scarce washrooms similar to WC.

Currently, toilets:hand_drying=* requires semicolon when multiple are provided. It can't distinguish air jet blowers, and slot-shaped ones blowing both sides when inserted. There are some built into the cabinet, basin, or next to tap, which are prone to being accidentally activated.

Fundamentally, the toilets:*=* prefixing is flawed. They aren't limited to a toilet. There are hand-washing facilities elsewhere. \

toilets:handwashing=* uses handwashing=* , although it might be to avoid over-namespacing originally. Therefore simply hands_drying:*=* can be used. : If different dryers are suffixed hands_drying:electric_hand_dryer:*=* , it can further be simplified into hands_drying:electric_hand_dryer=button / hands_drying:electric_hand_dryer:*=button etc.

Kovposch (talk) 08:27, 25 August 2026 (UTC)

True, in general the toilets key and values needs a revamp at some point to better cover such cases (sensor-activated vs hand-pushed button vs stepping on a button on the floor vs pulling the flush's chain (old style)). And yes, not to mention about the different styles of automatic hand dryers, like the two pictures in the page currently (typical one with blower downwards, and the newer style where you put your hand in, slot-shaped as you say).

So, in my opinion it seems for now automated=* could do the trick to specify the automatic ones, as it is documented and generic, and in the future it could change to a more toilet-specific, if any revamp is done. Jimkats (talk) 16:10, 25 August 2026 (UTC)