Key Takeaways:
Touchless technology has transformed modern restrooms, but installing individual touchless fixtures does not automatically create a hygienic handwashing experience.
The more difficult question is not about the impact of touchless technology but whether the entire restroom works together as a system.
That issue is at the heart of new research from Clean Hands Certified, an independent standard created to help facilities measure and improve public handwashing environments. Part of this initiative is the 2026 Clean Hands Index.
Seventy-five percent of respondents say better handwashing facilities increase their likelihood of returning to a business, according to the index, while 80.2 percent say a clean, well-functioning handwashing area increases their trust in the facility. Meanwhile, 68 percent of the public want a touch-free experience from start to finish.
Although it is clear that restrooms are important to visitors and employees, only 7.1 percent of the 235 evaluated facilities actually support all five criteria — touch-free soap, a touch-free faucet, warm water, hygienic hand drying and a hands-free exit touch — required for a complete hygienic handwash.
Looking at individual criteria reveals where the system commonly breaks down. Touch-free soap passed in only 36 percent of evaluations, according to the index, making it the weakest-performing area. Warm water passed in 48 percent, while hygienic drying passed in 70.6 percent, and hands-free exits passed in 54.3 percent.
The findings also show that simply specifying touch-free equipment is not enough. Seventy-four percent of respondents consider touch-free faucets important, yet plumbing manufacturers identified inconsistent sensor activation when people attempt to wash their hands as a field failure point, with 72.7 percent citing it as a problem. Soap availability was identified by 91.7 percent of hand hygiene manufacturers as a major factor in proper handwashing.
It is important that facility managers evaluate the entire touchless restroom sequence instead of just individual products to ensure every part of a restroom works together to support handwashing.
They can start by auditing each restroom against all five criteria. Is the soap dispenser touch-free and consistently stocked? Does the faucet activate reliably and provide warm water? Is there a hygienic drying method with towels available when people need them? After completing the handwashing, can users leave without touching a potentially contaminated door handle?
“I want to make it clear that this doesn’t mean these are dirty restrooms,” says Tim Cromley, the founder of Clean Hands Certified. “That’s not really the point. The point is simple: When a person uses the restroom and they go to use manual soap or a manual faucet, they are sharing what is on that over and over. Or they are touching door handles to exit, ruining the handwash they just achieved. We don’t have to do that anymore.”
The next step in creating a complete handwashing experience should be to identify the weakest links and turn the findings into a prioritized improvement plan rather than trying to replace everything at once. Managers can then determine whether the solution is a product, plumbing, design or maintenance issue and build those changes into upcoming maintenance and capital plans.
Elaina Myers is the assistant editor of the facilities market. She has covered topics from pest management to resilience and sustainability and covers all holidays and special days in the facilities field. She also manages the FacilitiesNet social media accounts.
