Surface Mounted vs. Lavatory Mounted Soap Dispensers

Hygiene is paramount when you own a business that serves customers or offers amenities to traveling guests. Recent outbreaks at national chain restaurants and highly contagious noroviruses on cruise lines force us to continually examine the way poor hand hygiene affects consumer populations. Although most business owners know to educate employees about proper hand hygiene, the kinds of soap dispensers you provide to your customers can play a large part in preventing cross-contamination and the transmission of potentially pathogenic microorganisms. In this article, we will examine the advantages and disadvantages to choosing surface-mounted versus lavatory-mounted soap dispensers so you can make the most meaningful investment for your business.

There are few deliberations more prominent when designing a commercial bathroom space than surface-mounted versus lavatory-mounted soap dispensers. One of the greatest advantages to choosing surface-mounted soap dispensers is that they come in a wide range of flexible mounting options. Soap dispensers mounted from walls, partitions, or any accommodating surfaces save space for other major appliances or restroom fixtures. There are certain limitations you must consider if surface-mounted soap dispensers are better suited to your restroom’s available space. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that soap dispensers should not be placed higher than 44 inches if the reach depth is more than 20 but not more than 25 inches in depth (308.2.2). Furthermore, surface-mounted soap dispensers cannot protrude more than four inches from the wall.

There are fewer limitations placed on lavatory-mounted soap dispensers, except that they should be able to dispense soap with the use of one hand and should not require tight grasping, pinching, or twisting of the wrist (309.4). Regardless of which kind of soap dispensers you decide to install in your facility’s commercial washroom, one of the most sustainably sensible decisions you can make is to choose an automatic dispenser that standardizes hand soap doses to minimize expendable waste. If you have any questions about this surface-mounted versus lavatory-mounted soap dispensers comparison, please contact a member of the PandaProducts.com team so we may better assist you in finding the right solution for your commercial restroom.