Equipment expert Adam Ried shares his pick for the best automatic hand soap dispensers.
Buy our winning automatic hand soap dispenser:
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
Related posts
39 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I purchased 2 of the one on the end.. one wasn't used very often at all.. after a year they both stop working… simple human is expensive trash…
How dirty the soap dispenser is doesn't matter one bit because you're washing your hands. What you need to watch out for is the faucet handles/knobs. You touch those before when your hands are contaminated, then wash, and then touch the handles again after thereby contaminating your hands again. Much better to invest in a touchless faucet if you care about microbes that much
Like to see foaming rechargeable options and how long the last
Yes, Simplehuman is the best, I bought my first one in 2012, still works!
Need to test battery life in these also and if they start giving less and less soap getting clogged cause that was my problem with one i bought
I have the one on the far right. The batteries only last about 1 month, for maybe 5 to 10 uses a day. What I really want is a RECHARGEABLE soap dispenser. That would be great.
Also good in the bedroom!
The small Simple Human pump isn't built well, after 3-4 years ours quit. As did the replacement. And it chews through batteries, which must be inserted in the bottom, which encourages the soap fill to leak.
Perhaps their more expensive model is better.
You can never wash your hands too much?
A dermatologist might not agree.
I guess I am old school, I have a push type soap dispenser that I push with the back of my wrist so as not to contaminate it, then I use my wrist or arm to activate my lever handle on my faucet to turn that on.
More handwashing can't be a bad thing? What is it with Americans and making up facts willy nilly? Kind of irresponsible no?
The problem with automatic soap dispensers in a kitchen is that you can't control the volume of soap dispensed. If your hands are greasy then you need a lot of soap. But if you are doing a number of decontamination washes between tasks your hands are mostly clean and you just need a dab of soap.
Myself, I just fill a manual dispenser with Dawn for the kitchen and use it both for cleaning dishes and hands.
tantric soap dispenser
I have used the non-winning (Umbra) one on the far left-umbra for 7 years in both my bathroom and kitchen. And they are still going strong, no issues. I choose it because it looks awesome on my counter and available in a variety of colours to suit my decor.
I do something crazy. I wash the soap dispenser while I wash my hands.
bar soap
I had a Simple Human touch free dispenser once a few years back. Started leaking all over the place. I'm a bit wary.
Maybe I just don't get it, but why be so concerned about contaminating a soap dispenser? Whoever touches the 'contaminated' soap dispenser will be washing their hands immediately after, right? So why the fuss? I'd be more concerned about turning on the water with germy hands and then reinfecting your clean hands when turning it off.
Had a good laugh at the "contaminating the soap dispenser" premise. So many things entertained me over the last year plus.
Worried about contamination? YOU'RE WASHING YOUR HANDS!
$25-60? Just wash the dispenser dude?
What would be your recommendations for FOAMING soap dispensers? 🙂
Need one that dispenses foaming hand soap. Gooey hand soap is disgusting
I bought a simplehuman auto soap dispenser, it worked for a month, exchanged it for a new one, that one worked for two months, so I just gave up. I just use a regular hand soap dispenser and use the side of my wrist to pump it.
A solution looking for a problem.
Automatic Soap Dispensers… Did l really need one? Apparently it was more fun than a barrel of monkeys for my younger Grandkids! Who knew five and three year old’s loved to wash their hands 20 to 30 times in a row! 😂🤣😂♥️👵🏻
Rinse your hands thoroughly before using the soap. Problem solved, no batteries or refilling required.
I just drip soap on the hand pump after I lather my hands to keep it clean.
They didn't have her taste test to guess the winner. I'm going to have to unsubscribe.
I wish you had also discussed what batteries were required, how many were needed and how easy it was to change them. Also how it holds up over time.I used the Simple Human dispenser you nominated as the winner. I liked it for the relatively short time it served its purpose, but opted for a manual pump version after that. I’m not sure you need to worry about contamination if you are washing your hands after you pump. – I love your videos. Please keep them coming.
i have this dispenser, it really is great!
** will test kitchen at home be uploaded to youtube as well?
I was a fan of the winning pump but it takes 4xAA batteries and runs out fairly fast. Constantly changing and felt like I was killing the planet!
Ended up going with the SimpleHuman rechargeable model (silver one in this video). Still a fan, feel it pumps out too much soap even on the lowest setting but haven’t run out yet (early days).
They also have a foaming hands free dispenser I’m curious about too.
Anyone trying to get a cheaper one beware of bottoms they will get wet and the compartment for batteries can corrode
At least we didn’t need to watch them eat and grunt like food samples. Please stop that plan.
am i the only one who washes the dispenser bottle at the same time?
I use the dispenser that is attached to the sink and it works fine. But I will say after handling raw chicken or have oily hands an auto-dispenser might be good. My concern would be how much soap it dispenses and can you adjust that? Looking at the video it appears all of these put out way more soap than you would need. I pea-sized amount of soap to me is enough and if I need more I’ll pump more.
My favorite was discontinued….LYSOL.
I had the winner (simple human) but it went through batteries so fast! I ended up giving it away because I didn't like how many batteries it used
This series is so weird, old white guy mansplains at women pretending to be dumb for 4 straight minutes, and it's the same thing every damn time. She's not an idiot dude, no need to talk to her so rudely.