William’s Den, North Cave, East Yorkshire, kids hand dryers

William’s Den, in North Cave, near York, in East Yorkshire is owned and run by Tor and Christian Carver.

The family attraction has recently introduced new hand dryers designed specifically for children in a bid to promote hand washing and sustainability in a fun and child-friendly way.

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William’s Den was inspired by Tor and Christian’s son William who, when asked how he wanted to celebrate his fifth birthday, came up with the simple concept of wanting to take a few of his friends into the local woods to explore, build dens and cook food on a campfire.

William’s Den is in North Cave, near York, in East Yorkshire (Image: Supplied)

The recent project involved upgrading all nine of the existing hand dryers in the centre’s washroom facilities with custom branded Quad hand dryers from Oxford based manufacturer, Airdri.

The Quad is one of most socially inclusive models currently on the market. It was developed to have an ultra-low sound output - a huge tick in the kid friendly box after research uncovered that 38 per cent of UK children are scared of hand dryers.

The new hand dryers in action (Image: Supplied)

Tor said: “After much research in the hand dryer market, Airdri was the obvious choice for us. The units not only look fab, they’re amazingly quiet – yet very efficient.

"Our younger customers love the design and rather than run away from the dryers they positively want to use them. The energy efficient units also tick the box when it comes to our approach to sustainability. All in all, Airdri is the perfect partner for William’s Den and we couldn’t be happier with their performance.”

Se said hand hygiene has become increasingly important since the pandemic - even when washed properly, bacteria and germs multiply more quickly on wet hands - so it’s paramount to encourage children to practice good hand hygiene, including drying their hands properly. 

Steve Whittall, chief operating officer at Airdri, said: “We were really pleased to be able to work with William’s Den to provide child friendly hand dryers for the play centre washrooms. It’s so important to teach children that hand dryers aren’t a scary and loud device in the washroom, but rather an important step in keeping hands clean and, in our experience, using low sound units with fun designs can help make the washroom experience much more enjoyable for children. Hearing that they actively want to use the dryers is testament to how some simple considerations in the washroom can make a big difference for the children using it.”

The dryers are already a big hit (Image: Supplied)

Sustainability is a huge part of the William’s Den ethos, with every part of the adventure centre constructed to create a place that re-uses and recycles, rather than taking away from the local environment.