tl;dr: Are you OCD about your soap dispenser? Are you lazy? Do you like having all of life's conveniences? This is definitely the soap dispenser for you! The only thing holding me back from recommending it to everyone? The price.
Isn't it beautiful?
Soap. It's something that all human societies have a need for. There are thousands of ways you can transfer soap to your body, though. Many people have these crazy blocks of soap with which they can make some suds to clean their hands and bodies. Others use a new form of soap—so-called "liquid" soap, which is a little easier to transport and apply. Of course, both types of soap have advantages and drawbacks.
But as technology has progressed, hand soap has become increasingly convenient to store in liquid form. As a testament to liquid hand soap's strides in acceptance in human society, as well as the American ethic of laziness and convenience in all things, Simplehuman has designed a soap dispenser which requires so little effort to use that even an unsuspecting animal could figure out how to get soap out of the thing.
Simply Convenient
It's simple, really: You just wave your hand or some other thing under the soap dispensing nozzle, and soap comes out. It uses an infrared sensor, which is pretty darn accurate and not too error-prone.
On the base, in the rear, there's a little knob that you can turn to switch the dispenser off or set level 1, 2, 3 or 4 - each level gives an increasing amount of soap (I like level two the most). You refill it with any standard liquid soap, from any brand (you can get it quite cheap in bulk!), and refilling is as easy as screwing off a little port in the top, pouring in the soap, then screwing the top back on.
In my three months of testing, I haven't had a problem with the thing, and the batteries seem to be holding up quite well.
Great, but Not Perfect
The only major complaint I have against this beautiful device is that it is yet another surface that I need to clean in the bathroom - the oh-so-shiny top gets dust and such things pretty easily, and suffers from the iPod chrome-back effect—it begs to be shiny and clean, at all costs!
A minor gripe is the fact that the manual dispensing button is located in a very awkward place, at the top towards the back, and the rubber button isn't always the easiest to press. I'd much rather have some sort of switch near the dispenser which is easier to touch with the same hand receiving the soap. [See update below for more on this].
For the convenience of not having to change soap very often, and not having to touch a messy soap-squirting nozzle every time I wash my hands, I'm happy to fork over $30 (current street price, with a coupon or discount). I highly recommend this dispenser! (The dispenser is listed by Simplehuman as a "Sensor Soap Pump").
UPDATE: After hearing from @simplehumangal on Twitter, I've found that the main purpose of the manual dispensing button is for washing dishes. I had not even thought about the use of the soap dispenser for dishwashing, but now I know! Maybe another one will be on order soon ;-)
UPDATE 2 (6/20/10): This thing's still kicking after more than a year—although I had to recently use a toothpick to clean the dispenser nozzle. It's a great product!
UPDATE 3 (6/2/13): Now four years running, my original soap dispenser is still my favorite soap dispenser. I've cleaned it every couple months, and go through a set of 4 AAs every six months. It's a great product.
UPDATE 4 (1/10/16): Seven years in, I have two of these dispensers now, and both are running strong. As long as you use them once or more per day, the nozzle doesn't get clogged, and it keeps going!
Update 5 (1/15/17): Eight years, one has fallen by the wayside. I bought a new one to replace it, and the newer ones are a bit smaller, and much easier when it comes to changing batteries (no more strange dance of holding it and a screwdriver at the same time).
Buy the SimpleHuman Soap Dispenser on Amazon for about $40.
Comments
I bought an expensive soap dispenser, less than 6 months ago and now it does not work. Sounds like the motor is not working..should it just be dumped??
Could be - or it might just be that the soap you're using is too thick. Have you tried replacing the soap with some water and pumping that through? I've found that the generic Target liquid hand soap is perfect for ours - still running after about a year!
Had mine less than a year, changed battery once and now it quit working. For the price I paid ($60) it's a rip off
My first unit (the older style with the screw covering the battery door) just died finally after about 8 years, probably after being thrown the floor the fifth time (or thereabouts) by one of my kids; the newer one I have is still going strong, and since I use rechargeable Eneloop batteries now, I have kept it running on the same set of batteries, recharged about once a month.
There are definitely lemons out there, I just have had good luck getting reliable units, I think!
This product is absolute rubbish! Will not last for more than 6-8 months. Massive problems with rusty insides of the unit due to humidity in kitchens! DO NOT BUY YOU WILL BE SORRY!
I wasn't paid for this review nor did I get any discount for the dispenser—I received one as a birthday gift, and purchased a newer model a couple years ago. Alas, the first on is finally broken, probably more because of the frequency of it getting dropped on the tile bathroom floor by my kids than any mechanical issue. But the second one is still going strong. Both have been in bathrooms for their entire operational life, and I didn't experience any rusting issues—mine don't seem to have any visible metal parts either, though.
I wonder if the type of soap used could cause a lot of issues. I usually buy whatever Walmart's store brand of liquid hand soap is, and it seems to pump well, whereas some of the other soaps I've used were either too watery, or in the case of Target's store brand, too thick.
Why don’t you have the broken dispenser sent to you, so you can fix it and you tube .
I’ve had two of these for a few years however one of them completely rusted around the bottom and the other one has suddenly stopped working. I changed the batteries but of no use.