Best Automatic Soap Dispensers
These are the dispensers that didn’t drip, were easy to use (even for kids), and looked great in our bathrooms
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If you’re looking for a low-mess, automatic way to dispense hand soap and you’d like to limit the viruses, germs, and bacteria you come into contact with daily, automatic soap dispensers are worth considering.
- The Dispensers: Top Performers Liquid vs. Foam Soap Exposure to Viruses
The Phneems Automatic Liquid Soap Dispenser is easy to use, with only three settings for volume (which means you know exactly what you’re getting each time) that can easily be adjusted with a small button. The manufacturer calls these level settings “Gears:” Gear 1 is for hand-washing, Gear 2 is for dishwashing, and Gear 3 is for bathing. This is ideal for tailoring the volume to children or adults, but you’ll still get a reasonable amount of soap no matter which setting you choose. (In our lab tests, the Phneems always dispensed just enough soap, and from one level to the next increased the amount of soap by about 82 percent.)
The Phneems is also mess-free (we experienced no drips) and has a high capacity of 10.8 fluid ounces, so you don’t have to refill it often. According to the brand, foam soap should not be added, but “ordinary gel soap” can be “added directly” to the dispenser.
This soap dispenser charges using a simple USB-A to USB-C cable, which is useful if you lose the cord. (Others use a proprietary charger.) After evaluating the dispenser about four to six times daily, we still didn’t need to charge it, and the brand says its charge lasts for up to 100 days. It has a minimalist profile and looks nice to boot.
We also tested the Phneems Automatic Foam Soap Dispenser and found that it looked similar to the liquid soap dispenser but lacked the three-level settings (gears) that controlled the amount of soap dispensed.
The mess-free Phneems Automatic Liquid Soap Dispenser kept our counters free of soap drips.
The Pzotruf Automatic Soap Dispenser is a solid runner-up, right behind the Phneems. It’s easy to use and fill, with a system that doesn’t drip or make a mess, and it has a 17-fluid ounce reservoir—the largest capacity of all of the dispensers we evaluated—so you don’t have to fill it often. The Pzotruf runs on external batteries (not included), which may be ideal if you don’t want to rely on a charging cable or port.
The dispenser has a button system that you can use to toggle through the five volume modes; this system works okay, but there’s no label so you have to guess which setting you’re on. We found that we actually liked this setup because we had more control over the volume. But we had to spend more time reading the manual to understand how to adjust the settings. Interestingly, my children (ages 2 and 4½) also liked this system, despite their small hands.
It’s also worth noting that the smallest volume amount is very small (our lab testing confirmed this), and the highest amount is high. You will rarely need the highest volume, while the smallest volume of soap is useful for kids’ hands.
The Pzotruf Automatic Soap Dispenser runs on external batteries and didn't drip or make a mess.
The Simplehuman Rechargeable Liquid Sensor Pump has a capacity of 9 ounces and comes with a proprietary charger. A regular USB charger won’t work, which could be a pain. It also comes with 3.5 fluid ounces of proprietary liquid hand soap, which smells great. However, the amount of soap dispensed is determined by how close (or far) your hand is from the sensor, which is tough to modulate.
Our kid testers were confused about needing to put their hands closer to the pump and the largest volume setting (with your hand further away) dispensed a huge amount of soap, which made a mess. In lab testing, Amézquita found that this liquid sensor pump dispensed two to four times more hand soap than the comparable Simplehuman Foam Sensor Pump, below, which dispenses foam soap. This means you may wind up spending more money on liquid soap for this dispenser over time. Simplehuman recommends using "Simplehuman soap for optimum pump performance," but we also tried it with other soaps, and it worked well.
This is the most attractive soap dispenser we evaluated, though. Its no-nonsense, minimalist design added to our bathroom decor.
The amount of soap dispensed by the Simplehuman Rechargeable Liquid Sensor Pump changes depending on how far from its spout you position your hand.
Other Automatic Soap Dispensers We Evaluated
Of the two Simplehuman automatic soap dispensers we evaluated, one model failed to wow us.
The Simplehuman Foam Sensor Pump Dispenser is the foam soap version of the Simplehuman Liquid Sensor Pump. They work similarly, with the exception of a complex system that you’ll need to build alongside the pump when you open it up. After spending nearly 30 minutes trying to put the parts together with an unhelpful manual, we ended up Googling the setup. The proprietary soap smelled nice (we also tried it with other soap), but the complex build and slightly drippy tap pushed this soap dispenser out of the running. The two Simplehuman pumps are also more than double the cost of the other models we tried.
Unfortunately, the Simplehuman Foam Sensor Pump Dispenser had a drippy tap.
Is There a Difference Between Liquid and Foam Soap?
Multiple sources told us that there is no difference between liquid and foam soap, in terms of its efficacy for preventing illness. All soap products work by mechanically removing oils and microbes from the skin, which reduces contamination, Jill Roberts, PhD, an associate professor at the College of Public Health, Global and Planetary Health at the University of South Florida, tells CR. However, some people prefer using foam soap because it feels nicer and looks appealing when it’s dispensed, Roberts says—and the more you like something, the more apt you are to use it.
Foam soap may also be less irritating to the skin, Purvi S. Parikh, MD, an infectious disease, allergy, and immunology specialist at NYU Langone Health, tells CR. “The main thing is to make sure you scrub well for a minimum of 20 seconds, no matter which type [of soap] you use,” Parikh says.
Ultimately, any soap that is used correctly will do the job.
“I would doubt that there is any real difference between the forms of the soap that you use from these dispensers as long as you have the proper surfactant-based ingredients to remove dirt and reduce the bacterial load,” says James E. Rogers, PhD, CR’s director of Food Safety Research and Testing. “For many folks, the general consensus is that plain old bar soap or its equivalent works just fine if you use enough of it and for the correct time.”
Does an Automatic Soap Dispenser Limit Exposure to Viruses?
Traditional soap dispensers can carry a lot of bacteria, viral particles, and germs. Not having to touch the dispenser should help limit your exposure.
“Any process that can decrease the contact between microbes and our hands is beneficial,” says Roberts, adding that this is especially important in healthcare and food service environments. However, she tells CR that a hands-free sink is actually more effective than a hands-free soap dispenser. “We don’t want to contaminate our hands after hand-washing,” Roberts says.
How We Evaluated Soap Dispensers
We ordered four of the most popular automatic hand soap dispensers and used them in our busy home, with our 2- and 4½-year-old kids as kid evaluators. We took notes on the capacity of each soap dispenser and how easy or difficult each was to fill. In our labs, Amézquita measured the weight of the dispensed soap to see if there was a difference between dispensers.
We set each dispenser up at a different sink for one week. We watched our kids use them, noted how far away from the dispenser a hand needed to be to trigger the response (and how long it needed to stay there), and paid attention to the kinds of messes the dispensers created via drips.
Once they’d been in use for a week, we took notes on our favorites, combining both the in-use data points with our thoughts on how the dispenser looked aesthetically and whether or not it required the use of a brand’s proprietary soap.
We also spoke with a microbiologist and public health specialists to understand whether automatic soap dispensers can help limit exposure to viruses, bacteria, and germs, and whether there is any difference between liquid and foam soap.
