shake-dry
verb · shake-dries; shake-dried; shake-drying
To shake off excess water, then use a dryer until dry.
noun
A drying routine in which excess water is shaken off before a dryer is used to complete drying.
Youth-led research
Shake first.
Dry smarter.
Shake-dry. Use less dryer time. Experience the savings.
We’re starting with hand-drying: can shaking off excess water before using an electric hand dryer reduce its running time and energy use? Our first studies measure dryer runtime and investigate potential energy savings.
Less dryer running time means less energy use.
What does shake-dry mean?
Our first focus: hand-drying
The Initiative’s research and public education begin with hand-drying; our current findings and guidance apply to that setting, not to other drying uses.
How to shake-dry hands
Our mission
Research, Evidence,
and Public education
Investigate shake-dry practices through careful research, develop evidence-based guidance, and share clear, accessible public education to help people make informed choices about drying and resource use—starting with hand-drying.
Our vision
Shake-dry Everywhere.
A world where shake-dry is an everyday, habit that saves energy.
Our aspiration guides the project; evidence determines where and how the practice should be recommended.
01 / The approach
Test the habit.
Don’t assume the benefit.
Our initial hand-drying studies examine shaking water from hands before using an electric hand dryer. The main outcome is dryer running time and its connection to energy use. Feeling dry is subjective: participants stop when their hands feel dry, rather than aiming for an identical measured moisture level. We also consider total task time, measurement quality, and safe use.
This is the planned approach one can follow to test the difference for themselves, not a claim that a completed study has followed every step.
- Define the procedure. Document the dryer, initial hand-wetting conditions, and shaking procedure. Use the same instruction in both conditions: stop when your hands feel dry. Perceived dryness will differ between individuals, but should make sense in the context of both conditions.
- Control for confounding variables. Use the same person and same dryer for all trials.
- Review the measurements. Check dryer events and timing, retain outliers with reasons, and keep dryer runtime separate from total task time and electricity measurements.
- Publish the limitations. Explain sample size, variability, assumptions, and where the findings may not generalize. Null or unfavorable findings belong in the public record too.
What does the measurement app establish?
The working app supports dryer-event timing and review. It is a measurement aid, not independent proof of electricity savings. Private working records and editable tools are not exposed through this website.
How will evidence be described?
Reports should identify whether a quantity was measured directly or estimated, state the power assumptions behind runtime-based estimates, and distinguish observations from stronger conclusions. Findings from a particular dryer or setting should not be presented as universal.
02 / Findings
From background research to first observations.
Shaking Off Excess Water Before Hand Drying: A Literature Review
Abstract
Shaking excess water from washed hands before using a towel or electric dryer is a plausible resource-saving intervention, but its incremental effect must be distinguished from the effects of subsequent drying. Crucially, shaking is already embedded in relevant experimental protocols: Patrick et al. used two flicks before drying-efficiency measurements and the wet bacterial-transfer baseline, while Suen et al. required at least five shakes before comparing drying methods.[1][7] Research shows that environmental comparisons depend on equipment, resource use, and modeling assumptions.[1][3][11] However, the sources examined do not establish a causal conversion from shake count to water removal, towel savings, or electricity savings at equivalent final dryness. This review synthesizes protocol evidence, behavioral research, and supports dose-controlled evaluation of pre-shaking.
Numbered references are listed in the full review.
The first observations
Analysis snapshot · September 6, 2026
14 exports, 102 unique runs, and 15 provisional comparison sets. After six invalid measurements are excluded, 96 reviewed runs contribute to within-set comparisons.
Every set has a lower median recorded runtime with shake-dry. These small, incompletely controlled observations justify further testing, but do not serve as an universal savings claim.
Read the Stage 2 report →How the first observations were developed
The development sequence below describes the project history supplied by the project lead.
From dryer data to a measurement tool
Collect dryer-running data first, then use those recordings to inform development of the Shake-Off Dryer Verifier app. This is tool-development data, not by itself evidence that shake-dry reduces runtime.
Compare the two conditions
Use Shake-Off Dryer Verifier to record dryer runs for trials of shake-dry and direct-dry. Review the events and classify each as shake-dry, direct-dry, or invalid measurement.
Turn reviewed runs into observations
Check archive and timing consistency, remove repeated exports, exclude invalid measurements, and compare runtimes within provisional sets. Publish the results with sample sizes, assumptions, and limitations.
03 / Public education
Shake-dry & Save
TEST BUILD · DEVICE VALIDATION PENDING
Learn a habit. See your local progress.
Our education-first app focuses on shake-dry for hand-drying, uses the microphone to estimate hand-dryer running time, and asks whether each use included shake-dry. Select the same physical dryer to compare uses involving shake-dry or direct-dry, with per-use and cumulative estimated time and energy changes.
Measurements stay local to your phone. No raw audio is saved, and no account or upload server is required. An optional ZIP export lets you choose whether to email your measurements. Monitoring has a manual Stop control and an automatic timeout.
04 / About the initiative
Student-led. Open to partnerships.
Visiting science museums in different cities has always been part of my family vacation. After visiting so many science museums, the exhibits started to blend. However, one I still recall vividly was an exhibit about shaking excess water off your hands to use less paper to dry them. What struck me was the idea that such a small, seemingly insignificant action could have a meaningful impact. The specific museum and city have long since slipped my mind, but the idea the exhibit presented stayed with me. It made me wonder how I could apply this concept to a society increasingly dependent on electricity; in particular, I wondered how shaking excess water could reduce the energy consumption of electric hand dryers.
That question was the beginning of the Shake-dry Initiative. Starting with a review of current research, I developed app prototypes and collected and analyzed data. The early app prototypes did not work. Rather than keep adjusting them, I switched to a data-driven approach: I collected recordings of dryers running, labeled the data, and used those labels to develop the Shake-Off Dryer Verifier app. This approach produced a working tool for recording dryer running times and supporting comparisons between shake-dry and direct-dry trials.
My goal is to bring this work into public education and build partnerships with schools, researchers, and communities. Through this website and the Shake-dry & Save app, I want to help people understand and try a simple habit: shake excess water off first, then dry their hands. By working with partners to share the idea and test it in everyday settings, I hope to turn the vision into practice—small changes in daily habits that make a big impact on resource savings.
Contact us
Questions, feedback, or interested in supporting the Shake-dry Initiative? We’d love to hear from you.
Email us: contact@shake-dry-initiative.org