X-ray vision needed

This story is about a product that has one major flaw. As you can see in the picture to the right, it's a paper towel dispenser. This one is in our office above the sink in the kitchen area. It dispenses those rough, not-very-absorbent, brown paper towels that come in a big roll. You pull down the lever (on the right) a few times until there is enough paper to do the job and then you tear it off. Notice the tiny white square in the center near the bottom. It slowly shows less white and more red color to tell you how much paper is left on the roll - sort of. This "how much is left" signal isn't good enough to tell you if there is enough paper in the dispenser to accomplish the job you're trying to do, though. About all it is good for is when you pull down the lever and nothing comes out and the little indicator is all red - now you know that the dispenser is out of paper.

That's where the flaw in this dispenser shows itself. No, not the useless "how much is left" indicator. The flaw I'm talking about is bigger than that. The fact that you have to change the paper will show you the big flaw. First, you have to find the key to open the front of the dispenser. Wait, is that another flaw? Well, I guess it is but not as big as the one I'm trying to tell you about. The key is a minor flaw. It is kind of silly, though, to force people to use a key to change the paper in something like this. I could see if this was a public restroom and you were worried about hoodlums coming in to steal the paper or something. But there should be a version of this dispenser for common areas where the people can be trusted. But back to my story about The Flaw. No more breaks. OK?

So, you've found the key and opened the dispenser. Here you see how well thought out this unit is. As you can see in the picture to the left, the instructions for reloading the paper are right there where you can see them. They are not terribly complex but, as you may be able to see, it takes three steps. The first step is pretty easy. You just swing a plastic arm out of the way. Then the second step is to put the new roll of paper in. My final picture, on the bottom right, is what it looks like after the second step. That went pretty well, too. Now, on to the third step.

Wait a minute! What was that third step? I forget and now it's too late to read it because the paper has covered up the instructions. Of course, what I ended up doing was taking the paper back out, re-reading the instructions and committing the third step to memory. Then I was able to finish the job. and let me tell you, the third step is definitely the hardest. It tells you how to thread the paper into the roller assembly and how to get the arm you moved in step one back into place now that paper is in the way. Yes, this is the big flaw. The dispenser itself works well. It doesn't waste any paper. And once you know how to do it, it turns out to be easy to replace the roll of paper. Just don't put the paper in until you've memorized the instructions the first time you do it.