If you cannot press the soap pump, there are six honest routes, and only one of them is ours. Here they all are, including where the others are plainly better.
Short version. If pressing is painful rather than impossible, a wider surface is what you want. If pressing is impossible, an electric dispenser or a wall-mounted lever is the better answer. If the bottle slides away, that is a stability problem and a 90p mat fixes it. And if the difficulty is the force, a foaming dispenser beats everything else here for about two pounds.
Every product and every shop named on this page is somebody else's. There are no affiliate links, no commission, no paid placements and no arrangement of any kind — we are not paid a penny if you buy any of it. It is listed because it is the honest answer to the problem, and a recommendation that pays the recommender is worth less than one that does not.
On this page
Two pages sit either side of this one. Why a pump is stiff in the first place is worth reading if you have not worked out yet whether your difficulty is force, pain or the bottle sliding. And pressing things without your fingers covers the techniques that need no product at all.
The six routes
| Route | Needs | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| Buy a bottle with a wide pump | Nothing extra | You are happy to change brand. Some own-brand and premium hand washes already have a top broad enough for a palm. |
| Foaming dispenser | A bottle, and diluting your soap | The force is the problem. Cheapest real fix there is. |
| Purpose-made easy-press bottle | Buying it, and refilling it | You want one tidy object on the sink and do not mind decanting. |
| Wall-mounted lever dispenser | Mounting to a wall, and refilling | You cannot use your hands at all. Worked with an elbow or forearm. No batteries. |
| Electric sensor dispenser | Batteries or charging, and refilling | Touch-free matters, or pressing is impossible rather than painful. |
| Clip-on adapter (PALM) | Buying it once, and a pump top in range | You want to keep the bottle you already have, including a branded or decorative one, with nothing to refill and no batteries. Does not reduce the force — see the calculation. |
A seventh route that is not a product: REMAP, whose volunteers build one-off equipment for individuals free of charge. See below.
What each is genuinely good and bad at
Buy a bottle whose pump is already wide
Worth saying first because it costs nothing extra. Pump tops vary a lot between brands, and some hand washes and laundry products already have a broad, flat top that takes a palm. If one bottle in your house is easier than another, that is real. The catch is that you are then tied to that brand, and manufacturers change their packaging without telling anyone.
A foaming dispenser
Mixes soap with air, so it moves a much thinner liquid and needs noticeably less force. An empty foaming bottle costs a couple of pounds and you dilute ordinary hand soap into it, roughly one part soap to four parts water, which also makes the soap last around four times longer.
This is the only option here that reduces the force rather than changing where it lands. If your difficulty is strength rather than pain, nothing else on this page beats it for the money.
A purpose-made easy-press bottle
Bottles designed with a large, soft, one-hand press top, sold by kitchenware brands as well as disability retailers. They look good on a sink and are genuinely easier than a standard pump.
Two honest drawbacks: you have to decant into it, which is itself a two-handed job with a heavy refill bottle; and you are buying a whole bottle to solve a problem that lives in its top.
A wall-mounted lever dispenser
The kind used in clinics and scrub rooms, made by Croydex among others and stocked by suppliers such as ESE Direct. Two things make them easy, and both matter: the bottle is fixed, so it cannot slide away from you, and the arm is long, so pressing near the end gives leverage the bottle never had. You can work one with a forearm or an elbow and never touch it with a hand.
If you cannot use your hands at all, this is probably a better answer than we are, and it needs no batteries. What it costs you is drilling into a wall, refilling it, and it stays in the room you fit it in.
An electric sensor dispenser
Widest category by far — the impartial Living Made Easy database lists mostly these. Put a hand underneath and soap comes out. No force at all, no contact at all.
Genuinely better than us if pressing is impossible rather than painful, if your hands are often full or wet, or if touching a shared surface is a concern. The costs are ongoing: batteries or recharging, refilling, and a mechanism that can fail. Some are also unpredictable about how much they give you.
A clip-on adapter — the one we make
PALM slides onto the pump head you already own and gives you a wider, flatter surface, so you can press with a palm, fist or forearm instead of a fingertip. It comes off again and moves between bottles.
What is genuinely different about it: it is the only route here that keeps the bottle you already have. Nothing to decant, nothing to refill beyond what you were already buying, no batteries, no wall to drill, and it works on a supermarket bottle — Carex, Baylis & Harding, a supermarket own-brand — or on a decorative bottle you chose because you liked it. That last point is not a small thing: a lot of adaptive equipment announces itself, and a clip-on part on your own bottle does not.
What it does not do, plainly: it does not change the spring. A stiff pump is exactly as stiff afterwards. You are spreading the same force across a bigger area and a stronger part of your hand, not reducing it. And it does not fit every head — see the size guide, or send a photo and we will tell you honestly.
And the route that is not a product
REMAP's volunteers make one-off equipment for individual disabled people free of charge, across around 65 UK branches. They have published a case of an adapter built for a client whose arthritis stopped her using a pump spray without help. If none of the six rows above suits you, they are worth an email before you spend anything at all.
Who the PALM is not for
The maker's own words: “my product won't be for everyone”. So, specifically — if any of these is you, buy something else from the list above and do not waste ten pounds finding out.
- If you cannot produce the force at all. The mechanical advantage is exactly 1 — there is no lever and no pivot, and the pump stays exactly as stiff. The full calculation is here. A foaming dispenser or a wall-mounted lever is what you want.
- If you have no functional hand use. Something has to press the disc. An electric sensor dispenser needs nothing at all; a wall lever can be worked with an elbow or a forearm.
- If your pump top is outside 13.5–28.1 mm across, or an odd shape. Oval heads, very wide heads and unusual mouldings are not covered by the three stock shapes. Palmolive tops in particular look wider than the range and have never been measured — we will not claim they fit.
- If touch-free matters to you — shared bathroom, infection concerns, hands often full or wet. This is a thing you touch. Electric wins outright.
- If you cannot push a part onto a bottle. Fitting it takes a deliberate push against a worktop. It is designed to be fittable one-handed without gripping — the tightest prototype was rejected for exactly this reason — but it is not zero effort.
- If you want it to look like nothing at all. It is a 62 mm white disc on top of your bottle. Discreet compared with a hospital-looking dispenser, but not invisible.
- If you need certified equipment. Nothing here is tested or certified, and no clinician has assessed it. If you need equipment that has been, ask an occupational therapist — and much of what they recommend may be provided at no cost.
Which one is right for you
- The bottle slides away when you push. That is stability, not strength. A non-slip mat or the corner of the basin, first, for almost nothing.
- You can press, but it hurts. A wider surface — so a clip-on adapter, or a bottle with a broad top.
- You cannot produce the force. A foaming dispenser first; a lever dispenser if that is not enough.
- You cannot use your hands at all. Wall-mounted lever, worked with an elbow, or electric.
- Your hands are often full, wet, or you would rather not touch anything. Electric.
- You want to keep the bottle you have and buy nothing again. That is the gap we fill.
Where to get proper help, most of it free
Nothing on this website is a substitute for any of the following, and all of it is better than a website.
- A pharmacist. No appointment, no referral, and they will talk to you about hand pain and about what is worth trying. The most under-used free advice in the country.
- Your GP. Particularly if the difficulty is new, getting worse, worse in the morning, or in both hands at once.
- An occupational therapist. This is the profession whose actual job is the problem this page is about — they look at your hands and your kitchen, not at a category page. In England you can ask your council for a needs assessment for equipment and adaptations, and much of what they recommend is provided at no cost. Ask your GP, or your council's adult social care team directly.
- Arthritis UK — the charity that was Versus Arthritis until its 2026 rebrand — and NRAS both run free helplines staffed by people who know this subject properly.
- Living Made Easy, run by the Disabled Living Foundation, is an impartial database of daily-living equipment. It lists products from everyone, including our competitors and including things that would replace PALM entirely. If you want to compare options without being sold to, start there.
PALM is a daily-living aid, not a medical device. It makes a soap pump easier to press. It does not treat, prevent or improve any condition, and nothing here is medical advice or a diagnosis. If your hands hurt, the people in the list above are the ones to ask.