The EN1500 method of contamination did not allow for hands to be sufficiently dry to adequately test smaller volumes of ABHR, typical of healthcare practitioner use. Whilst the ASTM E2755 method did allow for the hands to be sufficiently dry, the ‘glove-juice’ sampling technique of recovery was more cumbersome and led to a higher limit of detection, and thus potentially poor discrimination between products (2 x 3ml of 60% v/v propan-2-ol gave a mean log10 RF of 3.65; standard deviation 0.472). A hybrid method consisting of the ASTM E2755 method of contamination with an EN1500 method of recovery resulted in baseline recoveries of Escherichia coli K12 that were relatively low (mean log10 precount of 5.57; standard deviation 0.615). A hybrid method comprising the contamination of fingerpads with small volumes of microbial broth, coupled with the EN1500 method of recovery, appeared to yield a robust method that allowed dry hands to be tested with ABHR, with a low limit of detection (2 x 3ml of 60% v/v propan-2-ol gave a mean log10 RF of 5.62; standard deviation 1.108).