drop away from o ring 11 thereby allowing liquid present in reservoir 28 to flow into the pump 32 via the discharge opening 34 since the ball bearing 35 is preferably smaller than the pump inlet to allow the liquid to flow into the pump a ball bearing retaining member not shown in the pump inlet prevents ball bearing 35 from dropping into the pump 32 when the piston 37 slides away from the ball bearing 35 a sensor 48 located in the upper portion of the housing 20 is positioned adjacent to the dispensing spigot 38 the sensor 48 is an infrared ir transceiver that transmits an ir signal 54 in the area where a user 39 s hand or other object would be placed to receive the dispensed product the hand or other object causes the ir signal 54 to be reflected and received at the sensor 48 the transceiver being electrically connected by a wiring harness 46 to the integrated circuit ic circuit board 40 initiates a state change of an ic switch thereby actuating the motor 30 and dispensing the liquid in alternative embodiments the sensor 48 can be sound voice or light activated additionally a user control such as a switch or dial to determine the motor run time may be incorporated for the user to select the amount of liquid to be dispensed alternatively the user control may cause the dispenser to operate continuously as long as an object is sensed additional embodiments may also include a heating element with a user control so that warm liquid may be dispensed or a user control that converts the dispenser to a state of manual operation whereby a user would need to.