How to select a suitable Disinfectant Cleaner?


With a multitude of Surface Disinfectant Cleaner options available in the market, it is a challenging task just to select the right product for one’s needs.

  •  Do you buy a Disinfectant Cleaner or a plain Disinfectant?
  •  Should you buy a Disinfectant Concentrate or a Ready to Use (RTU) pre-diluted variant?
  • What is better - a Trigger Spray or a pre-wetted Disinfectant Wipe?
  • What is better value for money - Aerosol Spray or No Gas Trigger Spray?

Each decision can influence your user experience to a great degree. So, how do you select the most suitable product for our needs? Before we get to that, a few things to remember:

  •  Hand Sanitizer is NOT an ideal Surface Disinfectant, and vice versa.
  • An antiseptic solution may not be the broad-spectrum Disinfectant that you are looking for
  • A cleaner removes the germs, while a Disinfectant kills them

Let us now consider each point that will help us choose the best option:

Disinfectant Cleaner or plain Disinfectant?

This one is easy. If you are only focused on disinfecting a surface and will clean it separately using another product or process, you may buy a plain disinfectant.

However, practically speaking, it is better to use a one-step Disinfectant Cleaner Meaning. It first kills the germs on a surface and then helps remove them. To be safe, you can employ a two-step cleaning process, using the same product for both steps.

Concentrate or Ready to Use (RTU) solution?

While there is no significant difference in efficacy of both, the difference lies in the convenience and the characteristics:

Using a Disinfectant Concentrate is recommended if:

  • The amount of disinfectant used high. In such cases a Concentrate is more economical.
  • You have the time (or the help) to prepare the diluted solution. The dilution process needs time & attention. If your usage is high it makes sense to buy a Concentrated Solution. Else, you are better off buying a Ready to Use version.
  • You wish to use the same solution for surfaces with differing germ load. You can effectively combat different germ loads (or differing need for level of disinfection) by changing the dilution of the concentrate. This is not possible with the RTU. You cannot increase the concentration of a pre diluted solution.

Trigger Spray or a pre-wetted Wipe?

This choice is driven by 3 factors:

Convenience

There is no doubt that the pre-wetted Disinfectant Wipes are more convenient to use than a Trigger Spray. You do not need to keep additional fabric wipe or mop available with you, while cleaning up. It is as simple as – wipe the surface & wait for it to dry.

Cost

The convenience of using the wipes comes at an additional cost. If you are buying the wipes, make sure you buy the right pack size. Once opened, the wipes in the pack are to be used within a defined period (otherwise they go dry). So, select the pack size based on your consumption pattern.

Time Available

If the time available for achieving disinfection action is less, then wipes are preferred over sprays. Pre-wetted wipes save time, which can be critical when used in high traffic, high turnover situations like – hospitals, clinics, stores, gymnasiums, salons etc.

Aerosol Spray or No Gas Spray?

Again, it is a decision based on convenience vs economy.

While an aerosol spray is convenient to use & carry, it suffers from the problem of low volume of disinfectant per pack. Each aerosol spray is filled with a propellant gas that takes up more than 30% of the volume. So, obviously you need to spray more liquid to achieve desired disinfection.

Trigger sprays (with no gas), are mostly bulky. But then they last you for a long time and cover more surfaces.

Indicative Example: one Trigger Spray (500ml) is equivalent of 4-5 Standard Aerosol Spray cans

So there, this is a quick guide to the process of selection of the ideal surface disinfectant for your needs.

If you found it to be useful, do consider sharing it with your family & friends. They will appreciate the information.

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