Disinfectant Wipes Good Or Bad

Disposable disinfectant wipes are convenient - but how effective are they? There’s a right and wrong way to use cleaning wipes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says disinfection usually requires the product to remain on the surface for a certain period of time.

After you wipe off an item, you should let it stand for three to five minutes. You might notice, labels for both Clorox disinfecting wipes and Lysol disinfecting wipes says the surface should remain wet for four minutes to disinfect the area fully. Each brand is different, so check the labels. You want to see the wetness on the item.

If you are using diluted or ready-to-use cleaners that you may be wiping on an item, the recommendation for keeping it wet could be up to 10 minutes. Why is the wetness factor important? The key is to ensure that the cleaning product sticks around on the surface long enough to kill the germs or viruses.

When using wipes, make sure you only use them on one surface and then dispose of them. So, don’t grab a wipe and clean off the doorknobs, handles, and something else with the same wipe. Reusing a single wipe could have you just spreading germs from one surface to another.