I came to this particular video because I was having doubts about how I disinfect my car ever since the pandemic started. Turns out this video gave me the reassurance that I was doing it the right way the whole time. Thank you very much!
Is it alright to use 75% isopropyl alcohol solution to disinfect the interior surfaces? Will the markings on the buttons fade off with alcohol? What are the disinfectant products for seats? Thanks a lot.
The CDC recommends an Isopropyl solution of 70% and above to work with so that should work. You can use IPA to wipe down those surfaces, we'd be careful about using it too frequently however. If it is over used on the same vehicle it can wear down coatings but if used sparingly it is a fine solution. For seats you can use typical household disinfectant wipes and sprays.
Had mechanic working on my car. In shop for few days. Also mechanic had to test drive upon completion. What about cleaning a/c vents, heater vents and wiping down under the hood. Would you wash outside of car FIRST and then clean inside. Thanks
Hi Deb! You will want to start with the exterior of your car. When you reach your interior, start by cleaning out your vehicle. Then, remove any pet hair, dust and other larger debris by blowing out your vents and between your seats. This will ensure that you get everything when you vacuum the carpets, seats and headliner. To disinfect and sanitize, use our NEW Disinfectant Cleaner Spray or Wipes bit.ly/3kviOat
So would Clorox disinfecting wipes be bad for leather seats? Should I just use a disinfecting spray with paper towels to clean the seats and all other high touch areas, like dashboard an side panels
As long as they are the bleach-free Clorox wipes (the common kind many people have around the house) then you are fine using those directly on the leather seats.
Hello, you can safely use household disinfectant wipes on most leather or vinyl seat. We do recommend following up the wet wipe with a towel to remove any excess moisture.
Park you car in a sunny parking lot for 30 minutes, that should heat the interior up enough to inactivate much of the virus. Especially in the summer. The car's interior needs to reach 130-140°F for 30 minutes which it sure does here in the summer. Not sure about winter though. I have cloth seats, so I just change my clothes and take off my shoes when I get home, and I wash my hands of course. Since that's what was touching the interior of the car.
Covid-19 is inactivated at 140°F after 30 minutes. So if your car gets that hot inside parked in a sunny parking lot in the summer, that is also an easy way to sanitize it. I'd paste my source, but RUclips is deleting comments with links, but it is from the US National Library of Medicine's website.
Yes, you can use an aerosol Lysol for this purpose. We would just recommend that you be careful not to soak the fabric too much or it could have the potential to leave water spotting. Otherwise, a light application should be safe on nearly all fabric seats!
A steamer can be effective if it reaches high enough temperatures for a long enough period of time. With most automotive steamers, it might be difficult to reach those high temperatures for the needed duration, but it can be done. We'd recommend asking the manufacturer of the steam cleaner being used what it is specifically rated for and how long the exposure would have to be.
How to clean the air-conditioning, if the car was already used by a covid patient? A disinfectant spray on the vent, I think would be very basic. What are your suggestions?
Disinfectants on the vents are probably the simplest method, however if you want a full flush you could use an ozone machine to completely disinfect that air system.
I spray Ozium through the air conditioner intake (which is usually under the hood of the car by the windshield wipers), of course with the car on and the a/c running on recirculate. There are also disinfectant bombs that spray inside the car, and you leave those going with the car's a/c also on recirculate for about 15 minutes. Never noticed Ozium or these bombs damaging the interior like some other disinfectant sprays can. I used it for a mold problem in my car's ventilation system before the pandemic. Ozium's active ingredient is the same ingredient used to disinfect air in hospital sick rooms between patients, and it's not a good idea to breathe it, let it dissipate first, it has kind of a sweet smell that you'll notice.
You can try th dollar tree. If your looking for diy and you want to use household products, I know that vinegar and baking soda are diy products from what I've seen on other videos. Just have to mix it with a certain amount of water. Just youtube it. Good luck and stay safe.
@@FSUOSU25 Dollar wipes are not that effective, really. You have to check the ingredients too if they're even going to disinfect (kill) or just sanitize (reduce) or do nothing to whatever bacteria/virus you're trying to clean
@@ColaCat2001 good point. And no wonder I didn't get a like on my comment 😁. I buy certain anti-bacterial sprays from the Dollar Tree, Dollar General, etc. So now you got me thinking. Because it's true the reason they can sell the stuff so cheap is because the ingredients probably suck or is expired. I've got so much more to say on this topic though. Thanks for bringing that up though. God bless and enjoy your weekend.
@@FSUOSU25 No problem! And honestly for me, any hand sanitizer that's at least 70% alcohol is fine by me, which I've seen a surge in cheap supply since so many stores probably overstocked them, and they're smaller sizes, yet will last a while, for $1
You can use aerosol Lysol, we would just recommend that you spray it onto a towel or cloth first and then rub it onto the surface, rather than spraying directly on, to make sure you don't get any kind of water spotting.
You should be safe, we would recommend spraying it onto a towel or cloth and applying with that rather than spraying on directly. Then for best safety wiping it up after rather than letting it dry on the surface.
It left the plastic/vinyl on my car sticky, but it's fine on my mom's car, which is a different make and had tan interior. I suggest spot testing it. The stickiness in my car was removed with some rubbing alcohol, but it also took some of the color off of my black interior, another reason to spot test.
You can hypothetically use medical alcohol of disinfection purposes as it would generally have similar effects on surfaces to an IPA. As with an IPA solution we would highly recommend doing test spots on each different surface you're going to use the alcohol on to check for color fastness. We'd also recommend this not being used frequently for over a long period of time as it can start to break down the factory coating of the leather and cause issues if it is used over an extended period.
That is a good question and one that we would be hesitant to give a specific answer on. We'd recommend checking the CDC website on how sun and UV exposure affects the virus. Even then, we'd recommend being cautious and actively disinfecting with a product because many modern vehicles have some sort of UV filtering coating on their windows that could prevent the sun from being as effective.
Hi Jeff, you should be fine applying Lysol with a rag or towel. We would be careful about applying to to frequently as it could eventually work to dry out the leather but that would require a lot of use. As always though you should test in a small area to make sure the seats color is not affected.
Hi Jeff, the Lysol sprays will be better for the long term health of most surfaces, as the alcohol can eventually rub down the factory coatings on plastics and fabrics and damage their color. This would only be after consistent long term use however.
I came to this particular video because I was having doubts about how I disinfect my car ever since the pandemic started. Turns out this video gave me the reassurance that I was doing it the right way the whole time.
Thank you very much!
Is it alright to use 75% isopropyl alcohol solution to disinfect the interior surfaces? Will the markings on the buttons fade off with alcohol? What are the disinfectant products for seats? Thanks a lot.
The CDC recommends an Isopropyl solution of 70% and above to work with so that should work. You can use IPA to wipe down those surfaces, we'd be careful about using it too frequently however. If it is over used on the same vehicle it can wear down coatings but if used sparingly it is a fine solution. For seats you can use typical household disinfectant wipes and sprays.
Malco Automotive Thank you so much😊👍
Had mechanic working on my car. In shop for few days. Also mechanic had to test drive upon completion. What about cleaning a/c vents, heater vents and wiping down under the hood. Would you wash outside of car FIRST and then clean inside. Thanks
Hi Deb! You will want to start with the exterior of your car. When you reach your interior, start by cleaning out your vehicle. Then, remove any pet hair, dust and other larger debris by blowing out your vents and between your seats. This will ensure that you get everything when you vacuum the carpets, seats and headliner. To disinfect and sanitize, use our NEW Disinfectant Cleaner Spray or Wipes bit.ly/3kviOat
@@MalcoAutomotive thank you so much!
So would Clorox disinfecting wipes be bad for leather seats? Should I just use a disinfecting spray with paper towels to clean the seats and all other high touch areas, like dashboard an side panels
As long as they are the bleach-free Clorox wipes (the common kind many people have around the house) then you are fine using those directly on the leather seats.
Use leather lotion afterwards to make sure the leather doesn't dry up
Thanks for sharing!! What if you dont have leather seats ???
Hello, you can safely use household disinfectant wipes on most leather or vinyl seat. We do recommend following up the wet wipe with a towel to remove any excess moisture.
Park you car in a sunny parking lot for 30 minutes, that should heat the interior up enough to inactivate much of the virus. Especially in the summer. The car's interior needs to reach 130-140°F for 30 minutes which it sure does here in the summer. Not sure about winter though. I have cloth seats, so I just change my clothes and take off my shoes when I get home, and I wash my hands of course. Since that's what was touching the interior of the car.
Covid-19 is inactivated at 140°F after 30 minutes. So if your car gets that hot inside parked in a sunny parking lot in the summer, that is also an easy way to sanitize it.
I'd paste my source, but RUclips is deleting comments with links, but it is from the US National Library of Medicine's website.
Good tip!
What about disinfecting cloth seats? aerosol Lysol?
Yes, you can use an aerosol Lysol for this purpose. We would just recommend that you be careful not to soak the fabric too much or it could have the potential to leave water spotting. Otherwise, a light application should be safe on nearly all fabric seats!
How effective will be Steam cleaners in disinfecting the interiors ?
A steamer can be effective if it reaches high enough temperatures for a long enough period of time. With most automotive steamers, it might be difficult to reach those high temperatures for the needed duration, but it can be done. We'd recommend asking the manufacturer of the steam cleaner being used what it is specifically rated for and how long the exposure would have to be.
How to clean the air-conditioning, if the car was already used by a covid patient? A disinfectant spray on the vent, I think would be very basic. What are your suggestions?
Disinfectants on the vents are probably the simplest method, however if you want a full flush you could use an ozone machine to completely disinfect that air system.
I spray Ozium through the air conditioner intake (which is usually under the hood of the car by the windshield wipers), of course with the car on and the a/c running on recirculate. There are also disinfectant bombs that spray inside the car, and you leave those going with the car's a/c also on recirculate for about 15 minutes. Never noticed Ozium or these bombs damaging the interior like some other disinfectant sprays can. I used it for a mold problem in my car's ventilation system before the pandemic. Ozium's active ingredient is the same ingredient used to disinfect air in hospital sick rooms between patients, and it's not a good idea to breathe it, let it dissipate first, it has kind of a sweet smell that you'll notice.
Thks for the tips,please take the vírus seriously in the US.Reguards from Portugal.
Thank you, we absolutely will!
Any hacks of purchasing the items for cheap?
You can try th dollar tree. If your looking for diy and you want to use household products, I know that vinegar and baking soda are diy products from what I've seen on other videos. Just have to mix it with a certain amount of water. Just youtube it. Good luck and stay safe.
@@FSUOSU25 Dollar wipes are not that effective, really. You have to check the ingredients too if they're even going to disinfect (kill) or just sanitize (reduce) or do nothing to whatever bacteria/virus you're trying to clean
@@ColaCat2001 good point. And no wonder I didn't get a like on my comment 😁. I buy certain anti-bacterial sprays from the Dollar Tree, Dollar General, etc. So now you got me thinking. Because it's true the reason they can sell the stuff so cheap is because the ingredients probably suck or is expired. I've got so much more to say on this topic though. Thanks for bringing that up though. God bless and enjoy your weekend.
@@FSUOSU25 No problem! And honestly for me, any hand sanitizer that's at least 70% alcohol is fine by me, which I've seen a surge in cheap supply since so many stores probably overstocked them, and they're smaller sizes, yet will last a while, for $1
What can I use to disinfect my leather seats? Would Lysol aerosol be ok?
You can use aerosol Lysol, we would just recommend that you spray it onto a towel or cloth first and then rub it onto the surface, rather than spraying directly on, to make sure you don't get any kind of water spotting.
Use leather lotion afterwards to keep ot from drying though
Would lysol spray cause discoloration on plastic, wood and leather stuffs on interior?
You should be safe, we would recommend spraying it onto a towel or cloth and applying with that rather than spraying on directly. Then for best safety wiping it up after rather than letting it dry on the surface.
It left the plastic/vinyl on my car sticky, but it's fine on my mom's car, which is a different make and had tan interior. I suggest spot testing it. The stickiness in my car was removed with some rubbing alcohol, but it also took some of the color off of my black interior, another reason to spot test.
Is it safe to use medical alcohol for the interior ?
You can hypothetically use medical alcohol of disinfection purposes as it would generally have similar effects on surfaces to an IPA. As with an IPA solution we would highly recommend doing test spots on each different surface you're going to use the alcohol on to check for color fastness. We'd also recommend this not being used frequently for over a long period of time as it can start to break down the factory coating of the leather and cause issues if it is used over an extended period.
Malco Automotive understood thanks 🙏
Can I just leave my car in the sun for several hours and not have to do all this?
That is a good question and one that we would be hesitant to give a specific answer on. We'd recommend checking the CDC website on how sun and UV exposure affects the virus. Even then, we'd recommend being cautious and actively disinfecting with a product because many modern vehicles have some sort of UV filtering coating on their windows that could prevent the sun from being as effective.
Is it ok to spray lysol disinfectant on cloth and wipe on interiors and leather seats. I have done it on small amount. Will it cause damage?
Am a bit worried done the wrong move..
Hi Jeff, you should be fine applying Lysol with a rag or towel. We would be careful about applying to to frequently as it could eventually work to dry out the leather but that would require a lot of use. As always though you should test in a small area to make sure the seats color is not affected.
@@MalcoAutomotive thank you for your reply.
Is lysol spray better than alcohol on car interior?
Hi Jeff, the Lysol sprays will be better for the long term health of most surfaces, as the alcohol can eventually rub down the factory coatings on plastics and fabrics and damage their color. This would only be after consistent long term use however.