Sanitising Wipes and Sprays for Cooler Servicing

A lot depends on how you want to use wipes and some users prefer a cleaning/disinfecting wipe rather than a purely disinfecting wipe.

If the wipe is to be used for sanitising watercoolers, there can be problems in effectively treating tap areas simply because it is difficult to get into the tap. Sprays, on the other hand, are much better for this purpose.

The wipes are great for cleaning and disinfecting the outer casing of the cooler. However, a number of sanitising wipes on the market contain a quaternary ammonium compound as active ingredient and these wipes should not be used on surfaces that subsequently come into contact with the drinking water.  The reason for this is that bio-acclimatisation can occur because of the slight residual effect of these compounds.  This could lead to biofilm growth.

At the end of the day, I would recommend sprays rather than wipes, but if you prefer to use wipes, then make sure that the wipes have a high wet strength and low lint content, otherwise contamination with wipe fragments could occur in the cooler.

Ensure that the wipe does not dry out in the packaging, alcohol-based wipes are notorious for this.  Pouches with a resealable flap are best for preventing dry-out.

Some sprays are based on peroxide, although a new generation of sprays is available which uses a long-lasting disinfectant effect.  The latter is available as a sanitiser (cleaner/disinfectant) as well as a terminal disinfectant.