As a fitness center owner or manager, a big portion of your budget is invested in equipment, furniture, and other amenities to make your facility stand out as the best choice for members. Outfitting your fitness center with the best, high-tech, in-demand equipment is not cheap. So if you’re going to invest the best equipment, why not maintain it to get the longest life out of it?
When machines malfunction, or equipment surfaces crack, rust or get scratched, your ROI diminishes. With the estimated cost to stock a fitness center ranging from $10,000-$100,000 and more than for larger fitness centers, it’s easy to see why taking good care of your equipment is necessary.
Protecting equipment and machinery boils down to two things: care and proper maintenance. This means knowing what you should–and shouldn’t–use to clean it. Cleaning products with certain chemicals can accelerate the demise of your equipment, causing them to experience glitches, become discolored or corroded, or break down sooner.
FOUR CHEMICALS NOT TO CLEAN FITNESS EQUIPMENT WITH
If you are using towelettes, sprays, or cleaning solutions that contain the following four chemicals, we urge you to consider the negative impacts they have on the surfaces of your machinery as well as on people.
AVOID ALCOHOL
Alcohol is chemical commonly used as a disinfecting agent in cleaners. Generally used in the form of isopropyl alcohol or ethyl alcohol, it can kill certain bacteria at the right concentration, but there are many downsides to it.
For cleaning and maintenance of your fitness center equipment, alcohol is one of the worst chemical disinfecting agents you can use.
Cleaning with alcohol can cause unattractive cracking on surfaces, it can expedite rusting on metal objects like hand weights, and it can damage protective screen coatings, making touch screens less responsive and cloudy. When selecting a cleaner for your fitness equipment, we strongly recommend against alcohol.
AVOID HYDROGEN PEROXIDE
Hydrogen peroxide has a reputation for being a less-dangerous disinfecting agent than alcohol or bleach. However, it also has the potential do serious damage to fitness equipment. Hydrogen peroxide can damage metal, especially in higher concentrations. It’s an oxidizer and can react with and corrode metals including aluminum, iron, copper, chrome, carbon steel and more.
Any surface on your equipment constructed with these metals (pilates reformers, rowing machines, and stationary bicycles) could be damaged if you clean them with hydrogen peroxide.
Hydrogen peroxide reacts with metals to form rust. With enough corrosion, this can weaken the integrity of your machines, making them unsightly, possibly dangerous for guests and ultimately causing them to wear out faster.
Understand what the active ingredients are in the sanitizers and disinfectants you use. If hydrogen peroxide is in the formula, think twice.
AVOID BLEACH
Bleach has been culturally branded as a go-to disinfectant. When people think bleach, they think “gold-standard clean.” But for fitness centers, bleach is a no-no. Using products with bleach can fade and discolor fitness equipment and surfaces. Your investments in the best mats, benches, and even counters or desks can quickly be undone when you clean them with bleach.
Another undesirable side effect of cleaning fitness equipment with bleach is that it may leave a yellow tint on white or light-colored surfaces. Bleach corrodes protective layers on fitness equipment and can break down the structural integrity of machines and surfaces to cause rusting or cracking. There are many available products to clean or disinfect equipment besides bleach. So again, we recommend avoiding it.
AVOID AMMONIA
Last but not least, ammonia is sometimes used in cleaning formulas and may be found in products from glass cleaners to toilet cleaners to floor polish.
Cleaning with ammonia carries a lot of risk. It can it irritate the respiratory system leading to breathing issues, and it can trigger allergies or asthma troubles. Ammonia can also cause serious skin burns if it comes into direct contact with any part of the body.
In the case of your fitness equipment, when not handled correctly, ammonia can cause discoloration and cracking of equipment. There are many odorless disinfectants that will be gentler on your equipment and safer for people. Skip the ammonia.
WHAT SHOULD YOU USE TO CLEAN AND DISINFECT?
If one shouln’t use alcohol, bleach, ammonia, or hydrogen peroxide-based cleaners, what should be used to remove germs, dust, sweat, and dirt from fitness equipment?
2XL recommends using QUAT- (quaternary ammonium) based disinfecting towelettes. But don’t confuse the word ammonium with ammonia. There is no ammonia in the ammonium molecule. 2XL disinfecting wipes are QUAT based. According to quats.org, QUAT based disinfectants and sanitizers are “safe and effective when used as directed.” Of course, always check the label of your cleaning product and always use the recommended Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) with any product.
WHY CHOOSE TOWELETTES OVER SPRAY CHEMICALS FOR EQUIPMENT?
Spraying liquid cleaners and disinfectants directly on your equipment can cause damage to your equipment, especially those with screens and electrical components. Apply the spray in the wrong area and you can accidentally expose vulnerable parts of your equipment to chemicals that may damage them.
Then there’s the challenge of overspraying liquid chemical cleaners. Towelettes clean exactly the area you wipe and no more. Sprays are hard to control, can accidentally spray unintended areas, and can use excess chemicals which ultimately waste money. Plus, you’ll need towels on hand to wipe the solution off.
Learn more about the advantages of towelettes vs. sprays here.
CLEAN WITH CONFIDENCE
When you choose a 2XL cleaning towelettes or QUAT based disinfecting towelettes, you are free to clean with confidence. You’ll have control of the chemicals that you’re exposing your valuable and delicate fitness equipment to and you’ll have full control of how and where the chemicals are applied, ensuring that you are protecting your investments, your customers, and optimizing your ROI.