How do you disinfect the mats?

[Please visit our sponsor:]

[Franco]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on aikiweb. Up until now we've been cleaning our mats (Zebra) with plain water after class, but recently somebody complained about a rash, so I did some research here on this forum and found that some people use Lysol general purpose cleaner. So I bought some of that stuff, mixed about 8 ounces with a gallon of water, and wiped the mat with it. Then I tried to rinse the stuff off but it kept producing that soapy white foam. It was not a good experience. Maybe I should have used a lower concentration and just let it dry instead of trying to rinse it off.

So, the questions are: do you use any product to disinfect your vinyl mat? How often? How do you apply it? Do you rinse it off? If so, how?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Franco

[ChristianBoddum]

I clean our mats regularly and keep the amount of cleaner very low , since it easily becomes
too slippery for lack of a better word.
Around 2,5 cl. to five liters !
Also I clean with a cloth that is twisted enough that it isn't soaked ,
if it is too wet it will only make the mats soak it up and ruin them.
Today many kids suffer from asthma and allergies so that is part reason I take this seriously.

[malsmith]

I LOVE CLEAN MATS!!! but the guys in my dojo obviously dont care that much, which is frustrating sometimes, but anyway, im pretty sure we use the swiffer wet mopping cloths, or something really close to them.

its so easy cause its just a little pad that you stick to the end of a stick thing and then you just wipe it down and it dries on its own... but a few times a year we do actually really scrub everything down with bleach water.

[Janet Rosen]

I would not use commercial cleansers w/ foams and scents as they can be at best allergy triggers and at worse toxic.
Bleach is a nasty substance; its manufacture involves dioxins and one reason it is such an effective disinfectant is that, well, it kills healthy cells....having said that, i admit that every few months I use a well-diluted solution of it in my home, and given the bacteria and fungi in dojos, i'd have to recommend ocasional use of it on mats that will tolerate weak bleach solution w/o disintegrating.

[Karen Wolek]

My dojo has canvas, but our sister dojo has Zebra mats. They use a special cleaner recommended by the Zebra mat company; it's a liquid they add to water, and use soft mops to clean. Maybe you can call them (Zebra) and ask what to use.

[mickeygelum]

This might help you out...it is used for morgues and forensics units, I use it once a month...It is easily adapted to home and commercial sites...:)

www.odoban.com

Miku-san

[Michael Young]

We use Swiffer dry pads every night after class to pick up the dust on our Zebra mats. About once per month we use a solution of isopropyl alcohol and water...probably about a 10:1 solution (I usually dump about 1/2 the alcohol bottle into about 3 gallons of water). We dampen our rags and scrub away, rinsing the rags in the solution every 2 mats. No allergy problems with alcohol, it is cheap, non-toxic, evaporates quickly leaving no odor, disinfects, and is non-damaging to the mats.

Good luck

[khammack]

My dojo has canvas, but our sister dojo has Zebra mats.

Our dojo also uses canvas, but come to think of it: How would you go about disinfecting canvas? Seems like it would be necessarily less sanitary than other mat surfaces.

-kev

[j0nharris]

We sanitize our mats with a laundry grade hydrogen peroxide, aka, non-chlorine bleach.
It is strong, so we wear gloves while we wipe the mats down, but it is also an environmentally friendly & non-toxic cleaner to use.
No fumes, no irritation..
It can be used on canvas covers, rice tatami, and regular Zebra type mats as well.

It's also a great alternative to using chlorine bleach when cleaning your gi, since it doesn't put any dioxins into the environment like bleach can.