MRSA, Staph, and other dangerous pathogens may be lurking in your locker room and on your athletic gear. To keep athletes safe, it’s crucial to effectively sanitize your equipment. Unfortunately, cleaning with soap and water can significantly reduce the lifespan of your gear. So how else can you sanitize those hard-to-reach places?
A quick Google search will present you with two viable options: disinfecting foggers and ozone machines. Both sanitize large areas without the need for drying cycles, both can dry-clean, and foggers can even sanitize with ozone. But which one is safer and more efficient?
Disinfecting Foggers
If you’re looking to sanitize sports gear without the hassle of scrubbing, sanitizing foggers may seem like the solution to your problems. You simply add your cleaning agent and water, and the fogger dispenses the sanitizer into the air. Sanitizing foggers come in several different shapes, sizes, and models, and they can use different disinfecting agents, including ozone, to sanitize a room quickly.
Foggers are especially popular because you can customize how they clean. They can be run with wet or dry disinfectants and don’t require any clean-up after the system has run its course. This leaves you to choose your preferred disinfectant products.
The freedom to choose your own microbial agent makes foggers seem like the most practical option, right? Unfortunately, large-scale disinfecting systems like foggers aren’t targeted enough to fully sanitize your helmets and shoulder pads, which could leave your athletes vulnerable to MRSA. Also, not all of the many chemical treatments that can be used in foggers are powerful enough to kill the most dangerous pathogens on your gear. That leaves a lot of guesswork in choosing a sanitizing agent.
Ozone Sanitation Systems
Much like foggers, ozone machines also can reach those nooks and crannies on your gear that you can easily miss when washing by hand, and after the ozone cycle, the gear is immediately ready to use. While ozone machines and foggers share many of the same benefits, ozone machines require much less work and expense.
When your primary goal is protecting athletes from common pathogens on gear, you don’t want to second-guess your choice of disinfectant. Ozone is a naturally occuring gas that is more powerful than bleach, iodine, and hydrogen peroxide. Using one of the strongest disinfectants offers you the peace of mind that your athletes are safe and always game ready.
Not only do you never have to question if your antimicrobial agent is powerful enough, you also never have to stock up on it! Ozone machines generate their own sanitizing product and never require restocking or refilling, saving you time and money.
Ozone machines come in many different forms, but the most common is an ozone generator that you place in a room with the gear that you intend to sanitize. Like with foggers, this sanitizing method casts too wide of a net to truly deep clean your gear, leaving your athletes potentially vulnerable to MRSA.
The Sports-O-Zone Advantage
While ozone is a great option for sanitizing, not all ozone machines are created equal. Sports-O-Zone answers all the lingering questions left behind by foggers and other ozone machines.
Not only does Sports-O-Zone provide the benefits of ozone cleaning without the hassle of keeping it in supply, it also can hold all your gear inside the chamber, allowing for an up-close, targeted approach to disinfecting. Unlike other ozone-generating machines, you won’t be left wondering if each and every helmet was fully sanitized － you’ll know.
On top of its sanitizing power, Sports-O-Zone completely eliminates odors in your gear without leaving behind any residue or oils that could eventually damage your gear. After the ozone cycle, once foul-smelling athletic gear will be left with a fresh spring rain scent, making your locker room a much more pleasant place to prep for a big game.
Ozone sanitizers can be dangerous when they come in contact with human skin and lungs. While most foggers and ozone generators don’t offer baseline safety measures, Sports-O-Zone’s safety features allow you to sanitize your gear without the risk of exposure to ozone. Its lock-out device prevents anyone from opening the system while it’s in use, keeping your staff and athletes safe from harm.
Does Sports-O-Zone check all of your boxes for a gear sanitizing system? We’d love to tell you more. Request a quote.
