How Long Does a Cleaning Product Take to Remove a Virus From The Second it Makes Contact?

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You want to be sure a disinfectant is truly performing its job before using it, especially in your vet clinic or kennel. After all, maintaining clean and sterile surfaces and equipment is essential for your clients and their pets.

What Is Contact Time?

Contact time is one of the most crucial aspects to take into account when selecting a disinfectant. The amount of time that a disinfectant must remain wet on a surface to be effective is known as the "contact time" or "wet time."

For typical hand sanitizers, contact times can be as brief as 15 seconds and as prolonged as 30 minutes for chlorine oxides used in laboratories. With the varying spectrum of contact times, it is important to know the proper amount of contact time required in order to disinfect effectively. 

Products that need a prolonged contact time, including those that must be used in hot, dry settings, may evaporate before disinfection is achieved. This means that more than one application will be necessary. Reapplying with the disinfectant means you will be losing a significant amount of product, time, and money.

Wait for the Disinfectant to Work

The practice of promptly wiping the surface dry after the disinfectant application is another issue frequently encountered when using disinfectants in pet care facilities. When disinfecting a surface for a certain virus, always make sure you adhere to the necessary contact time. 

To obtain the desired level of disinfection, make sure you adhere to the appropriate contact time before drying or washing. It is crucial that you read the label on any disinfectant to ensure that you are aware of the required contact time.

At Alpha Tech Pet, our KennelSol Germicidal Cleaner & Deodorant is specially formulated to have a minimum contact time of 10 minutes after being thoroughly wet.KennelSol is as close to the ideal disinfectant as possible. Lean more about the characteristics of an ideal disinfectant on our website at https://www.alphatechpet.com/idealdisinfectantarticle.aspx

KennelSol's dilution ratio is the same for ALL bacteria, viruses, and fungi listed on the label (except Parvovirus and Rabies), where other disinfectants can have several different dilution ratios listed, leading to lots of confusion! View our comparison chart to learn more at https://bit.ly/KennelSolComparison.

All of our products contain information on their contact times on all labels. Read these labels carefully as contact time may vary for each product.


For more information on your facility sanitation, you can take our Alpha Tech Pet Sanitation Assessment at https://www.alphatechpet.com/sanitationassessmenttool.aspx or call our knowledgeable staff at (800) 222-5537 for more information.

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