An ideal way to clean your steam mop pads is by combining the scouring ability of baking soda, warm water, and detergent. The process is procedural and follows a series of isolated steps for sparkling steam hot pads. Afterward, rinsing rounds everything up, leaving them clean for drying and reusing.
This article explains how to clean steam mop pads and the best practices to give you the best cleaning results.
Can You Wash Steam Mop Pads?
Yes.
Since steam mop pads get dirty after some time, washing becomes necessary. Nevertheless, washing your steam mop pads becomes an option when they aren’t overly grimed or stained. Besides, you should ensure that your floors don’t have loads of bacteria or that the mop isn’t infested.
Washing only eliminates soft stains or perhaps if you clean your home frequently, so dirt and bacteria don’t accumulate excessively.
However, it’s always prudent to deep clean your steam mop pads to retain their original colors and remove the bacteria.
How Often Should You Clean and Replace Steam Mop Pad?
It depends on how often you use it to mop the floor. Well, it’d help to replace your steam mop pads every 3 – 4 months. However, you must clean them after every use since that prevents stains and bacteria accumulation.
However, replacing disposable mop pads should be prudent if you’re using disposable mop pads. Most steam mop pads are cotton or microfiber, and you can reuse them frequently.
Ensure that you clean them often to keep them in desirable shape.
How to Deep Clean Dirty Steam Mop Pads?
Deep cleaning your steam mop pads should always be your go-to option. And although you don’t have to do it as often, you should make your cleaning regimen more frequent.
Deep cleaning is an excellent way of eliminating dirt and grime since it scours deeper. Besides, a combo of detergent, hot water, and baking soda is perfectly sufficient to wage war on the bacteria present in the fabric.
Here are the steps to deep clean your dirty steam mop pad.
1. Gather the Materials
It’d be best to have hot water, bleach-free detergent, and some baking soda in your cleaning arsenal. Besides, a significant-size basin will work the trick if you’re cleaning more than one or two pads.
Here, we’ll sample a single steam mop pad and the best ratios to use to give you a basis for extrapolating the results for multiple pad pieces.
2. Fill the Basin with Hot Water
You need steaming water reaching about 165°F to make the cleaning more effective. For a standard steam mop pad, you can use one liter of hot water.
Ensure that the water is clean and doesn’t contain any chlorine or other minerals that might induce a chemical reaction on your fabric.
3. Add Baking Soda and Detergent
Add a teaspoonful of baking soda and swirl the mixture using a rod or spoon until it’s even. Then, add a quarter-full cup of detergent and continue swirling until the mixture foams.
Don’t use your hands directly since the water is too hot for your skin to handle.
4. Dip and Soak the Mop Pad
Dip the mop pad into the mixture and let it soak for about 25 – 30 minutes. That allows the detergent and baking soda to scour deeper stains and eliminate bacteria.
Micro-organisms won’t survive the high temperatures and the harsh chemical ambiances, so it’s a surefire way of cleaning your mop pad.
5. Scrub, Rinse, and Dry the Mop Pad
When the water cools to a lukewarm temperature, scrub the mop pad using your hands for about a minute or so.
Then squeeze out the water or wring it before placing it in another basin with clean water for rinsing. Afterward, you can air dry it entirely or hang it in the sun to eliminate bacteria and moisture.
More Guides on cleaning mops:
How to Clean Black and Decker Steam Mop Pad
Black and decker mop pads are easily reusable and can last about 100 cycles. Cleaning them isn’t an uphill task since their easy-glide microfiber material makes it pretty seamless.
To properly clean a Black and Decker steam mop pad, you can use detergent, baking soda, and hot water.
Follow the previous section above steps to scour off dirt, grime, and bacteria from your Black and Decker mop pad.
How to Get Steam Mop Pads White
While it may cross your mind to use bleach to whiten your mop pad, it’s often a terrible idea. Bleach compromises the fabric’s integrity and weakens it even after a single use.
Instead, you can use a non-chlorine bleach like Hydrogen peroxide to whiten your steam mop pad.
Scrubbing it with detergent and adding some baking soda further gives your mop pads a whiter sparkle.
How to Wash Steam Mop Pads in Washing Machine?
Cleaning your mop pad with a washing machine isn’t varied from hand washing. However, it does make things pretty easier and straightforward.
You can still use the same ingredients as in hand washing, but ensure that you vary the temperature setting on your washing machine to range between 165 – 170°F.
You, however, don’t need to scrub the afterward since the washing machine does all the leg work for you.
1. What cleaning solution can you use?
When using a washing machine, baking soda and detergent mixture is okay. However, the mixture’s scouring effect can be immense if you use hot water.
You can whiten the mop pads separately in a hydrogen peroxide solution after cleaning them if you feel like eliminating the resistant pale stains.
Related Questions About the Cleaners that if You Can Use in Steam Mop
2. Dos and Don’ts in using the washing machine
Before getting over with it, ensure that you read the instruction label on your mop pad’s manufacturers.
Some fabrics require specific temperatures and cleaning conditions to prevent damage while others don’t. here are the dos and don’ts.
Dos
- Separate the colors
- Preheat the stains
- Use the right amount of detergent and put it in the right place
Don’ts
- Don’t add bleach to the machine
- Don’t use too much detergent
- Please don’t leave the mop pads wet for long until they develop mold
How to Remove Stains from Steam Mop Pads?
As mentioned before, abstain from using bleach to remove stains on your steam mop pad. Instead, hydrogen peroxide scours better and eliminates stains regardless of how much of a challenge they are.
You can use hydrogen peroxide directly by adding it to the soap solution or separately soak the fabric.
How to Dry and Store Steam Mop Pads?
The sun is a practical fabric dryer, but you can still air dry your steam mop pad. Either way, it kicks out bacteria and eliminates moisture to prevent molding or damp smells that might patch unpleasant odors in your following cleaning regimen.
How Long Do Steam Mop Pads Last?
Steam mop pads can last up to 100 cycles of use. However, the conventional span before replacement is usually between 3 – 4 months.
If you clean them often, they probably won’t stain quickly, and you can stretch their use beyond that period.
Conclusion
Cleaning your steam mop pad is essential to keep it in shape and help you scrub your floor better.
However, you must understand how to do it correctly to prevent damaging your precious fabric. Hopefully, this article will help you keep your steam mop pads sparkly.
