Do you want to save thousands of dollars per year on equipment cleaning costs and benefit from the great reputation that comes with being a “clean facility?” Hopefully, you answered, “Yes!”
It is well documented that a clean facility, and more specifically clean equipment, is one of your best sales and marketing tools — for member attraction and retention — as well as a great insurance policy against the spread of germs and viruses that can live on the surfaces of unclean exercise equipment. Remember, members go to the gym to get healthy, not to get sick.
To have a healthy workout environment in your facility that is frequently touched and body-contacted, surfaces need to be cleaned after each use. Clean less frequently, and you run the risk of user-to-user bacteria or virus transmission, as well as having the unpleasant “gym smell” of unclean equipment.
Are you unsure of the best method for achieving consistent and effective equipment cleaning and sanitizing? Please examine two of the most popular systems: 1) Disinfectant spray bottles and towels, and 2) disposable pre-moistened wipes.
When considering the best system for your facility, three major factors should be considered:
1) Cost: Research has shown that in equal-use situations a disinfectant spray bottle and towel-based system can save up to 90 to 95 percent versus disposable wipes. For many facilities that represents savings of $5,000 to $15,000 per year.
2) Effectiveness and convenience: Chances are you have signage throughout your facility reminding exercisers to sanitize equipment after each use. But, are they actually doing it? Human nature says, the closer the cleaning supplies, the greater chance they will get used — convenience breeds compliance.
Ideally, you should put the cleaning supplies right on the equipment — within one step or arm’s length of the exerciser. By doing so, you greatly increase the chance of cleaning before and/or after use. Remotely located cleaning systems — on perimeter walls or support posts, for example — don’t get used as frequently. Guaranteed.
Once again, any equipment cleaning system is only effective if it is used regularly. Inconvenient placement of cleaning supplies is directly correlated to non-compliance with user-to-user equipment cleaning recommendations or rules.
3) Environmental responsibility: An equipment sanitizing system that uses spray bottles and reusable towels generates no waste that will end up in the landfill. Your bottom line should be to make your “environmental impact” with an environmentally friendly equipment cleaning system, not in the landfill.
Finally, when discussing spray bottle and reusable towel equipment cleaning, one question that is frequently asked is: “Doesn’t a towel, that is used repeatedly to wipe away sweat, become germ-laden from the sweat?”
The answer may surprise you. Spray bottle and towel equipment cleaning proves to be a very sanitary and effective method for sanitizing exercise equipment surfaces. With each use the towels are being refreshed and replenished with more germ-killing sanitizing solution. A significant amount of disinfectant remains on the towel at all times making it safe to reuse. This point was validated through double blind analytic testing conducted by the Chief Microbiologist, Mario Markovic, at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Therefore, contrary to gut-reaction belief by facility members or facility management, a towel wetted with disinfectant solution is clean and safe for reuse.
In summary, it is in the best interest of fitness facility owners and managers to evaluate the equipment cleaning system they provide — for both their best interest, as well as that of their members and the environment. Every attempt should be made to provide an equipment cleaning system that is the most economical, effective and convenient, and environmentally responsible. The pay-off for installing that type of system will be that your reputation as a “clean” facility will lead to new member attraction and increased member retention rates — that’s the bottom line!
Dr. Bruce Sherman is the President of GymValet/B & D Specialty Concepts, Inc. He can be contacted at 216-378-4298 or by email at bruce@gymvalet.com.
