Can You Use Lysol Wipes on Leather Car Seats? Answered

A clean and nice-smelling car will make you start the day on cloud nine. When doing self-cleaning, you must have wanted to use a disinfectant on your car’s seats. Accordingly, can you use Lysol wipes on leather? This surely is a hesitation that you should have met in the process. 

You cannot do “just take it and wipe” when you are engaging with special surfaces like leather, human skin, utensils used for cooking, or any area where food is kept or stored. The reason is that there may be corrosive or harmful chemicals that react with the elements of the surface material and form toxins.

If such happens, food poisoning or unrecoverable damage to the item can happen. Therefore, you must have a correct and clear understanding of the composition and the way of using it on surfaces. This will not only save you money but also will avoid any unexpected illnesses. 

Can You Use Lysol Wipes on Leather?

Lysol has a history of over a century and has been a famous disinfectant ever since it was introduced in 1889. The manufacturer is Reckitt. Not only disinfectants are their main product. They also produce air purifying and hand wash range. 

According to the company descriptions, Lysol has the ability to destroy 99.9% of microorganisms like fungi, viruses, and bacteria. 

Some surfaces do not resist the chemicals included in many disinfectant liquids. Therefore, can you use Lysol wipes on leather is a quiz that is connected with an ingredient search. For that, we will have to find the composition of Lysol. Thereafter, we can search whether those are harmful or not for a leathery item.

What is the Composition of Lysol?

There are two main ingredients of Lysol products. Most of the products of this disinfectant product line contain benzalkonium chloride, and some contain hydrogen peroxide. The chloride is toxic, and it will directly infect the aquatic animals, and there is a small risk to birds too.

Benzalkonium chloride is also called alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chlorides or alkyl dimethyl quaternary ammonium chlorides. Another side effect is that, as per the high percent usage of this chemical compound, there is an increment in the bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. It is recommended not to use this chemical compound on leather or plastic regularly because it can damage your leather car seat.

Ethanol

Ethanol is included in Lysol as per its antibacterial properties. It is a type of alcohol. Alcohol is a major compound that could damage your car’s interior made up of leather. (Acetone also has the same power in damaging a leather seat) 

Petroleum gasses are being liquified and used in Lysol. Petroleum-based products are thoroughly prohibited on leather surfaces. The reason is that those present quality of corrosion when in leather and makes such surfaces sticky. This happens as petroleum dries the surface and changes its usual texture.

Ammonium Saccharinate

Ammonium Saccharinate is another ingredient used in Lysol wipes. Ammonia is widely used in cleaning agents due to its ability to break down stains caused by oils, grease, or any alcoholic patches. But it is recommended not to use any kind of ammonia-contained products on leather items. This is because the function of ammonia might damage your beloved leather items.

When you go through the explanation, it must be crystal clear to you that you must not use even a little bit of Lysol with the cleaning of your car’s interior components. Any bleach-contained products, too, will severely damage the leather components. 

How to Disinfect the Inside of Your Vehicle?

Sanitizing is important to avoid any kind of contact with the covid 19 virus. Sanitizing is way more efficient in reducing the virus on contaminated surfaces. When we take a vehicle, the door handle, steering wheel, seats, armrests, dashboard, and controls are the main surfaces that are exposed to contact with viruses and germs. Hence, it is clear that disinfection is essential. 

But as per the things we have discussed in the above paragraphs of this article, we can’t use liquids or wipes which contain harmful substances on your leather interior. In those circumstances, Lysol becomes a mismatch for the work.

The only harmless way is to use soap and water when cleaning. Make sure to use mild soap. For these, slightly wet the surfaces of your seats and apply any soap of your desire. After 20 seconds, wipe it out with a clean piece of cloth. It is better if you can use a soft microfiber cloth.

You must also make sure to apply leather conditioner after a cleanup. This step will nourish your leather interior and avoid damage like cracking and excessive drying. Soap destroys the virus.

Strictly avoid using window cleaning agents, nail polish removers, shoe polish, bleach, polish used for furniture, and silicone-containing cleaning agents with your leather cleaning. These may contain harmful ingredients that will ruin your precious leather items.

Conclusion

You cannot use anything and everything to clean a leather surface as some chemicals and acidic media will damage the leather by compromising its surface coat.

We have discussed all the harmful ingredients contained in Lysol and the secure way of cleaning the leather surface of your household or vehicle in this article.

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