Hi I was wondering if anyone has advice regarding sterilising vibrators, I am waiting on the Lelo Soraya arriving this week and would really like to be able to get it as sterile as possible after each use, I've read that it can be cleaned with a bleach\water solution but don't want to ruin it, its got several indentations where the plastic meets the silicone and I've read it can be awkward to clean, I know I can't boil it obviously (like I do with my Lelo beads) so what's the next best option to get it as clean as I can? Thank you in advance for any advice, I'm a relative newbie to these things and from reading this forum I've learned so, so much :-)
We use LH toy cleaner and warm water on all our toys, always found that to be sufficient!!!
I'd recommend dedicating a nail brush to toy cleaning, and to then use lots of hot water and the detergent of your choice (mine is handsoap because it's standing there in the bathroom - dishwashing liquid would work as well). That would sanitize the toy.
Sterilizing is a step further and would require some serious chemicals like 10 % bleach solution or 70 % alcohol (not sure what Lelo says on those), as heat is out of the question. And of course you'd have to sterilize just before use, and not let the toy touch anything at all before insertion (meaning running the vibrator over your nipples - or any other body part - as foreplay would be out of the question).
Frankly, I think there's not much point to sterilizing sex toys under normal conditions, I'd only consider it when sharing toys or when going from anus to vagina (and then a condom would be a much easier solution). I stick to "normal" cleanliness for sex toys - about the same degree of hygiene I demand of my food utensils.
Just wash it in any handwash like Carex that should be enough and keep it dry, don't put it in a sealed container/bag, bugs don't survive long on a dry surface.
Thank you Yes Man, Katy, Talia and Quiet ones are the worst, I am very grateful for your advice. I will go watch the video you have suggested Katy, Yes Man I am just trying to be as thorough with cleaning as possible as the toy has groves in it which I've seen a lot of people complain about in reviews online and as I suffer from a lot of issues in that area, recurrent urine infections being the main one, I just want to make sure I clean my toys properly :-) Talia I am scared to use bleach incase I ruin it as it was very expensive, do you think even a mild or diluted sterilising solution would be worth trying? Quiet ones thank you for letting me know about letting toys dry out in the air, I have been trying to do that but with a kid its quite difficult as I gave to try and hide them lol the worst one is my OHs fleshlight, he's got to stash it sitting in a box lined with bubble wrap on top of a wardrobe with things in front of it to hide it, fortunately my toys are a lot smaller! :-)
Really appreciate the advice from everyone, thank you so much
P.s. Katy I never realised it was waterproof so that's an added bonus, thank you for letting me know about that :-)
My point was that I think actual sterilizing useless and pointless - thorough cleaning, with a brush that gets into all the nooks and crannies, and that is clean itself, i. e. regularly renewed, should be enough.
Ah I see, I will get a little nail brush then, that's a great suggestion as its sometimes quite awkward to clean things with groves ect, I clean my LH wands grove with cotton buds which is pretty time consuming a nail brush would be much better, thanks again! :-)
Unfortunately my mains-powered wand is not waterproof, so I can't really scrub it with soap and water :( I keep mine clean by putting a dry condom over the head (definitely not a lubricated one, I don't want to worry about getting silicone lube off the head). Unfortunately LH doesn't sell them (I could do with some help in asking for them), but they are easy enough to find (online - never seen them in shops).
We used Clinell wipes for our internall ultrasound probes when I worked in a hospital. You can get them from eBay.
Get the alcohol-free ones meant for equipment. Some toys don't like getting drunk 
Oh, and if you used a nail brush, keep that clean by giving it a spritz with surgical spirit after washing. Make sure it's dry between uses so the alcohol in the spirit doesn't get on your toys.
Do someone know how exactly to proceede in order to clean a vibrator with a 10% bleach solution?
I put 50 ml of bleach in 450 ml of water, put the vibrator in the mixture and let is soak (after having conventionally washed it, of course!). Then I rinsed it off under the tap (I'm pretty sure that bleach in my vagina would do more damage than a germ or two - vaginas are meant to cope with non-sterile, naked penises, after all). Then I realized that now it's not sterile anyway, because tap water isn't., which led me to the conclusion that there's no point in trying to sterilize sex toys.
Actually, I'm not sure whether it's technically possible to completely sterilize anything under household conditions....
alone4ever wrote:
.... even if you rinse the toy well after using bleach. ...
If that was true, there would be no point in ever trying to wash anything. My working theory is that whenever I rinse something off, whatever was on there is now GONE, and the only residue possibly left is from whatever was in the rinse water (though professional window cleaners prove that you can clean things even with dirty water, given the right tools and technique - for my sex toys the water comes straight from the tap. Though heaven knows what it contains...)
And really, when I read the composition of sex toy cleaner (or any sort of other soap/detergent), I wouldn't want that stuff in my vagiina either - but of course, there again I'm convinced that after rinsing it's gone.
I agree with you guys. Only, I won a sextoy on a blog giveaway and the box wasn't sealed like the compagny says it is, so it makes me a bit anxious. I really want to try that toy, so I am thinking that if I can be sure it has been properly sterilized I won't have to worry whether it's been used or not. I trust the blogger but I can't stop feeling anxious about it. I wouldn't volontarily use a used sex toy but I'm thinking that if there is more chances it has not been used, then if I'm wrong and it has been, if I sterilize it it won't be any worse than when going to the doctor and they use the same (sterilized) instruments on everyone.
Okay, now that's something even I consider a good reason for sterilizing! I assume the toy is silicone, glass or metal? Then I'd probably use bleach (it's cheaper than alcohol)...
If the toy is not electric you could also boil it.
It's a vibrator.
What do you thibk of the situation? I find the blogger to be worth of trust and I've emailed her several times with concerns and she's been assuring me that everything was legit and safe and that she would never have sent a used toy. I still can't help to worry about the possibility but I still want to use the toy as it's a really expensive one and a toy that I've been so curious about. Do you think sterilizing the toy would be enough and safe and ok?
It is a silicone vibrator, isn't it?
Then I would use it even if I knew (which you don't) that it was a second-hand toy. After all, we are always told that silicone is the only soft material that can be sterilized and thus safely shared. To me that means that silicone toys can be safely shared after sterilization - so where's the problem?
I have a feeling that even if the toy was used (which seems unlikely) and you didn't sterilize it, nothing would happen, as bacteria need humidity to survive (as pointed out by Quiet ones are worse at the top of this thread) and as far as I know most viruses don't survive outside the body either. But I admit that a soak in bleach solution will give piece of mind in this case.
If you want to be really sure, talk to a medical professional about it - they should know everything about germs and contagion.
Thanks. It's silicone indeed (sorry i forgot to mention it)
I know basics about bacterias and viruses and the only ones that scares me are viruses that don't spread easily and don't survive in dry areas.
Do antibacterial/fungal/viral cleaners like the pjur one would be enough in your opinion in cade the manufacturer is against using alcool or bleach on their products?
Thanks for making me feel better
mamz wrote:
...
I know basics about bacterias and viruses and the only ones that scares me are viruses that don't spread easily and don't survive in dry areas.
...
That sounds like you didn't need anything - after all, your vibrator has been dry all through transport, which certainly took several days. So use whatever cleaning agent gives you piece of mind.
I personally wouldn't use any sex toy cleaner - for the simple reason that I've too often read that the sex toy industry is not regulated and manufacturers feel free to lie all they want to their customers. I would use Betadine (which I used to disinfect the lamb's ear tags and nobody got an infection). I'm not even sure whether I would believe a manufacturer if they told me not to use alcohol (definitely not if they recommended their own brand sex toy cleaner instead...). But I'm cynical by nature and distrustful by experience...