best way to clean graco car seat
BuckleUse a damp cloth or sponge. Car Seat BodyClean with mild soap and water, and wipe dry with a cloth or towel. Dish soap is fine. Do not use bleach or other harsh cleaners on your car seat. CoverMachine wash in cold water on the delicate cycle and drip dry. Harness StrapsSpot clean with mild soap and water. Travel BagUse a damp sponge to wipe the fabric of the bag clean, and then let the bag hang dry. Note: never use bleach to clean any part of this product. SeatUse a damp cloth or sponge with hand soap or dish soap to wipe the seat clean. Stay away from harsh household cleaners. Never use bleach to clean any parts of the stroller. Seat PadMachine wash in cold water on the delicate cycle, and drip dry. FrameWipe down with a cloth and soapy warm water. Never use bleach to clean any part of the stroller. Rain Cover/UmbrellaWipe down with a cloth and soapy warm water. Note: never use bleach to clean any part of this product. BuckleUse a damp cloth or sponge.
Seat PadMachine wash in cold water on the delicate cycle and drip dry. Vinyl, Plastic, and Metal Parts (mattress, mesh sides, frame)Use a damp cloth or sponge with hand soap or dish soap to wipe clean the vinyl, plastic, and metal parts. Never use bleach to clean your Pack n' Play. If your Pack n' Play gets sandy, carefully remove all sand from all surfaces before packing it into the carry bag. Carry BagMachine wash in cold water on the delicate cycle and drip dry. SheetPack N' Play playard sheets are fully machine washable, and can be drip-dried or tumble dried. Never use bleach to clean this product. Soft ToysSoft, cloth toys can be spot cleaned with warm soapy water. Be careful not to let water drip into the battery compartment! Seat PadRemove cloth seat pad and machine wash in cold water, delicate cycle, drip-dried. FrameUse a damp sponge or towel with soapy water. Hand soap or dish soap is fine, but stay away from harsh household cleaners. Never use bleach to clean any part of your swing or bouncer.
For more information, see the Toys cleaning instructions. Vinyl Seat PadUse a damp cloth or sponge with hand soap or dish soap to wipe clean the vinyl seat pad. Wipe dry with a towel or cloth. FrameUse a damp cloth or sponge with hand soap or dish soap to wipe the frame clean.
air duct cleaning equipment for rentNever use bleach to clean any part of the activity center.
air duct mold removal cost Never user bleach on any part of this product. Monitor CasingWipe down monitor with a dry cloth. If necessary, use a very lightly damp cloth to clean the monitor surface. Be sure monitor is turned off during cleaning. Note: Never use bleach on any part of this product. The Whole PottyWipe the potty down with a damp cloth and mild soap. Never use bleach to clean any part of the potty.
Plastic ToysToys with plastic parts should be wiped down with a damp cloth or sponge with hand soap. Never use bleach to clean plastic toys. Soft (Plush) ToysSoft toys with no plastic parts can be spot cleaned with a towel with warm, soapy water, or machine-washed in cold water and drip-dried. Never use bleach to clean soft toys. TOUCH FREE DIAPER PAIL Plastic partsClean using household detergent or soap and warm water. Humidifier 1.5 & 4.0 Gallon Tank & TrayDishwasher Safe Outside of humidifierWipe the fan enclosure, control panel, and cord with a damp cloth or sponge. Note: never use bleach to clean any part of this product.As a CPST, over the years I’ve had more than a few parents contact me with a tale of bodily function woe. Their potty training children have had unspeakable accidents. A bout of car sickness left the seat looking like a sea of cottage cheese. In one memorable case, a skunk sprayed the seat. (And in case you’re wondering, if a skunk sprays the seat, you’re pretty much out of luck.)
As a parent myself, I know the feeling. You’re driving along, and hear the unmistakable ‘urp’ from the back seat. You white knuckle it until you find a safe place to pull over, but, too late, and you are left with a terrible, awful, no good, very bad mess to clean up.The question you are left with is, ‘how do I clean this thing?’. Some parents jump in with both hands and a bottle of bleach. At the end, they are left with an entirely clean, and entirely unusable seat. Other parents mistakenly believe that the car seat is a delicate flower that cannot tolerate any sort of cleaning at all. They anxiously wonder if they should simply replace the seat for a minor spill of a cup of water.As always, your number one resource is your child restraint’s manual. Every manual will have instructions on cleaning the seat, and do’s, and don’ts.Here at CSFTL, we want to give you some basic, general tips for cleaning and decontaminating the harness of your restraint. As always, defer to your manual.
If there is a conflict between this article and your manual or manufacturer’s instructions, defer to your specific seat.1. Speed is your friend: The quicker you start working, the better chance you have of salvaging your child’s seat. It might be tempting to stick that seat on the porch until tomorrow, but it’s not worth the risk, especially if you can’t afford to replace the seat. Assemble what you need in advance: the seat, a bowl of fresh tap water, a bottle of gentle soap, baby wipes, and clean rags.2. Remove gross matter: Use a baby wipe, and pick off any substance that is removable without rubbing, scrubbing, or using a cleaning solution.3. Wipe down the harness: Using a soft cloth and cool water, wipe off the harness. If water isn’t going to cut it, use a gentle soap. “GENTLE” AND “NATURAL” ARE NOT THE SAME THING. 4. Cleaning the buckle: Invert the buckle in a cup of tap water, keeping the webbing out of the water. Swishing it around will dislodge anything trapped in the mechanism.5.
Sun and fresh air can help: If the harness is removable, lay it flat in the sunshine for a few hours. Any remaining odor is likely to dissipate.6. Rinse and repeat: If you’ve followed these steps and your harness still has an odor or significant staining, try, try again. In some cases, the harness is replaceable for a small fee from the company. If you still have staining or odor, consider calling your manufacturer to ask if you can purchase a new harness for your existing seat.It can be comforting to realize that manufacturers understand that children are, well, wet. They leak unmentionable fluids from impolite orifices. Car seats can be intended to last a child many years. A harness that melts like sugar the first close encounter it has with a sippy of apple juice would not be a practical design for a product intended for children.However, while the harness is hardy and durable, there are certain DO NOTS that you must keep in mind when cleaning your child’s restraint.1.
DO NOT: ever, ever, ever place your child’s harness in the washing machine. Sure, it seems like a practical idea, and it’ll come out sparkly clean, no doubt.So, why can’t you do this? The answer lies in the tensile strength of the webbing. Car accidents hurt people because, among other things, of the short amount of time between traveling at whatever speed you may be traveling, and coming to a full stop. Restraints serve the purpose of slightly elongating that period of time (Called ‘ride-down time’). The webbing (material out of which the straps are made), specifically, will stretch, in a crash, reducing the amount of force transmitted to the body of the child. Spinning those harness straps around in the washing machine will prematurely pull all the stretch right out of the harness and take away that increased ride down protection they provide your child.2. DO NOT: use abrasives to clean your harness. No matter how tempting, please don’t go at the harness with steel wool.
You’ll chew up those delicate fibers, and while an individual broken fiber may not mean much, a whole bunch of them will eventually weaken the restraining capacity of the harness.3. DO NOT: use harsh soaps. If soap is permitted by the manufacturer in cleaning the restraint, always choose a gentle soap. GENTLE AND NATURAL ARE NOT THE SAME THING.I’ve had parents earnestly tell me, “Well, I live naturally, and I clean everything I own with vinegar. How could vinegar possibly hurt a car seat? While as an aside, I would like to point out that many things are natural, like poison ivy and small pox, but not necessarily desirable, the primary point is that natural does not necessarily mean gentle. Vinegar, specifically, is an acid, and a rather strong one.The pH scale measures the concentration of hydrogen ions in solution. A neutral pH is 7.0, and what you would expect your drinking water to measure, if you were so inclined. (Human blood is around 7.35-7.45). Common household vinegar runs around 2.3-3.0 pH depending on which of the numerous available articles on vinegar available on the internet you consult.
In comparison, hydrochloric acid (dependent on molarity and other things, of course), runs around 1.0). Lemon juice is a 2.0.On the other end of the scale (>7.0-14), we have what are known as ‘bases’. A well-known example of a base is household bleach, which has a pH of 12.6. Another common household cleaner, Borax, has a pH of 9.3. And the most common household base, which we all know as a quick pinch solution for a bad case of indigestion, is baking soda, with a pH of 8.3.It’s important to remember that the pH scale is logarithmic, so these differences in numbers are not small potatoes. The difference between 7.0 and 2.0 is not ‘5’ but 10 to the fifth power.So why is a cleaning solution with a pH not near neutral bad for a car seat harness? Acids are corrosive and bases are caustic. Remember the example of steel wool up above, which uses friction to break down the integrity of the car seat webbing? Corrosives and caustics do the exact same thing, but on a chemical rather than mechanical level.