Do You Need a Sex Toy Cleaner, or Is Soap and Water Enough?

Soap and warm water cleans almost every sex toy. A toy cleaner is the kind of add-on that gets bought on vibe rather than need, and I only want you buying one if you have a reason. Four reasons qualify.

The material and the motor are what change the answer. Material belongs on the packaging of any toy, and a package that does not carry it is itself a red flag.

Do you need a sex toy cleaner?

No. Most toys never need one. Plain warm water with a gentle unscented soap cleans every nonporous toy, and nonporous covers the materials worth buying in the first place: 100 percent silicone, glass and Pyrex, stainless steel, and hard ABS plastic.

Wash it, rinse it until the surface stops feeling slippery, then let it air dry or blot it with a clean towel.

A cleaner is a convenience product, not a requirement. Four situations make it worth the money. A glass dildo you can hold under the tap is not one of them.

What does soap and water handle on its own?

Every nonporous material. What is inside the toy changes how much water it can meet, never whether soap and water is the right cleaner for the surface.

Nonporous means the surface carries no microscopic holes for anything to settle into. 100 percent silicone, glass, Pyrex, stainless steel and hard ABS plastic all qualify, and a nonporous toy can be cleaned completely. Use warm water and a gentle unscented liquid soap, your hands rather than a scrubber, and rinse until nothing is left on the surface.

Nonmotorized silicone, glass and steel take one more step when you want it. Sex educator Searah Deysach puts the boiling window at up to three minutes for nonvibrating silicone, which sanitizes past what a wash does, and the piece has to be that one material the whole way through: a silicone toy with a strap or a base in something else does not get boiled. Glass wants to cool on its own afterward, because glass is sensitive to sudden temperature change.

Then dry it properly and keep it where lint cannot reach it. A lint-free bag does that, and jelly and other soft toys go one to a bag, because soft toys left touching can melt into each other. Where you put the bag is its own question.

What does soap and water not do?

It does not sterilize a porous toy. Cleaning and sterilizing are two different jobs, and on porous materials the second one stays unfinished.

A 2022 mixed-methods study of sexual enrichment aids among women aged 18 to 35 went looking for research showing that hot soapy water eliminates vaginal secretions, bacteria, yeast or STIs from toy materials. Its authors reported finding none in the literature, porous materials especially, and they did not test cleaners at all. The same study found that soap and water, often plain hand soap, is what the women they surveyed and interviewed use.

We sell toy cleaner, and I will still tell you to start with what the toy is made of.

Porous means the surface carries tiny holes. TPE and TPR, jelly rubber, elastomer, latex, cyberskin, PVC and vinyl all qualify, and so does the leather on a harness or a cuff. Those holes hold bacteria, dust, soap and perfume through a wash.

So keep porous toys for solo play, or put a condom over one before it is shared and change the condom between partners. Couples who are fluid bonded make their own call there. A nonporous toy shared between partners gets washed in between, and a condom over it is the alternative. Sharing any toy goes into that properly. Choosing a nonporous material is what takes the whole question off the table next time you buy.

Worth seeing a clinician if you get irritation, itching, burning, unusual discharge, or a smell that is new to you after using a toy, especially a shared one.

When does a dedicated cleaner earn its place?

Four situations, and they are specific enough to check one by one.

Start with a motorized toy you cannot rinse. A rechargeable vibrator with no printed ingress rating stays away from running water, and a spray or a foam is the easiest thing to reach for there. Deysach's own answer to the same problem is a damp soapy washcloth, which does the job without a bottle.

Scent sensitivity is the second. Gentle and unscented is what sex educators and sexologists point to for anything going near the vulva, and a cleaner whose label states fragrance-free hands you that in one bottle. Read the ingredient list anyway. A no-added-fragrance claim is a claim about added fragrance, and a botanical oil on the list carries a scent of its own.

Then there is speed, between partners or between rounds. A wipe happens where you already are. Getting up, walking to the sink and coming back takes the mood with it.

Travel is the fourth. A hotel bathroom works fine. A car, a tent and a friend's spare room do not, and a small bottle covers all three.

Which toy cleaner should you buy?

Pick by format, because format decides whether the bottle gets used. Between the two I lean foam for anything ridged and spray for anything smooth.

Foam clings where you put it, which matters on a ridged or textured surface. System JO states a fragrance-free formula for its Refresh foam, publishes the full ingredient list, and says it is safe for all toy materials including silicone, glass, metal and ABS plastic, finished with a rinse or a wipe.

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Foaming JO Refresh Toy Cleaner 7oz

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Spray is faster. Sliquid states no added fragrance for Shine, builds it on organic aloe with tea tree, castor and jojoba oils, calls it water soluble and safe for most toys and materials, and says to rinse with water where applicable. Tea tree oil is the scent note to know about there if you are sensitive. One maker says all toy materials and the other says most, and it is System JO's own FAQ, the one claiming all, that tells you to check your toy maker's cleaning guidelines when you are unsure.

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Shine Organic Intimate Toy Cleaner 8.5oz

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The full shelf sits at toy cleaners. One bottle is enough, and rinse whichever one you buy off the toy before use.

Can you put a vibrator under the tap?

Only when the toy's printed ingress rating says so. Go by the code, never by the adjective beside it.

IPX4 means protection from splashes from any direction. An IPX4 toy stays out of showers and never goes under water.

IPX7 covers immersion only: one metre, thirty minutes. Running water and jets carry their own ratings, those ratings do not stack onto an IPX7 mark, and an IPX7 toy therefore comes with no promise about a shower or a tap.

Shower-ready, splashproof and waterproof are label language with no fixed definition behind them. Find the printed code on the toy or in its manual and work from that, and from the maker's own instructions when the code is one of the others.

No printed code means treating it as not water resistant: wipe it down, keep water out of the charging port, never submerge it. For battery toys, take the batteries out before you clean it, close the compartment, keep water out of it, then open it again to dry.

What should never touch your toys?

Fragranced soap, dishwasher detergent, and heat on anything with a motor inside.

Fragranced soap is the easiest of the three to fix. Keep the scented bottle for your hands and buy one unscented bottle for everything else.

Dishwasher detergent is the second. Carly S., quoted in Healthline's reporting on sex toys and STIs, says dishwasher detergent can carry harsh chemicals and fragrances that lead to irritation or infections. So a dishwasher run is a toys-only load with no detergent and nothing but the warm water.

Never boil anything with a motor, battery, or electronics inside. A dishwasher cycle sanitizes glass, Pyrex, silicone and stainless steel on the same terms: nothing with a motor, battery, or electronics inside goes in, and the piece has to be that one material the whole way through. Hard ABS plastic is washed by hand.

Silicone lube on a silicone toy is its own compatibility question, and I answer that one in caring for silicone toys. How often all of this needs doing has its own page too.