Differences Between Fogging, Misting & Spraying

Not all methods of cleaning are created equal. Depending on your location, immediate environment, and identified issue, there may be varying pros and cons to each method of the cleaning system.

Whether it’s fogging, misting, or spraying, however, what’s most important is that you achieve the goal of getting a deep clean for your home or business. Viruses and bacteria can easily be tracked inside and settle on the surfaces of your home’s interior, which then allows it to thrive and pose serious threats to you and your family’s health. This is why it’s important to not only get help fast, but to get the right kind of help.

Fogging, misting, and spraying are all methods of administration of cleaning agents during a deep-cleaning process. Here are some ways they are different, so you know which is the best option for you and your needs.

Fogging

As the name suggests, fogging refers to the process wherein the cleaning solution is loaded into a device, emitted into small droplets. To the naked eye, these droplets give off a foggy effect.

What’s unique about this method is that the droplets, averaging a size of 40-110 microns each, seem to gravitate towards a surface naturally. The main benefit of this is that you get a lot better targeting of spraying coverage while also being able to get to hard-to-reach areas. Not only that, but the droplets dry reasonably quickly, too, requiring only as little as 15 minutes to be done.

Another benefit of fogging is that it can eliminate odor, leaving the air not only free of bacteria and viruses but free of smells as well.

Misting

Misting is a lot similar to fogging, although one of its main differences is that the droplets are certainly more prominent, measuring an average of 5 to 25 microns. And like fogging, the solution stays suspended in the air for a lower deposition on surfaces. Unlike fogging, however, misting takes a bit longer to dry out, usually taking around two hours before the occupants of the house or room can come back.

Spraying

Spraying is a lot more straightforward than the previous types of administering disinfectant solutions. It involves using a sprayer, which the user will have to point in the direction of the intended area for cleaning. There are also two types of spraying: wide-area spraying and targeted spraying.

Wide Area spraying usually uses a hand-held sprayer filled with the solution in its body or a section where the solution’s container can be attached. Spray droplets are sized at an estimated 40 to 200 microns and are also often known to miss the high-target areas. To ensure absolute coverage, therefore, repeated spraying might be necessary.

Meanwhile, targeted spraying usually uses an electrostatic device, which incorporates an electrostatic charge to the spray droplets. This charge enables the droplets to be magnetically attracted to the target surface area, as each droplet spray acts like a magnet attracted to another magnetic surface.

A targeted spraying droplet size is slightly smaller in range than wide-area spraying droplets, averaging at 40 to 110 microns. The other good thing about this type of spraying is that occupancy delay can only be for less than 15 minutes, which means that occupancy delay does not have to take too long.

While each type of cleaning systems have their pros and cons, what’s important is that you pick out not only the most practical and cost-effective but more specifically, which one’s going to deliver the results that you need.