Buyer's guide
Choosing a fogger machine for infection control: what to compare before you commit
Plenty of devices are sold as foggers. Very few are specified for infection control in a live clinical, food or transport setting. These are the criteria we would ask you to compare — whoever you end up leasing from.
In short
When comparing fogger machines for infection control, judge six things: whether it treats the whole room volume or only line-of-sight surfaces, how long the room is out of use, its weight and cross-contamination risk, whether it leaves residue, the documented efficacy evidence you can put in a risk assessment, and the cost per treated room rather than the sticker price.
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1. Does it treat the volume, or just the surface in front of it?
Popular handheld options are line-of-sight devices: whatever the operator points at gets treated, and whatever is behind, under or above it does not. A fogger designed for infection control fills the room volume so that shadowed surfaces are treated at the same time as the obvious ones.
2. How long is the room out of use?
Traditional fumigation methods take a room out of service for hours. Sanondaf's published testing on air-powered fogging shows rapid, even distribution through the volume, so treatment is a short cycle and the space returns to use quickly. In a ward, a production line or a coach depot, that difference is the whole business case.
3. How heavy is it, and does moving it spread contamination?
At 8kg the unit is hand-carried. Wheeled trolleys and carts roll through contaminated areas and out again; a hand-carried unit does not. It also means one person can deploy it, in a plant room or a cabin, without a lifting plan.
4. Does it leave residue or create waste?
Sanondaf case study material on hydrogen peroxide use on equipment and materials addresses the usual concern — compatibility with electronics and sensitive equipment — and the chemistry leaves no residue behind and no waste to dispose of. If a device leaves a film on work surfaces, food-contact or laboratory environments will reject it.
5. What evidence can you put in a risk assessment?
Detailed risk assessments ask for documented efficacy, not marketing. The Sanondaf evidence base includes independent sporicidal efficacy testing, a live critical care unit case study, a contained biotechnology vessel study, university research on how delivery system affects efficacy at low hydrogen peroxide concentrations, and work on inactivation of prions and viruses.
- Up to 99.9999% reduction across bacteria, viruses, fungi and spores
- Validated cycles you can evidence for auditors and insurers
- Disinfection certificates you can display in customer-facing areas
6. What does it cost per room, per month?
Compare on cost per treated room, not sticker price. A lease from £500 per month + VAT, over 36 months, with one machine treating up to five rooms per hour, spreads across as many rooms as you choose to treat. A callout, by contrast, costs the same fee every single time and still leaves you waiting.
Frequently asked
- What is the difference between a fogger machine and an electrostatic sprayer?
- A fogger treats the whole air volume of a room; an electrostatic sprayer charges droplets so they wrap around surfaces the operator targets. Used together you get whole-volume treatment plus targeted surface coverage — more advanced infection control than many premises currently run.
- Do we need extra staff to run a fogger machine?
- No. Trained members of your existing team take on the role within their current job description and rota. We provide the training and competency sign-off, and calibration is scheduled.
- Can one machine cover more than one building?
- Yes. It is hand-carried at 8kg, so a single machine is routinely moved between buildings across the same group site. Leases are for use on your own group sites by your own trained staff.
Sources: material published by Sanondaf UK at sanondaf.co.uk (news, research and case studies) and the technical and commercial documentation held by the Shropshire & West Midlands office. Figures are indicative and confirmed at survey. Efficacy is stated as up to 99.9999% reduction.