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Steel wool? Not today! Month-old household sponge? No, thank you.
Silicone sponges last longer and dry faster than the typical sponge.
Today it’s all about silicone dish scrubbers, most of them in the rectangular shape of a regular household sponge, but let me surprise you with a few soft silicone eye splendors to keep by your kitchen sink.
Since silicone sponges repel water and dry quicker, they last longer and they need replaced less frequently than regular sponges. From this perspective, silicone sponges could be better for the environment, since you throw away fewer sponges over time.
Who needs a gross old spong with visible stains and odor?
Silicone dries in seconds and repels dirt, grease, odor, and bacteria clean and sanitary.
A regular sponge takes hours to dry and absorbs stuff inside it. Regular sponges are typically made from cellulose or plastic with deep crevices which trap water and allow bacteria to grow.
The most common complaint about silicone sponges is they require more dish soap to achieve the same clean as regular sponges.
Silicone sponges use somewhat more dish soap than regular sponges, but you also save time because the soap rinses away quicker. We’re back to the sanitation issue with cellulose and plastic sponges. Once used for scrubbing, the soap, water, and gunk mixture gets trapped into fibrous sponges crevices and allows icky bacteria to grow.
Yes, here’s how to use a soft silicone sponge to scrub hard-to-clean surfaces, when the sticky gunk from cooking is caked on thick and hardened.
A single side of one fine bristle silicone sponge has over 2,500 bristles, for a total of 5,000 bristles on both sides. What’s better than a food-grade silicone sponge to scrub ceramic and porcelain dishes, wooden and plastic cutting boards, or other hard-surface kitchen utensils that are piled in the sink today? When you get a three pack in three of your favorite colors for a good price, that’s even nicer and squishier, isn't it? Geloo is a best-selling brand for soft silicone sponges in plain and simple colors. Orange, purple, blue… Lime, seafoam, blue… Red, Yellow, Blue… That’s it!
🧽 Shop Peachy Clean on Amazon.
If you’re interested in silicone but not quite ready to let go of a regular sponges rectangular shape and porous feel, then Peachy Clean is a near-identical silicone alternative to a regular plastic sponge that remains odor free for three months. One Peach Clean silicone sponge measures 4.6 inches long and 2.8 inches wide to grasp exactly the same as a regular household sponge. But since it’s made from silicone material instead of plastic or cellulose, Peachy Clean protects from odor better, resists bacteria and mildew better, and lasts longer than your average sponge. Add in the fact Peachy Clean is domestic sponge technology developed and manufactured in Atlanta, Georgia and I’m peachy keen on trying Peeky Clean.
🧽 Shop Sur La Table on Amazon.
Look closely at both sides before you scroll by. Sur La Table is a double-action silicone sponge with fine bristles on one side, and coarse scrubber nubs on the other. My honest opinion is Sur La Table would have been the #1 ranked soft silicone sponge for dishwashing, if it weren’t for Sur La Table’s exorbitant price. With two special types of bristle scrubbers, one light and one coarse, it equates to traditional sponges which have a yellow absorber side and a green scrubber side. Sur La Table is available in your favorite selection of gray, red, green, yellow, light blue, or navy blue.
The Dotti Super Scrubber Silicone sponge is a premium sponge that lasts odor free for three months. At first sight, Dotti’s stylish design looks comfy in the palm of your hand. Upon closer examination, you can see its structural integrity with a silicone ring centerpiece to keep its shape and fluffy porous silicone puffs on two sides to apply fine scrubbing. Porous silicone doesn’t dry as fast as the fine bristles of Geloo, Sur La Table, or Kuhn Rikon, but Dotti’s unique and fashionable silicone kitchen scrubber lasts an estimated 6 to 8 times longer than the lifetime of a regular sponge odor free.
A three pack of red, green, and blue silicone sponges made from non-toxic soft silicone with fine bristles on both sides. Gentle for polishing delicate glassware and durable for deep clean pan scrubbing, The SCRUBIT brand specializes in kitchen, home, and auto surface scrubbing solutions, so you’re likely to use fewer disposable cleaning wipes and paper towels with a supply of long-lasting silicone sponges.
For people who want to keep their hands away from the plate mess, BEAUTAIL has a handle for you to hold onto, to effectively keep your fingers and palms distanced from the surface scrubbing action. Grip the handle between your forefinger and thumb, and apply pressure with the weight ergonomically distributed across your palm. Once you become skilled with your new silicone handle sponge, challenge yourself to clean the dishes while keeping your palms dry. BEAUTAIL offers a beautiful color selection in black, gray, dark blue, and dark green, or purchase the three colors together to save money on a three pack.
One more standard silicone sponge resembling the shape of a regular sponge. Kuhn Rikon casts a full spectrum of colors from clear, black, red, orange, grape purple, and lime blue. Both sides of the sponge have fine bristles primarily for dish scrubbing, but multi-purpose as good quality food-grade silicone permits. Take one day to count the number of bristles, and does it equal 5,000?
One more silicone sponge innovation coming your way! This yellow silicone dish sponge includes a trifecta of multi-functionality. You can see it’s standard fine bristle side. The opposite side has shorter, coarser silicone bristles for harder scrubbing, the top of the unit is equipped with a hard plastic black scraper, like a sponge with the beak of a bird whose duty is to clean your dirty dishes, and bring out the beak when heavy duty scraping caked on gunk.
The bulk pack isn’t always the best back, for example, when it’s just you and your roommate in one apartment, do you need a full dozen of silicone sponges? Asiopphire is a different story, because their four pack of silicone sponges not only come in oval and square shape varieties but also include fine bristles on one side and wavy bristles on the other. Color coded in gray, glue, aqua, and purple, you can avoid cross-contamination by using one sponge for one job only. Each Asiopphire silicone dish scrubber has a loop corner for easy hanging when not in use.
For fish, duckling, and porcupine lovers, Norpro’s animal-shaped silicone sponge might be love at first sight. When you make a friendship with your new handheld silicone animal buddy who can help you hand wash dishes, you’ll quickly learn that one side has short fine bristles for gentle suds, while the other side has double-thickness longer bristles for the deep scrubs. Norpro is for people who want a nice-looking animal shaped sponge with the benefits of soft food-grade silicone for dishwashing.
If shape is your thing, it’s worth mentioning that WHFU brand brings the circular shape silicone sponge into play. If you shop by shape, you’ll be surprised what you can find. Dish scrubbers come in many shapes pleasing to the eye and hand, I suppose, to make the chore of cleaning a sink-full of dishes a little more interesting. I’ve seen flower-shaped silicone sponges, octagon-shaped silicone sponges, and rectangular ones with a hard plastic bird beak scraper on the end. Shape innovation never ceases to surprise with three-dimensional silicone to scrub your dishes.
