VR Headsets and Hygiene: Keeping Your Gear Clean and Safe
VR headsets revolutionized the gaming experience, opening a new world of possibilities. In most cases, gaming is more fun when playing with friends or family. But XR is far from only fun and games, used across thousands of organizations in dozens of unique use cases from healthcare, education, government, manufacturing, engineering, and so much more.
In most cases today, VR and AR headsets used in commercial and entertainment environments are shared multiple times a day by different users. Without proper decontamination between EVERY use, this practice poses a serious and documented health risk. Imagine eating a meal at a restaurant that didn’t clean its dishes properly. If a single person that used the headsets has a contagious infection or disease that can be spread to others. Given our experience with the pandemic, ensuring your VR and AR headsets remains clean, and sanitary is essential to your operation and to health and safety of your users.
Continuous usage also causes dust, hair, body oils, and sweat to get trapped in the headset, damaging the hardware. Quality VR headsets are often expensive, so your cleaning products should protect the plastics, fabrics, lenses, and other sensitive components.
Why is Cleaning Your VR Headset Necessary?
Any item that gets into close contact with your face, including VR headsets, can pick up various bacteria and germs. in a private setting, you’re unlikely to share your VR headsets with strangers, so cleaning is a matter of personal hygiene versus enterprise risk. In any commercial setting, not cleaning headsets can transfer contagions and result in users getting sick.
Antibacterial cleaning wipes may kill the viruses if applied properly, but they can cause damage to the VR headset’s lenses, sensors, and the exterior surface. More importantly, the cost and time to use wipes properly in a commercial or entertainment setting is truly unscalable. Wipes are used to transfer the cleaning chemical to the headset, after which the headsets must remain wet with the chemical for at least 4-10 minutes. Not following these protocols when using wipes means wasting money and time with little to no hygiene effect.
The best solution is investing in equipment that applies cutting-edge technology to protect your VR headsets while keeping them safe and sanitary.
Innovative Hygiene Solutions
The state-of-the-art VR technology requires innovative hygiene solutions at the same level. UV light is the most efficient cleaning of VR headsets while protecting sensitive components.
UVC has a shorter or lower wavelength of about 200 – 280 nanometers (nm), which doesn’t harm your headsets’ sensitive sensors and screens. UVC is very effective against viruses and other microorganisms that contaminate your VR controllers and headsets.
Decontamination Using UVC
Direct contact with UVC light can affect your skin. At Cleanbox Tech, we provide a safe cleaning solution that utilizes UVC LED without the risks to people or to devices. UVC LED when used with Cleanbox patented engineering is unique in its ability to decontaminate object safely, extremely rapidly and at very high levels of disinfection.
Our Cleanbox decontamination box eliminates 99.999% of all contagions and their DNA within 60 seconds. It combines high-velocity air and concentrated UVC light to swiftly clean and dry your VR headsets simultaneously.
Our Cleanbox CX series is specifically for head-mounted displays, including VR headsets. CX models are available in various sizes, so game developers and commercial facilities can clean multiple devices simultaneously.
Our OmniClean model is designed to disinfect any object that is placed within it. This includes untethered or standalone VR / AR headsets and extends to everything else from cell phones and earbuds to advanced electronics, and so much more.
How Does Cleanbox Work?
Cleanbox is highly effective and easy to set up and use. Once you get the device, all you need to do is unwrap and plug it in to disinfect VR. When you connect it to power, you’ll open the door and place your headset inside and close the door. You can start the cleaning process with the touch of a button.
Cleanbox works with any power source with an input voltage between 100 and 240 V, at a frequency of 50 to 60 Hz (100-240V, 50-60Hz). This means you can use it at any location worldwide, although you may need an adapter when using non-US plugs.
Disinfecting Other Devices Using Cleanbox
Our high-tech solutions are ideal for other devices, including VR controllers, tablets, haptics, and mobile phones. Since UVC functions by line-of-sight, the cleaning process for these devices requires full exposure to UVC light.
Using the Cleanbox Omniclean you can ensure that any device from mobile phones to children’s toys can be deconamianted 360 degrees in just one minute.
Our Cleanbox Warranty
We are confident in all our products, which is why our Cleanbox products have a one-year manufacturer’s warranty. This warranty covers lights and any electronics, so we’ll repair anything that is not working at no cost. Cleanbox also offers 4 year extended warranties on the products.
With proper care and maintenance, your Cleanbox unit will last for many years, owing to the 20,000 fan hours and more than 10,000 LED light hours; this represents approximately 600,000 1-minute disinfection cycles (that’s a lot!)
Cleanbox solutions are designed for 4+ years of maintance free operation with no bulb replacements or other maintenance. Just plug it in and push the button every minute for 4 years and never run out of 99.999% decontamination power. This long-life is why Cleanbox devices have such a high ROI compared to disponsable wipes.
Guaranteed Safe for Any Commercial Headset or Device
Cleanbox UVC LED technology is extremely safe to use and UL certified for general use. In addition, Cleanbox warrants that our solutions will not damage any XR device that you clean exclusively with Cleanbox UVC technology.
Maintaining Your VR Headsets
The first step towards proper maintenance is ensuring it’s easy to clean VR gear. If you share your headsets with multiple people, it’s best to get wipeable face cushions. Cleanbox is ideal for disinfection, but you’ll want to quickly remove any visible residue from the VR headset between every use using a non-toxic, biodegradable baby wipe. You are not disinfecting during this step, just quickly removing makeup, grease, hair, etc. Next step is to place the VR headset in the Cleanbox and run the cycle for 1-minute to reach 99.999% or 30-seconds to reach ~99.99% disinfection.
Cleanbox recommends avoiding the use of alcohol, bleach or other antibacterial wipe as the chemicals may degrade the plastic and fabrics over time, and they are damaging to the lenses if it comes in contact. Best thing to do, put the expensive, ineffective wipes away and just use a baby wipe to remove grime, while relying on Cleanbox UVC LED to thoroughly disinfect between every use.
Most VR headsets come packaged with a microfiber cloth, but there’s no harm in having some extras if you misplace one. It should be the only material you use on your VR headsets because it doesn’t leave residue dust or micro-abrasions you the surface of your lenses.
VR headsets remain idle for more hours than they are in use. It’s essential to store your headsets correctly to avoid damage to the devices. Cleanbox offers highly effective Charging and Storage cabinets for 12 to 24 headsets at once.
The lenses on VR headsets easily get damaged due to sunlight. Ensure there’s no direct sunlight where you store your headsets. It’s also best to avoid placing them on top of other electronics since the heat electronics produce can damage your headsets. Place them instead in a cool, well-ventilated area, away from electronics that produce heat, dust, and direct sunlight.
The scope of the part that covers your eyes is the bulkiest part of the headsets, but that’s not to say it’s the strongest part. Avoid lifting your headsets from the scope but use the headband on either side instead.
If you’re sharing the gear, ensure you disinfect VR headsets using Cleanbox and clean your hands before and after using shared headsets. VR headsets are often expensive and highly delicate. It’s therefore essential to use the right cleaning solutions and processes to avoid causing damage to the devices.
Cleanbox uses cutting-edge UVC LED technology to ensure your headsets serve you for years to come. It’s eco-friendly, safe to use, and doesn’t require chemicals, liquids, or heat to keep the surfaces clean and free from disease-causing microbes.
Wipes are ineffective, expensive, and can cause damage to your VR headsets over time. Cleaning with wipes is unscalable and costly. Instead, the Cleanbox cleaning process is consistent, efficent, and human-error free achieving a 99.999% kill rate every 1-minute cleaning cycle. Our proprietary UVC LED design is the only technology that guarantees such results with each use. Invest in a Cleanbox solution to avoid taking chances on the health of your users and the durability of your VR headsets.
