Ping Pong 101: How To Clean Your Ping Pong Paddle. Can You Use Alcohol or Soap?

by Gary Elphick
If you're serious about playing ping pong, then you're going to need to have a clean paddle. If you want people to take you serious when you're about to play, you need to earn respect. You need to have a clean racket, and not some dirty, worn down one. Do you want to look like someone who plays once a year at a bar? Or do you want to look like a pro? Before you start cleaning, you'll need to know how to do it.

How To Clean Your Ping Pong Paddle

To get started, make sure you have your paddle in hand and have a few things ready to use, such as:
  • Dish / Bowl
  • Clean Water
  • Sponge
  • Dish-washing Soap / Detergent
  • Toothbrush (Optional)
  • Ping Pong Rubber Cleaner (Optional)
Here are the steps you'll have to take to get your ping pong racket cleaned up and looking good:
  1. Get your ping pong paddle out on a table in front of you. Then gather the materials needed.
  2. Start to fill your dish or bowl with clean water. You have a few options, but try to stay away from tap water from a well. This can sometimes mess with your paddle. You can either use bottled water or distilled water. These are the two main types of clean water that go well with cleaning your ping pong paddle.
  3. Squeeze a small amount of liquid dish-washing soap or detergent onto your dish or bowl. Then mix it well. Then, dip your sponge into the dish or bowl and wring it out to make it damp. If you use a soaking wet sponge, then you're going to have a good chance at destroying your paddle. A high amount of water doesn't mix well with the wooden part of your paddle. This can end up destroying your handle.
  4.  Start to wipe down one side of your ping pong paddle, starting at the top of the paddle part (not the handle). Make sure not to wipe down any part of the paddle twice. This is so the dirt that you begin to pickup won't get back to where you wipe again.
  5. Once finished with that side, rinse off your sponge and re-dip it into the soap/water mix and work on the other side.
  6. Now you're done! DO NOT dry off your ping pong paddle by wiping it down with anything, but just lay it out and let it air dry on it's own. This will allow your paddle to be as clean as possible.
Now you're done! You officially have a clean ping pong racket! Clean Ping Pong Paddle

Can You Use Soap or Alcohol For Cleaning?

A lot of people use alcohol for cleaning, and obviously soap is what everyone uses all the time to clean things, so it would make sense to apply that to a ping pong paddle, right? Actually, no! Stay away from soap and alcohol. The only type of soap you should be using on your ping pong paddle is liquid dish-washing soap. This is what the pros use, and is by far the safest type of soap to use for cleaning a paddle. As for alcohol, you need to stay away due to the fact that using alcohol tends to crack and ruin the look of the rubber on your ping pong paddle. There's only one place that you can use rubbing alcohol on ping pong paddle, and that's your paddle's handle. The handle (if not made of rubber) is usually going to be able to withstand alcohol without being affected whatsoever, and be able to effectively clean the handle. To put it shortly, you should only be using liquid dish-soap, and you should only be using alcohol if you're using it on a wooden (or non-rubber) handle which can handle the alcohol without cracking and rusting it.

Are There are Alternatives When Cleaning Your Paddle?

The very best thing you could do that doesn't involve any method we've stated here is by buying a racket cleaning kit for table tennis that involves using foam to clean your racket. The foam is typically only to be used for your rubber part of your ping pong paddle, but that's the most important part of your racket anyways, and it should be taken care of as best as possible. https://youtu.be/jhXlnvYZZQs Overall, if you can manage to take care of your rackets by cleaning them every once in a while by using these safe methods, then you're going to appear like a professional when you're playing, and you're also going to greatly prolong the life of your table tennis rackets.  Use all of these tips and keep your paddles clean! Also, understanding a bit more on how ping pong paddles are made might help you learn some more about the subject!

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