When purchasing various disinfection appliances, we often encounter descriptions of equipment grades, such as “commercial-grade disinfection appliance” or “medical-grade disinfection product.” Because many buyers or consumers are not clear about the specific meanings of these grades, they may blindly pursue higher sterilisation effects when explaining their needs to professional disinfection device suppliers, or mistakenly believe that “medical-grade” is always the best choice. As a result, they may not only end up with equipment that isn’t suitable but also incur unnecessary cost waste.

Taking three of our most common product categories—household disinfection products, commercial-grade disinfection products, and medical-grade disinfection products—as examples, you can see that their design standards differ significantly due to their usage scenarios, frequency of use, and the populations they serve.

Household Disinfection Equipment

Household-grade disinfection equipment is used in home environments to disinfect everyday items such as tableware, clothing, air, and small objects. Since the home is considered a low-risk environment, these devices generally do not need to meet sterilisation standards for highly resilient pathogens (e.g., spores). Their main focus is on maintaining everyday hygiene and health.

Experts generally advise against frequent use of high-intensity disinfection at home, as creating an overly sterile environment may be detrimental to the normal development of infants’ and young children’s immune systems.

Considering that family members may include the older and children, and that most users lack professional training, household disinfection devices are designed with an emphasis on ease of use and the safety of the disinfection technology. They commonly employ human-friendly technologies that do not produce harmful by-products, such as high-temperature dish sterilising cabinets and ultraviolet air sterilising purifiers, and typical disinfectants are chosen for easy rinsing, such as 75% ethanol or household bleach.

Commercial-Grade Disinfection Equipment

Commercial-grade disinfection equipment is used in public spaces with high foot traffic and complex environments, such as shops, restaurants, malls, schools, offices, and activity centres. These venues have higher bacterial and viral control needs, so the equipment must possess more powerful sterilisation capabilities to cover a broader range of pathogens. However, unlike medical settings, they do not require sterile-level disinfection.

Moreover, commercial disinfection solutions typically consume more power, incur higher operating costs, and often need to run continuously for a long time to handle large volumes of items or expansive areas. Therefore, their design must balance disinfection efficacy, durability, and cost-effectiveness.

Because commercial equipment operation is relatively complex, operators usually need technical training and must follow standardised procedures. Technically, these devices often employ combined, high-efficiency disinfection methods, such as high-temperature, high-pressure steam sterilisation systems or multi-technology integrated systems (e.g., ozone + UVC + AOP).

Medical-Grade Disinfection Equipment

Medical-grade disinfection equipment is intended for extremely high-risk healthcare environments and adheres to the strictest standards of all disinfection devices. Its targets include a wide range of bacterial and viral sources, and hospitals house many immunocompromised patients, with medical staff frequently exposed to high-risk pathogens.

Therefore, medical sterilisation equipment must meet rigorous medical-grade disinfection standards—for example, achieving ≥ 6 log CFU inactivation of spores or ≥ 6 log high-level disinfection of mycobacteria, following standards such as AAMI ST79 and ANSI/AAMI ST81.

To achieve these results, medical-grade devices, in addition to using common technologies like ultraviolet, high-temp steam and ozone, also employ more toxic or irritant disinfection methods, such as VHP plasma, glutaraldehyde, or peracetic acid. For safety reasons, these devices must be operated by professionally trained technicians under strict procedural and certification oversight. Additionally, their procurement and maintenance costs are significantly higher than those of other grades.

As the above analysis shows, each grade of disinfection and cleaning equipment has its own clear application scope and design focus. Blindly pursuing higher-grade disinfection capabilities will fail to deliver better practical results but can also lead to wasted resources or even safety risks.

We hope that this overview helps you, whether you’re an entrepreneur preparing to partner with an ODM disinfection equipment manufacturer or a consumer shopping for home products, to make a more rational and scientific choice when selecting equipment.