Our Favorite Kitchen Sponges for Washing Dishes
You can certainly wash your dishes with any sponge, and the one you already have next to your sink probably works just fine. But the best sponges combine super scrubbing power on burnt-on bits, are still gentle enough for delicate items like slender wine glasses, resist odor buildup from food particles, and will last for weeks (or even months!) without breaking down. Here’s how we found them.
Cleaning performance
The most important feature of a good sponge is that it can quickly and easily get an array of dishes clean. We wanted multitaskers that could scour but also gently suds up. So we eliminated sponges with a one-trick texture that couldn’t handle serious scrubbing in the first round of testing.
From there, our testing panel (including me and five kitchen writers and editors) washed dishes with six top contenders for up to six weeks. We did everyday dishes at home and in Wirecutter’s test kitchen, wiped down countertops, and (in my case) cleaned bathroom surfaces.
I also ran the six sponges through a series of stress tests, with and without our top dish-soap pick, Palmolive Ultra Pure + Clear Dish Liquid. These tests included scrubbing baked-on egg and cheese from aluminum sheet pans, squishing sponges into narrow glasses, wiping peanut butter from ceramic plates, and scouring dishwash monitors that simulate normal soil on dishes.
Durability, cleanliness, and smell
Over a period of six weeks, we made note if a sponge cracked, shriveled, shed, or pilled during regular use.
Kitchen sponges are breeding grounds for germs like salmonella and E. coli, so it’s important that you regularly disinfect or replace your sponge. But advice on when to toss it varies. Skura Style recommends replacing a sponge after one to two weeks. Scrub Daddy advises replacing it every two weeks. And Scotch Brite suggests doing so after three weeks.
According to Charles Gerba, a professor of virology, immunology, and microbiology at the University of Arizona, a kitchen sponge can last up to four months if it’s properly disinfected every three to four days. This can be done by putting it through a dishwasher cycle or soaking it in a bleach solution. (Wirecutter editor Annemarie Conte recommends using ¼ teaspoon to ½ teaspoon of concentrated bleach per quart of warm water, and then submerging the sponge for at least a minute.) To test the durability of sponges, we put each one through up to three dishwasher cycles, in the top rack, to see how well it fared under the incredibly hot, concentrated conditions.
Food will inevitably cling to your sponges. But we focused on sponges that rinsed more easily than the competition, as well as those that came clean in the top rack of the dishwasher, because trapped food can hasten microbial growth.
To keep your sponge smelling fresh and to prevent germs and mildew in the first place, rinse it completely clean after each use, removing food particles from holes and textured scouring pads. And be sure to squeeze all of the water out. It’s also good practice to increase airflow around your sponge when it’s not in use. Consider using a sponge holder like the Yamazaki Home Faucet-Hanging Sponge Holder, which is recommended by deputy editor Annemarie Conte.
Materials and price
When we were narrowing down sponges for this guide, we opted for ones that cost $5 per sponge or less, since sponges should be replaced regularly.
Our favorite sponges are made with several materials. We prioritized testing biobased and plastic-free sponges alongside other popular options. But in our testing, we found that sponges made from polyurethane (like the Skura Style Skrubby and the Scrub Daddy) were more durable, effective, and less likely to trap food and develop odors than cellulose sponges. Cellulose sponges (like the soft sides of the Scotch Brite Heavy Duty Scrubber and Public Goods Scrubber Sponge) are made from wood pulp. And while cellulose sponges can be petroleum-free and are often more affordable, they do have a tendency to trap more food particles and acquire more odor than polyurethane sponges.
This article was edited by Katie Okamoto and Megan Beauchamp.
