Give your phone a heavy-duty clean with these UV cleaners

Our phones pick up a whole heap of bacteria, germs, and other nastiness when we set them down throughout our days. Your phone may or may not be dirtier than a toilet seat right now, but luckily you can fix that with an ultraviolet (UV) phone sanitizer. They're nifty little devices, and while they can cost a pretty penny, they're 110% worth the investment if they can keep you from getting sick, now more than ever.

Safe for you and your phoneHoMedics UV-Clean Phone Sanitizer

Staff pick

• $80 at Amazon
• $80 at HoMedics

This sanitizer keeps a slim, travel-friendly profile by being collapsible, and the lid zips open and closed to help ensure that UV light doesn't leak out and damage your eyes or your skin. Best of all, this name-brand sanitizer is still readily available.

Great if you can waitPhoneSoap 3

• From $80 at PhoneSoap

PhoneSoap is one of the originals and is still one of the most trusted phone sanitizers around. Reliability and excellent build quality are part of why all of PhoneSoap's products are already ordered for the next several weeks. You can pre-order now to get one in May or June.

Wireless changingTotallee UV Phone Sanitizer

• $119 at Totallee

Totallee's better known for its thin cases, but its new phone sanitizer looks like it'll be equally high quality. This sanitizer has a Qi pad built into the top so that when you're not cleaning it, it still has a reason to sit on your nightstand or office desk.

No ozone smellLecone UV Cell Phone Sanitizer

• $77 at Amazon

At first, I was confused about why you'd want an aromatherapy function on a sanitizer, but I'll be the first to admit the smell of ozone that emanates from more funky sanitized items can be offputting. If it makes you nauseous, this cleaner can replace the ozone smell with essential oils.

Bigger and more adaptableHoMedics UV-Clean Portable Sanitizer Bag

• $100 at HoMedics

The only downfall of HoMedics's smaller UV-Clean rig is that it only sanitizes one side of your device at a time. This one props up your phone - or face mask or keys - so that it can clean both sides at once.

Value pickMIKOSI Cell Phone Sterilizer

• $54 at Amazon

Available in three colors, this model might not have wireless charging like the Lecone, but it does have the aromatherapy for sensitive noses and it can help you save a few dollars while still letting you keep your phone clean.

What matters in a sanitizer?

There are a wide variety of UV sanitizers out there: tent/box models, tanning salon-like clamshells, and wands. We're staying away from wands for three reasons:

• Too easy to hurt yourself: UV-C can seriously damage your eyes in seconds and can also damage your skin, so enclosed sanitizers are safer for a home environment where kids might try to mess with something that looks like a "magic wand".
• Easier to mess up: Wands rely on you to hold the wand over your phone at the right angle for the right amount of time, and humans are prone to skipping steps and speeding up their counts.
• Expensive: UV-C wands that are actually effective are more expensive to come by right now - and the good ones are sold out.

Skip the wands and go enclosed! My personal favorite is PhoneSoap, but PhoneSoap has a waiting list right now for all of its sanitizers. If you need something before Memorial Day, I recommend grabbing the HoMedics UV-Clean Phone Sanitizer, which works quicker than the PhoneSoap and is more readily available. Unfortunately, you'll need to flip your phone to clean each side of it. Actually, it takes more than just flipping it once to get your phone completely clean.

How to properly clean your phone with UV-C

These all might be UV-C phone sanitizers, but unless your sanitizer has a highly reflective interior like the PhoneSoap, you need to do more than stick your phone inside and walk away. Here's how to ensure you completely and utterly eliminate the germs on your phone:

1. If your phone is wearing a case, take the case off.
2. Run the case through the phone sanitizer once face up.
3. Take the case out at run the phone sanitizer empty to eliminate any germs that transferred from the back of your case to the bottom of the sanitizer bay.
4. Run the case through the phone sanitizer again face down.
5. Take the case out and run the phone sanitizer empty to eliminate any germs that transferred from the front of your case to the bottom of the sanitizer bay.
6. Run your phone through the phone sanitizer once face up.
7. Take the phone out at run the phone sanitizer empty to eliminate any germs that transferred from the back of your phone to the bottom of the sanitizer bay.
8. Run the case through the phone sanitizer again face down.
9. Take the case out at run the phone sanitizer empty to eliminate any remaining germs so they don't incubate in your dark, empty sanitizer until your next cleaning cycle.
10. Put your case back on your phone.