How to clean the Keeper Moon Cup?

Not really a problem, but a question from a fresh cup user: How to clean my cup. The instructions which followed when I got my cup, says that it should be soaked for three minutes in a solution of 1 part vinegar diluted with 9 parts water. But what kind of vinegar? How "strong" should it be? All I have is 7% vinegar. For some reason it just doesn`t feel like a "good enough" cleaning. Does anyone in here use vinegar solution?

The instructions also says boiling will weaken the material, so I don`t really want to do that. Can I use alcohol, or is that going to weak the material as well?

Hmmm, that's a fairly new development. Almost all mesntrual cup companies say to boil your cup for 2 -5 minutes. Boiling certainly hasn't been hurting anyone else's cup I know, especially when the directions are followed to make sure the water is boiling before you put it in, and never boil longer than 5 minutes.

I did speak with a silicone expert who was not involved in the production of menstrual cups, so he had nothing to gain or lose by telling me his opinion. But he does work with medical grade silicone all the time. He's employed in a company that makes artificial body parts out of silicone for hospital patients and such.

He said that rubbing alcohol is perfectly safe to use in medical grade silicone, as long as it is allowed to completely evaporate/dry out. In other words, DO NOT soak a menstrual cup in a tub of alcohol. The alcohol can temporarily swell silicone (just a little bit). But as it dries out, the silicone returns to its natural form. The best way is to soak a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol, then rub it all over the cup, and let it air dry. Then rinse the cup very well to remove the residue.

But if you do choose to stick with vinegar, I would say send an email to the keeper company, and ask them for specifics on what they recomend.

Hei! Flere norske her;) Har du den som er i latex, siden den ikke bør kokes? DU kan jo vaske den veldig godt med såpe først, og så legge den i eddikk?

OP, do you have a Moon Cup or do you have the brown rubber Keeper?

Seems odd that your directions specify vinegar.

Pretty sure it was moon cup. I wonder what kind of silicone they use, if it can be damaged by boiling? It seems none of the others are bothered by it. Hmmmm....

Sol_i_nord -- Riktignok mange kvinner bruker bare vann, og aldri har problemer:) (hope I said that correctly, lol)

Hei Sol i nord (Heh, ikke mye sol her jeg bor for tiden!) Nei, jeg har kopp i silikon, men det står tydelig i instruksjonen at koking vil svekke materialet. Dessuten må jeg ut og kjøpe ny kjele dersom jeg skal koke den, synes ikke godt jeg kan bruke den jeg koker potetene i...


Thank you for your reply, Melissa! I decided to buy a bottle of alcohol, and do as you recommended. Time will show if it is going to affect the material. The worst thing that can happen is that I have to buy a new one - and that is not so bad, after all.

And my apologies for my English. It has been a while since the last time I had to use it for communicating :/

uk-cup wrote:OP, do you have a Moon Cup or do you have the brown rubber Keeper?

Seems odd that your directions specify vinegar.

I have a silicone cup, no brown rubber. But in the instruction, it is called The Keeper Moon Cup.

This is what the instructions says:

"After your period is over, wash The Keeper Moon Cup in warm soapy water. You may also rinse it in a solution of 1 part vinegar diluted with 9 parts water. You may soak TKMC for three (3) minutes in this solution if you wish.

Keeping TKMC in this solution longer than three minutes or in a stronger vinegar solution, or exposing the cup to harsher cleaning solutions can weaken the material and reduce its years of usefulness.

You can boil your cup, but this will weaken the material and lessen the years od usefulness."


I have now decided to sterilize it with alcohol, even though I guess alcohol is a "harsher cleaning solution". The instruction says that CAN weaken the material, while boiling WILL weaken it...

Again, it is strange that they recomend that.... I have spoken to some women who run the Keeper company, I might need to call them back about that. If no other reason, than just to get a more accurate cleaning solution ratio.

Ravna-- that's correct, you have the silicone Keeper Moon cup . The other one is the brown latex Keeper-- that one was the original, but when other companies began making cups in silicone, they decided to do a silicone version as well, for women with latex allergies. But they kept the latex Keeper still, because there are actually women with silicone allergies too! So the company wanted to be able to cater to both.

I know that this post was started a few months ago but i thought i would share what I do. I originally got the mooncup Uk about 5 years ago and the instructions said that you could use a mild sterilising fluid/tablet (the type for baby bottles etc) and I have been doing this for 5 years with the moon cup Uk and I have also used it for the large Lunette too for the last year or so and they have come to no harm, i use the milton tablets and leave them in just for the 15 mins min they suggest. I hope this has been some help.

That's an interesting idea... Maybe we could ask the Keeper company if thier silicone is good with this too, and they could post that on their website as a clenaign suggestion

I sell Milton tablets on my website. They are used to steriilise baby's bottle teats, which are also made from medical grade silicone. But, do we really need to sterilise our cups?

I do, but only because they stress it so much, and I like having excuses to take my cups out and fiddle around with them, haha. I'm so wierd. But its an interesting question ince a vagina already has tons of germs, and we normally don't boil/sterilize things like say.... Sex toys. Or a penis (and as said before, come on, those are soooooo dirty, lol). We usually just wash those sex toys.

I suppose you can if you want to, but some women may choose not to.