So when I went to BlogPaws 2013 I ran into a company who was producing an odor eliminator product for pets. They gave me several of their products hoping I would blog about it. Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to it until now. While watching twitter during BlogPaws 2014 I saw a post by another company who was producing a product for cleaning up inappropriate elimination. I tweeted to them that I wish I was there so I could get some, and after quite a bit of emails and several follow ups on my part and with some time passing, I finally got a bottle.
I have used both over the months and have found both pros and cons for both. One I intend to buy again, the other I might but I think because of the former I won't need it.
The first product is called "Zero Odor" it is a febreze type product that when you spray it on something that smells it changes the molecular structure so it no longer smells. They demonstrated it with an onion in a chopper.. chopping it up, letting you smell it then covering it with the product and you could no longer smell it. The lack of smell was pretty impressive. He would then chop it some more and the odor would be back. The product only works on the molecules of odor it can reach.
It also comes in three different types, one for odor elimination, one for spraying on the litter box, and one for cleaning. I got all three, and while I didn't use the litter box one, the other two worked very well.
The second product is Cat Urine Extractor by Earth's Balance. It is a concentrated, professional strength formula that completely extracts pheromones, helping to stop your cat from remarking the same area. Moleculift™ technology lifts pheromones up and out, getting rid of stains and odors for good. (quoth the website)
The Zero Odor is in a spray bottle which makes it great for dosing exactly where you want it, and the exact amount you want. It covers up odors wonderfully. My husband had a preference for a very floral smelling product that would give me headaches when he used it, and this covered that up brilliantly. The one downside to it is if there is an odor causing substance soaked into something and you only get the spray on to the surface, it will come back.
The Cat Urine Extractor comes in a squirt bottle. The product has a water consistency so it pours out pretty easily and it is harder to control. Using it on hard surfaces I was less than impressed.
I wanted to do a side by side to see which would "win" so I went down into my basement where I have had some issues with inappropriate elimination. This time it was the entertainment center.. I brought both products down with me as well as a black light I picked up in early November one year as a Halloween clearance item. (seriously, go find one.. you will both be amazed and disgusted what you have in your home)
The equipment (paper towels not shown) |
Entertainment center before |
under the black light |
ewww |
challengers, prepared to 'do battle' |
the after |
another after shot. You can see the particle board starting to separate |
all gone |
For cleaning hard surfaces the Zero Odor in the spray bottle was great. We've all cleaned with a spray bottle, so I don't need to explain why. Using the zero odor on the hard surface was a bit more difficult, but not that bad. Here there really is no clear winner..
Where the Cat Urine Extractor excelled was the carpet cleaning. I tried to get good photos of it, but was really hard. Taking a photo of the stain on the carpet wasn't easy so a lot of them were very blurry (I need to get a tripod) but taking a picture of the stain not there was pointless.. it just looked like carpet. The Cat Urine Extractor totally removed the stain from the carpet under the blacklight; even the stains that came from vomit and not urine. Again, the dosing wasn't very precise, and I felt I often used far more than I had to. Once the product was in the carpet all I needed to do was scrub with my fingertips and the stain actually disappeared with in moments. I used paper towels to sop it up and the rest dried up fairly quickly and you could not tell either in normal light or under the blacklight that it had been there.
Both products failed to clean the unsealed wood on the doors in my basement. We have two, one that goes towards where we keep the litter boxes and one that goes into the kitten room. When we had Chandler in that room he peed on the door before he even explored the room and someone tried to cover up the smell from the outside. Neither product removed the stain on the door, neither did general cleaner.
The Zero Odor is a bit less expensive than the Cat Urine Extractor, both are available on Amazon, but I am really excited about the stain removal properties of the latter and I plan to buy another bottle or two of it to clean the carpet in the basement.
I call this a semi sponsored post because I got these products for free and the people who gave them to me knew I was a blogger, but there was never a discussion about a post which is why I decided to go for a one vs the other post..
Great review, thank you. We haven't tried the cat urine extractor (we don't have any carpet except some rugs) but really like zero odor. When the head peep did a transport that included some kittens who got smelly runs during the drive, Zero Odor literally saved the interior of the car. We hadn't thought of using it on hard surfaces. Good idea.
ReplyDeleteGreat review ! We never tried one or the other product, but as we have no carpet Zero Odor seems interesting ! Purrs
ReplyDeleteThat's a great review and information! We've been using Zero Odor to eliminate odors in garbage bin. Good stuff :-) I should get one for cleaning, too!
ReplyDeleteGood review! We use the Zero Odor and find that it works pretty good.
ReplyDeleteinteresting....we wonder if the urine extractor could be put in a spray bottle for easier use.....
ReplyDeleteFascinating! Great review indeed! And no covering with plastic for days so the enzyme can work?
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