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steam cleaners

groundskeeper24 Jan 07, 2010 03:47 AM

These things seem to be all the rage these days and I was wondering if anyone has use steam cleaning to sanitize cages or furniture. I boil my water dishes and cook my mulch and cork sections at 300F. This can get tiresome, as my animals are large and not everything fits in the oven at this point. I figure it's hot enough to kill bad stuff, it doesn't have any chemicals or bleach, and it's relatively affordable. Anyone tried this or have an opinion? Seems like a win-win to me.

Replies (4)

laurarfl Jan 13, 2010 08:36 AM

I looked into real quick and a lot of them get poor reviews on-line. As for cleaning cages, they don't have a suction component, so the dirt still has to be cleaned up out of the cage. Except now it is hot, wet dirt. A lot of times the handles leak and spray water out. The spray itself is forceful and cause dirt to sprayed all over everything else.

It sounds kind of messy.

ReaperReptiles09 Jan 14, 2010 05:17 PM

>>I looked into real quick and a lot of them get poor reviews on-line. As for cleaning cages, they don't have a suction component, so the dirt still has to be cleaned up out of the cage. Except now it is hot, wet dirt. A lot of times the handles leak and spray water out. The spray itself is forceful and cause dirt to sprayed all over everything else.
>>
>>It sounds kind of messy.

lol i like the grody details

-nick
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REAPER REPTILES

groundskeeper24 Jan 17, 2010 09:23 PM

I wasn't so much considering it for cleaning as I was for sanitizing. I vaccum out substrate an replace it when I clean, so I'm dealing with an empty cage, hence no debris problem. I just figured it may be handy for cleaning cork, bowls and other cage furniture and flat surfaces as opposed to cooking (which much of my furniture is too large for) or using chemicals.

Really I just wanted to know if steam is hot enough to kill harmful bacteria and whatnot. That's all I need it to do.

laurarfl Jan 19, 2010 07:17 AM

>>
>>Really I just wanted to know if steam is hot enough to kill harmful bacteria and whatnot. That's all I need it to do.

The claim is that, "Yes, steam cleaning will kill common forms of bacteria." I would check the box or website of the specific brand/model you were looking to buy to make sure.

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