Steam Cleaning Cages

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JimD

JimD

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Joined
Nov 23, 2004
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Land o' buns, New Jersey, USA
I was thinking about picking up one of those small portable steam cleaners. Something like the "Shark" steam bottle.

Does anybody have any experiences or suggestions about this.

All of our cages are Wabbitat cages. Wire construction, wire bottoms, with a plastic pullout tray.

We scrub the cages and trayswith a safedisinfectant/anti-bacterial cleaner, but I can't help thinking that thesteam cleaner would do a better job overall.

Also it might be a solution to the outdoor bunnies and their frozenpee. My buns are all house buns, but I saw a post about "cleaningfrozen pee".

Any input is most welcome!

Jim

 
I have used a portable steam cleaneroccassionally on my cage, litter trays etc and had some pretty goodresults. The only thing I found was that they do take a while to dry,so I do it early on, giving them plenty of time to dry before puttingthe bunnies back in for the night- Jan
 


Greetings Jim! :)

I have one and I use it religiously on my 'big' weekly cleaning. Duringthe week, I keep things tidy their cages, but come the weekend, orbeforehand if it's necessary, I break mine out.

I love my steam cleaner so much. It loosens up the mess so much thatall I have to do anymore is have enough of paper towels to wipe downthe mess. It used to kill my fingers when I'd use SOS pads on thewires. I do have to get a wire brush, but my steam cleaner does such agood job that there's little left that needs scrubbing when I'm throughwith it.

That said, I use the cleaner for everything else: the bathroom,kitchen, it's a God-send when you have to clean up the refrigerator.Again, things that get stuck on shelves, etc., come right up whereaswithout the cleaner, your scrubbing scrubbing scrubbing. It's great forareas that are hard to get on sinks and toilets, and I also spray mybed mattress for bed bugs. In my opinion, it was money well spent.

:)

-Carolyn
 
Bo must be a tidy little bugger. The only thing I do to clean his cage is:

pick out any hay he's tossed about

Empty the papertowels and hay and a few poos from the droppings pan

empty the litterbox. I dump it every 2 to 3 days and once aweek I use vinegar in it and let it stand for about 5 min.Rinse and wipe away pee stains, and rinse again, dry and back in itgoes.......

Wash his bowl and waterbottle.....
 
Carolyn wrote:
Greetings Jim! :)

That said, I use the cleaner for everything else: the bathroom,kitchen, it's a God-send when you have to clean up the refrigerator.Again, things that get stuck on shelves, etc., come right up whereaswithout the cleaner, your scrubbing scrubbing scrubbing. It's great forareas that are hard to get on sinks and toilets, and I also spray mybed mattress for bed bugs. In my opinion, it was money well spent.

:)

-Carolyn
Click to expand...
I use it everywhere as well, Carolyn. It is especially good forcleaning cookers. Once I start with it I end up doing the whole house:p - Jan
 


I use vinegar or bleach as well on my weekly cleanings. Each day I haveto clean Cali's cage, Tucker's and Fauna's can usually go 2 days beforeit needs attention, but the floor of their cage is different than mostI've seen. It's got plastic slats as opposed to a wire floor. I'll haveto post a picture of it so you can see what I mean.

-Carolyn
 
LuvaBun wrote:
Carolyn wrote:
Greetings Jim! :)

That said, I use the cleaner for everything else: the bathroom,kitchen, it's a God-send when you have to clean up the refrigerator.Again, things that get stuck on shelves, etc., come right up whereaswithout the cleaner, your scrubbing scrubbing scrubbing. It's great forareas that are hard to get on sinks and toilets, and I also spray mybed mattress for bed bugs. In my opinion, it was money well spent.

:)

-Carolyn
Click to expand...
I use it everywhere as well, Carolyn. It is especially good forcleaning cookers. Once I start with it I end up doing the whole house:p??? -?? Jan
Click to expand...

Me too, Jan! :D

-Carolyn
 
This is the one thing I really hate about outsidecages. Every week in the summerI spray out the rabbit cagesand then scrub them down with a bleach and dish soap mixture. Then Ispray it off again and it's clean but I can only do that in the summer!(I do that with all their stuff). In the winter I can do nothing butremove soiled bedding and pour hot water in their pee corner to meltthe frozen pee and clean it up. I basically have to wait until it getsup to around 36*F/2*C before I can start cleaning out certain spotsagain. When it gets that warm and is sunny I can take a bucket ofbleach water out, wash the floor boards, their boxes, and scrub theirpee corners without a problem because a small amount will dry quicklyin the sun. So I leave it standing in the sun and it's at least mostlyclean (floor boards cover about 3/4 of the wire on the bottom of thecage).
 
No, pee is weird. It turns hard but doesn'tcrack, it's sort of slushy in a way. (You wouldn't know unless you'vehad to deal with it! lol.)

And I cannot scrape it off because it freezes in the grid of the wirebottom and I damage the wire trying to scrape that stuff off.
 
The other day I was telling Dave I wished we hada wire bottom cage, but now that I think about it, and remembercleaning one....I'm glad we have the plastic bottom! It makes cleaningthe cage a breeze. I have a vinegar/water solution I used to wipe downeverything and it's super easy.

Although, now I really want a steam cleaner, just to have. It wouldmake those deep cleans (fall/spring cleans) much easier. Not to mentionthe oven.
 
Carolyn wrote:
Greetings Jim! :)

I have one and I use it religiously on my 'big' weekly cleaning. Duringthe week, I keep things tidy their cages, but come the weekend, orbeforehand if it's necessary, I break mine out.

I love my steam cleaner so much. It loosens up the mess so much thatall I have to do anymore is have enough of paper towels to wipe downthe mess. It used to kill my fingers when I'd use SOS pads on thewires. I do have to get a wire brush, but my steam cleaner does such agood job that there's little left that needs scrubbing when I'm throughwith it.

That said, I use the cleaner for everything else: the bathroom,kitchen, it's a God-send when you have to clean up the refrigerator.Again, things that get stuck on shelves, etc., come right up whereaswithout the cleaner, your scrubbing scrubbing scrubbing. It's great forareas that are hard to get on sinks and toilets, and I also spray mybed mattress for bed bugs. In my opinion, it was money well spent.

:)

-Carolyn
Click to expand...
i just looked it up online.. how many times do youhave to fill it when you clean? and if it works that well $50 doesn'tseem like much to ask at all....
 


Gabby,

I can clean my cages and most of my kitchen with one filling.

It's great in the microwave, and also for the drip pans on your stove, in addition to the other areas mentioned above.

Like Jan said, once you get going with it, you just want everthing to be 'sterilized' and sparkling.

When I do my cages, it leads me to my kitchen, which leads to me to mybathroom. The faucets shine after you go over it once and then wipe itdown with a paper towel. Once you do that, you use a spritz of acleaner, wipe it dry, and you're done.

I highly recommend them, but I use mine a lot. If you're not going touse it, don't get it. The electric cord is quite long that comes withit - at least mine is - and it only takes 5 mins. for the water to heatup once you fill it.

-Carolyn
 
Carolyn wrote:
Gabby,

I can clean my cages and most of my kitchen with one filling.

It's great in the microwave, and also for the drip pans on your stove.

Like Jan said, once you get going with it, you just want everthing to be 'sterilized' and sparkling.

When I do my cages, it leads me to my kitchen, which leads to me to mybathroom. The faucets shine after you go over it once and then wipe itdown with a paper towel. Once you do that, you use a spritz of acleaner and you're done.

I highly recommend them, but I use mine alot. If you're not going touse it, don't get it. The electric cord is quite long that comes withit - at least mine is - and it only takes 5 mins. for the water to heatup once you fill it.

-Carolyn
Click to expand...
do you have the shark bottle or a different one? i seethe shark one says it has a 14' cord... and if i locked TESSAup and gabs ad thumper I think it would be great to clean their floorwith.... you know tessa she killed the phone cord while i was on thephone with you:pbut the microwave sounds like a good idea too..and the biggest job of all TROUBLES floor,... have i evertold you I do believe he is the messiest bun i have ever metin my life??? LOL
 
Just wanted to say that I got a Shark PortableSteam Cleaner for Christmas and I've been very happy withit.What I had read onanother pet board isthat they last for about a year depending on use, but people were sohappy with them that they bought exactly the same one to replace it. Ihad bought a steam cleaner about a year ago but it had absolutely nopressure and it spattered hot water all over, so I was very skeptical,but I really wanted to try it. I was so excited when Istartedmy new Sharkupand it actuallyworked! I used it for about 10 minutes and the handlestartedleaking steam. We tried to fix it, but couldn't figure out what waswrong. The warranty says specifically that it isonlygoodfor the original purchaser with thereceipt. I decided to take it to Target to see if they would exchangeit for me, thankfully they did. It doesn't give any indication on thebox, butthe new one isdesigned much differently, itlooks like they corrected the problem so that steam can't leak out thehandle. The difference is that the hose is removable on the old designand not removable on the new design, so look for that if you purchase ashark. I used mine today for about 30 minutes and cleaned our powderroom bathroom, the mirror, sink, toilet, and floor. What I was mostexcited about was how well it cleaned the walls, I've got two kids anda husband, so the walls get pretty bad, especially the hallways, it wasmuch faster to steam them than to Magic Erase them :D

Take care,

Megan
 
Thanks for all the input everyone.

I'm definitely going to buy one soon. I already checked out a few websites and have a few more questions.

I can buy the "Shark Steam In A Bottle"at the local Linens& Things store for $49.99. Shark seems to be the brand namemost mentioned. That's about what I can afford, too.

What about the Scunci Steam Bottle? It's about the same price, but I think I can only get it by ordering it. Anybody used it?

Jim
 
I have the Scunci Steamer and have no complaintsat all about how it works. It has a lot of differentattachments, even one in case you want to steam your clothes.I don't know anything about the Shark.

This is what I was talking about with the floor of Tucker and Fauna'scage. If you look closely, you can see that the panels havelittle 'lanes' in them. Not a big deal, but the steamer doeshelp a lot with the scrubbing of them. Don't have to breakout the SOS pads like I used to have to do. Just the steamerand some bleach.


* * * *

Gabby, I don't believe anything negative you have to say aboutTrouble. Little Punkin Bunkin is Perfect, I tellya!

The cord on the Scunci is long as well. I have to know wheremy little troublemakers are when I'm cleaning it.


-Carolyn

 
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