In search of UV/black light to find urine stains.

[Tree]

My cat has left several urine stains in the carpet. The problem is they have dried and dissapeared but the smell is still there. I have found (what I think is) a good way to remove the smell, but I need to find the stains again.

Is there a cheap UV light I can buy at a local store to find these stains? Maybe just a UV bulb I can buy for a standard lamp. I want to do this tomorrow (takes 2 weeks to dry) so I can't order anything online.

The product by the way is Natures Miracle stain and odor remover it has good reviews as you can see in the link.

 

[flashlightlens]

Tree - My local PetsMart had a small, battery powered UV light. It is pretty weak and you have to have pretty good eyes to use it effectively. You definitely need ABSOLUTE darkness to use it. I found it would ONLY work on the stains that were untouched - or not blotted yet. If you've blotted the stain any or tried to clean it, you really can't find them with the light.

You could always buy an M6, throw a ring of 20 5W LS's around the bezel and throw a UV filter on the whole thing....... (that was for Nerd....)...

[EDIT] - TigerLight has made a few UV versions of their light - you may see them on the show "24" soon.

 

[Nerd]

Thanks chris, Thanks a lot

Seriously speaking, all you need is night time and a 1 watt Royal Blue LS or a 5 watt Royal Blue LS in the day time.

No optics or reflectors needed though a mcflood would be nice...

Never go buy UV leds as some claim them to be because their range of UV emission is too narrow to be of any use. Some does flourcense a bit. Others don't at all. And it's not a matter of brightness.

 

[Rothrandir]

actually, while rb's do put out a bit of uv, dental blue is what you *really* want. i haven't seen one in person, but that is because of the 2x price tag.

 

[Monsters_Inc]

Get your carpets professionally cleaned. The cost of a blacklight, the products and time needed to clean out the stain(s) would surely justify professional cleaning. Your carpet will thank you for it.

 

[treek13]

Nature's Miracle is AMAZING! Absolutely fabulous for pet messes - removes both stains and smells.

Unfortunately for me, I've had to use it for 2 dogs and 2 cats through various illnesses and mistakes (cat vomit, cat urine, dog vomit, dog urine, and worst of all dog diarrhea).

I would strongly recommend getting some and in fact there is a formula specifically for cats.

Good luck, Pat

 

[alberto]

I use a cheap 18" florescent fixture from my local hardware store and bought a UV florescent tube from my mall novelty store (Spencers). Works great, but has to be plugged into AC wall socket.

I have a Photon II Purple-UV on order, but don't know how it's going to work.

 

[treek13]

Hey I found a light for $14.99:
Stink-Finder Luminizing Light .

And here is the Nature's Miracle page:
Nature's Miracle .

For stains that have already dried the granules are useless (can be handy for wet messes though), just stick to the liquid.

Good luck and hope this helps,
Pat

 

[rdwilson]

My local Home Depot carries a 110V black light and fixture. It works well locating stains on some surfaces and not at all on others. The power of an AC powered light is needed unless you are willing to crawl around on the floor in total darkness. The flourescent quality of cat urine is quite weak.

 

[TACTICAL WAREHOUSE]

Tree,

I have one Arc AAA (UV) Black Light in stock if you're interested. They work great for that application, but you have to crawl around on your hands and knees!

Dan.

 

[Raven]

Not to get too gross, but I remember a news story about the cleanliness of hotel rooms, and they used a special light that revealed both urine and "dna" stains, and all I can say is that when you sleep in a hotel...

Remove The Comforter From The Bed !

PS: I've always wondered what kind of light they use, but since I have no interest in watching CSI I'll probably never know.

Raven

 

[SurefireM6]

My ARC UV works great for detecting Dog and Cat Urine. It also detects their vomit. I have grossed out many friends that own pets with a quick demonstration. Just make sure you are in complete darkness, your eyes are dark adept and your ARC UV will light up pet urine like it was nuclear! In fact most friend denied that their pet would urinate on the carpet until several spots light up under UV.

The stinkfinder at PetSmart works good too, again in total darkness and dark adept eyes.

Raven, for human semen and urine to show up I beleive you need to use Luminol along with UV.

 

[rdwilson]

Raven-
Your probably talking about the "Blue Light Special" (not Kmart) offered to investigators and forensic teams. It consists of a blue filter for the flashlight and an amber colored viewing filter. It works quite well for detecting bodily fluids. It might be too expensive at $145 US. Anyway, for more information look here:

http://www.csigizmos.com/products/portablelightsources/bluelight.html

 

[Tomas]

Heheheheh ... I managed to gross out the apartment building manager a bit with my Arc AAA UV and a Coleman 4AA 4" flourescent blacklight (the lamp came with both a white and uv bulb).

I've found both of them to work fairly well , and yet found a friend's 18" flourescent from Spencer's to be almost totally ineffective for this (besides requiring AC power).

Most "UV" LEDs and many "blacklight" flourescents just don't seem to do the job, but my little Coleman and my Arc AAA UV do it just fine.

Good luck on finding what you need.

____

 

[Otokoyama]

A number of years ago I looked for a reasonably powerful UV light for the cat urine application, and ended up buying a number of Avon UV lights from a local electronics store for $10. The following link describes the light and a mod that makes it more useful:

Avon Blacklight modifications

The Avon light might still be widely available.

 

[Stingray]

Walmart has UV light bulbs for a few bucks in the bulb department.

 

[Tree]

Do these light bulbs find the stains as good as flourescent?

 

[Tree]

As Nerd said above brighness is not the key, what qualities should I look for if I want to buy a 110V bulb/flourescent from a store.

 

[Albany Tom]

I've not found the UV incandescent bulbs to work well. Wallmart does/did have some portable florescent black lights, I think GE, that ran on 4AA batteries. Something like 10-20 bucks.

A pair of yellow tinted sunglasses is probably a good idea, too. The idea being to block the visible part of the light that the UV bulb puts out better.

If you try it, let us know how it works!

 

[Tree]

I'll let everyone know what I use and what works.

thanks for all the replies BTW!!