Can the Stink Free Stink-Finder Find the Stink?

Everyone who shares their life and house with a cat or dog knows there will inevitably be times when they must suffer the undesirable aspects of said companionship. Mostly, this involves those "messes" pets make that we humans dearly wish they didn't. I should probably just stop beating around the bush and tell you that this article is about pet urine. Specifically, it's about how to get rid of the smell of pet urine on your carpet or furniture. It's not a pretty subject, to be sure, but people with cats and dogs have a need to know these things. If that's not you and you wish to stop reading now, I totally understand. For the rest of you, this is my review of the Stink Free Stink-Finder Super Brite Ultra-Violet Light.

I found out the hard way that cats with urinary tract infections are prone to peeing outside the box. When my cat got a UTI he tried to pee anywhere and everywhere as I followed him from room to room, putting him back into his litter box, all day long. On my way home from the vet the following day, I stopped at Petsmart to get some pet urine odor remover.

I've used Nature's Miracle odor remover before with mixed results, so I read some reviews of other pet urine odor removers on the internet. The interesting thing about pet urine odor removers is that for every ten people who review the exact same product, half will say it's the best thing since sliced bread while the other half say it's garbage and doesn't work at all. There's never any middle ground, and you never know who to believe or what odor remover to buy.

But I was a bit intrigued by the Stink Free Stink-Finder, so I decided to give it a try. The Stink Free Stink-Finder Super Brite is an ultra-violet light and flashlight combo that's supposed to help you quickly and easily locate invisible sources of pet urine odor. Basically, it's a compact 9-inch, battery-operated black light with a flashlight on the end.

The Stink Free Stink-Finder light is really easy to use. I turned on the flashlight first before darkening the room, then switched to the ultra-violet light. I ran the Stink Finder light about an inch above my carpet and -- voila! The urine spots I couldn't see under normal light were clearly illuminated.

My Stink Free Stink-Finder came with a small bottle of pet urine odor remover to use on the spots. According to the manufacturer, this is a professional strength, fast-acting formula with five active ingredients guaranteed to remove all urine odors, even the ones only our pets can smell. It works through the process of oxidation which breaks down and changes chemical compounds into odorless, inert substances. These powerful oxidizers are supposed to completely neutralize pet urine odor. You saturate the urine spots with the odor remover, let the area dry and the smell is gone for good.

So does it work? Well, for me it did work really well. I felt like a CSI agent running my Stink Free Stink-Finder all over my carpet, which by itself was kind of fun. Once the spots were treated and dry I located them again with the Stink Finder (they will always be visible under ultra-violet light) and gave them the sniff test. I couldn't smell a thing! Yay.

I feel I must tell you, however, that other product reviews I read stated that the Stink Free Stink-Finder light and/or the urine odor neutralizer didn't work. I honestly don't know why they didn't work for them, but they did for me. I love my "CSI kit" and although I hope I never have to use it again, I'll keep it handy just in case.