ECO Log 6 Scent Eliminator Review
We just brought in our first batch of these and went to try it out. Basically it is a small, tabletop unit that you plug into the wall and run a hose to an airtight plastic tote and the machine pumps Ozone into it for up to 30 minutes. Any soft fabric inside the tote gets covered in ozone (basically a gas made up of 3 molecules of oxygen though it is less stable than O2) and since no bacteria can live in a cloud of ozone, it effectively kills any scent causing bacteria hiding on your hunting gear. It will not clean the gear, it is not a soap, but any of that "musty" smell you get from wet gear, or that wonderful smell you get from early season hunting is gone! It will also work on any carbon or silver lined suit. Basically it is like the "Ionic Breeze" air cleaners you have seen on TV, except that unlike many of its competitors this actually works! The trick is to make sure you loosely pack the tote so the ozone has room to work all the way around the fabrics.
So to give it a “real test” I ran out, got a tote, drilled a hole in the top, attached the included hose and fitting, and stuffed it full of the worst pair of stinky sneakers and a pile of socks that basically could have hopped into the tote under their own steam and closed the lid and turned on the unit. It has a built in timer, so 30 minutes later I go to check out how well this works. The first thing I noticed is that ozone has a very specific, sharp odor somewhat resembling chlorine bleach. The tote is full of this and you can get a good whiff of it when you open the tote. This will go away in about an hour or so as the ozone breaks down into just oxygen. So I open the tote and though not overwhelming, you can definitely smell the ozone. Best to not open the tote in a closed room as it can be pretty nasty if you take a big sniff of it. So I let everything air out for a couple of hours, grab out the worst looking socks and a sneaker and treck over to my lab assistant (my wife) who has no clue I am doing this experiment. Now my wife knows full well the toxicity of my sneakers so I am not going to be able to get her to put her nose anywhere near them so I sneak up behind her and say “Tell me if you think this new scent elimination system works” and cup a handfull of sock and sneaker over her mouth and nose like I am anestisizing a patient before an operation. Once she recovered from the initial shock and stopped swinging wildly at me I jumped back and said “Well???”. She looked kinda ticked, then confused and actually took the sneaker away from me, stuck her nose in it and gave another sniff!! “OK…these are new sneakers, right??” I had to show her the scuff marks to assure her these were the same ones that caused her to leave the living room the night before. Now this may not be the same as hunting cloths, but honestly….if it can kill odor on my rancid sneakers it will kill just about anything!!!! VERY cool!!!
In my opinion the best use would be to wash your cloths in a scent free soap, dry them, and throw them in the tote and hit them with ozone and keep the tote closed till you are ready to go hunting. Another option would be once the bacteria was dead, throw some leaves or pine needles in the tote and again, keep it closed till ready to go out. They also offer a sealed garment rack where you can hang all your cloths and douse them with ozone so it can more easily work its way around the cloths rather than having them stuffed in a tote. All in all a pretty nifty piece of equipment that actually works. Retail pricing is $99.95 for the unit and $99.95 for the garment rack they call the “Death Chamber”.
Wyvern