Pee and UV light

x-ta-z

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I heard pee glows under the black UV light. Since Soleil had a couple of peeing incidents the last weeks, I wanted to double check if there is any spot I missed to clean up.

Somehow nothing glows up with the new light. Even her litterbox stays dark.... does it really work?
 

saya

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doesn't sound like it. you can see urine clearly under a black light.
It glows flourescent.
 

momofmany

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If you just have a small black light that you buy in pet stores, the room has to be completely dark for it to show up. I've tried to find things at dusk with no success.
 
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x-ta-z

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Originally Posted by Mom of 4

How long is the light? I've heard that the smaller lights don't work.
It's about 7 inches. I did it at night. Evrything white was glowing up, so that worked. The litterbox had pee in it - you could see the wet spots under the normal light, but it just didn't glow up under the UV light....

 

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Sounds like your light may not work right. Is it one of the fleurescent tubes? I bought one that's about 18 inches long and it worked fine. Now keep in mind that the urine spots don't really glow so much as show up as yellow. If you expect them to really glow, that's not going to happen.
 
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x-ta-z

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Originally Posted by pennicat

Sounds like your light may not work right. Is it one of the fleurescent tubes? I bought one that's about 18 inches long and it worked fine. Now keep in mind that the urine spots don't really glow so much as show up as yellow. If you expect them to really glow, that's not going to happen.
Since it does light up the whites all around I think it does work in general.
Does wet pee glow as well or only dry pee?
maybe i should look out for yellow stains then. I had thought that it really glows up brightly
 

curlyq629

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Dry stains will glow, too. The "fresher" the stain, the more it will show up. Older stains show up, but are more "muted".

A florescent tube black light, like what you would install on a shelf under a bar, works much better than a black light light bulb. I got one at Lowe's for under $20.
 

coaster

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If you're using the "Stink Finder" it doesn't put out enough light to see urine spots unless you're withing six inches in a completely dark room. The black light sold by the makers of the "Urine-Off" spray cleaner works MUCH better. It's a pocket-sized black light, too, but the UV put out is a different wavelength or something and it's much easier to see urine spots. I asked them to tell me what the difference is in the flourescent tube so I could buy a large one and make my own light, but they wouldn't tell me. It's proprietary technology, I guess. If you google for it, you should be able to find it sold online.

You can also make your own large black light with an under-cabinet light fixture and a UV tube in a size to fit it. That works better than the Stink Finder but not quite as good as the Urine-Off.

Something else to keep in mind is that lots of things glow under UV light. The key to finding a urine spot is the color (yellowish-green) and the shape (obvious). I was able to find all the places where my cats had vomitted and been "cleaned up." (Not so good, I guess.) And if you really want to gross yourself out, shine your black light in your kitchen or in your bathroom.
 
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x-ta-z

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Originally Posted by coaster

And if you really want to gross yourself out, shine your black light in your kitchen or in your bathroom.
Ewwwwwww..... I'm gonna check if my guest is peeing standing this evening!!!


But yeah... maybe I check if I find something in the bathroom to see if the bulb works properly....

It is a common UV light that is used to check if banknotes are real... Just cost me 8 Singapore Dollars (around 5 USD). So maybe it's not strong enough to detect pee....

Will keep you updated
 
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x-ta-z

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I just checked again... yes - in the bathroom I did find some 'sprinkles' - but seems like I have a good cleaning lady coz it was really just a few


afterwards I held the light very close to the cat litter and it just won't glow. Maybe the cat litter absorbs it so well that it jusst won't show glow???
 

coaster

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I don't get a glow from the litterbox, either. I use non-clumping clay litter. Maybe if the urine is absorbed it doesn't glow. I'm just guessing; I don't know.
 

tkaner

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I thought the urine had to be dry because I also see most spots using a black light, but there have been some that I did not see. Those were ones I caught right away say after a few minites or aven watched the cat do it and there was cleaner on them right away.
 
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