The first one we bought wasn't working correctly. We returned it and Amazon fed-exed another one. Thank you Amazon! Germ Guardian wasn't helpful at all. I called their help center to check if we were using it right and the return policy, and never got a call back, which was very odd. They don't have live people answering the phone, you just leave a message.
We got this for the mattress because we think there may be some mold in there. My boyfriend still has his cough, but that's probably because it's cold. So I can't say if it's effective or not.
If you are going to buy this, make sure you can buy it from a place that is very easy to exchange and return, seeing as our first one didn't work.
1. Feels cheaper than it looks. Don't let the shiny gray color in the picture fool you, it's plastic and not metal. I had bigger expectations because I already had the big brother to this wand, the beautiful stainless steel uv-c room sanitizer. If the wand was a nice white plastic, I would not care, but making it the gray color makes it look and feel like a cheap knock-off.
2. The wand can only be used 'face down'. I understand this is a safety feature, but I wish I had known about this before I bought it. I was going to wave the wand over part of a wall that I cleaned some mold off of, but positioning this wand so that the light faces anywhere but down turns the light off.
3. It's kind of big. It's such a lightweight unit, I dont' know why they didn't make the body tighter.
The wand has good points to it (check out the other reviews), but I personally was disappointed with what I paid for it. NOTE: Prices on these things have dropped a lot since I bought mine, and they seem to be getting more in line with what I think I should have paid for it.
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I am very impressed with the effectiveness of the Germ Guardian 18" wand. I didn't give it 5 stars because it is a little back breaking to use if you are sanitizing a low area.
When I took it to a hotel on vacation, I used it in the shower and could smell it killing the who knows what that was there. My pet toys, beds, personal hygiene items, computer, cell phones, remote controllers, cutting boards, countertops and many more surfaces are sanitized without the use of chemicals, YAH! I can now use pretty smelling surface cleaners and use the wand to get the down and dirty.
When I use the wand over areas that always harvest smells (basement drains) I can smell the burn of the elimination of germs.
I'm unsure what the other reviewers are so upset about, the wand does exactly what it was intended to do, kill germs. This technology is not new just not advertised as much as money making cleaning products. I have a personal unit that uses uv-c light to sanitize water had over 5 years.
The cord is convenient if using in the kitchen or bathroom, it's not very long so I do't use it much. Rechargeable batteries (4AA) get about 2 hours before needing to be changed. The battery cover was difficult to remove use a Metric 3.0. The cover that supports the uv light uses a different sized screwdriver. No accidental removal of the wrong cover.
The built-in safety feature turns the light off if you tilt the wand too much. Exposure to skin and eyes is a no-no.
Of course, I purchased mine from Costco.com so no worries about malfunctioning unit or return policy.
Now with the outbreak of Swiine Flu, I use it even more!
Read Best Reviews of germguardian LW18 UV-C Light Wand Here
I bought this for a single purpose, for which it exceeded my expectations.
I'm allergic to mold. In 2009 I moved into a new apartment and found I was allergic to the fridge/freezer. There was no visible mold but every time I opened the door I got a face full of allergens that left me feeling nauseous and made my eyes sting. I tried cleaning the whole thing with a bleach solution : no change. I tried running a small HEPA filter in the fridge : no effect. So what to do? Buy a new fridge/freezer, or give UVC a whirl?
The following is one of those "don't try this at home folks" things, but I'll tell you what I did. First I unplugged the fridge/freezer from the wall. Then I removed the cover plate at the back of the freezer to expose the cooling fins. Then I masked all visible wiring because I was afraid the UVC light might cause the insulation to go brittle and crack, which could be dangerous. Then I set up the germ guardian to shine on the cooling fins. I used the one hour timer, set it going, and left the room. After an hour I came back and moved the wand to shine on a different section of the cooling fins. I repeated this 5 times until I'd covered them all. By the time I'd finished the whole house smelled of refrigerator mold. I put it back together, plugged it in, opened all the windows and went to bed assuming I'd just wasted my money on the wand...
By next morning, the mold smell had dissipated from the house. I opened the freezer door, and ... no mold smell! None. Nada. I've used the HEPA filter I mentioned inside the fridge compartment ever since in an effort to prevent a regrowth, and here we are almost two years later and ... no mold.
Fantastic.
Since then I've used the germ guardian on clothes I've bought which have turned out to be moldy right from the store (again, not visible mold, but enough to set off my allergies). Washing has had no effect, but a few minutes under the germ guardian has transformed unwearable clothes into wearable clothes.
If it's so wonderful, why only 4 stars? Because the device has an annoying tilt switch which kills the light if you turn the germ guardian to shine upwards. This makes it virtually impossible to disinfect upwards, and, even more annoyingly, very difficult to disinfect horizontally too : the switch tends to trip even when the light is pointing sideways. I understand that this is a safety feature, but I also wish there was a way to disable it, because not everything can be placed below the wand.
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The holding time is really boring... I suggest a attachment of a 2 inch holder from the wand to the object, so we could just place it there 2 inches away without holding it!!
I can tell this lamp really works because you can smell a tiny bit of "burn" after you scan it on carpet, but it won't heat up anything so I dont think it'll actually set something on fire. It's really light weight so I didn't have a problem on scanning stuff with it on a extended period of time. You can always just leave it facing down and let it "burn the bacteria" and move it say once every 10 seconds, doesn't really have to hold on to it. And the auto shout off system is when u are really trying to make the UV light facing to u, It'll still work as long as u move less then 90 degree. So UV lighting the wall was no problem too (although it's impossible to do the ceiling...oh well)
4/5stars
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This is a bottle of citric acid (the stuff that makes lemons sour) with a wetting agent that helps dissolve the minerals (scale, calcium carbonate) that deposit on the evaporator (the moving white plastic finned drum) of the AIRWASHER. Simply fill the bottom housing with fresh water, pour the entire contents (8 oz), turn to low setting; after 2 hours, dump out the water that now has loosened scale, wipe any remaining scale and don't forget to get the stuff on the bottom of the fan. No smell like the vinegar I used to use. Not harsh like "lime-away" bathroom cleaners. Our local water is hard and during the summer, molds (black and red) can bloom.
