AniVac / Horse 'Cleaners'

[vatican]

I had my horse 'cleaned' by an AniVac system at a show and was very impressed with everything apart from the price tag! The small 'portable' system was about £750 and the big yard version was about £3500 which I thought a little excessive for what amounts to a carpet cleaner with an upholstery attachment! Does anyone have one of these systems and is able to recommend it highly enough for me to serious consider buying one or does anyone use an alternative system - not that I'm thinking of popping down to my local Focus and renting a Rug Doctor for those pre-show days!!!

 

[Johnboy1]

Sorry - But what is wrong with a bit of elbow grease, shampoo , towel drying and rug up nice and warm to dry .............. The physical stimulation and effort will be good for your horse and you . . . ,. and your bank balance !!!!!

 

[vatican]

I have 35 horses in work every day and am basically interested in this sort of system to clean down part clipped & clipped out horses in the winter - it's a warm water system which leaves the horse clean and almost completely dry plus it uses a fraction of the water which is stored in a tank and not freezing on my wash bay.
If I had one horse then I totally agree that a bucket of warm water would be a great money saving solution!

 

[Johnboy1]

Have had a similar number of horses - and staff , which i pressume you have too - Appreciate the water saving but still would not pay £3000 00 plus for a machine which purely washes a horse as well as a person would.... but without the physical interaction and muscular stimulation. However - things are changing in the industry so good luck with all the mod cons.

 

[vatican]

Agree about the muscular stimulation but all of my horses are wisped daily in the good old-fashioned way that no mod cons can replace! Just like the idea of having the horses washed and dried quickly so that my staff aren't tied up waiting for horses to come off of the solariums.

 

[Johnboy1]

Solariums too ........ What happened to string sweat nets and a rug on top of that . Dry in an hour whilst munching hay - then a good whisp ( i am impressed that still lives on !!!!!) Staff can do quite a lot in 1 hour of drying time !! Felt tempted to even mention good old fashioned ' thatching ' but that would give my age away - and you probably dont allow straw on the property.... Sadly i still use straw and occasionally 'thatch ' whan neccessary !!!! But we are all different- thank god- and as long as the horses are happy and come first who cares that our thechniques vary .......

 

[ColouredFan]

I had them to my yard to try the samll version and thought it was rubbish, as we currently wash with no hot water on site the idea of hot water was very appealing for the winter. My horses are coloured and it just didnt get the white bits clean enough, not where near as clean as a good scrub and whitening shampoo so I didnt buy one. If I was in your situation and didnt have grey or coloured horses I may have been very tempted!

 

[shabiska]

Okay... I saw it advertised and thought...'Great idea for easy cleaning my horses before shows etc' I bought the smaller portable one...so now the review;
Cons;
1. If your horse doesn't like noise..forget this machine. It is very noisy(think dyson), especially in an enclosed area.
2. Very expensive for what it is..a carpet cleaner (I should have checked them out first).
3. The water jets are not powerful and dribble rather than push water into the coat.
4. Try getting no foam horse shampoo anywhere else.
5. Doesn't work well at all on longer coats.
6. Bucket and scrubbing versus anivac? Scrubbing wins everytime. (I hand wash and THEN use the anivac to take away excess water)
7. Don't kid yourself into thinking you can wash an even lightly grubby horse on a few litres of water...get the kettle boiling for at least one more refill!!
8. The brush heads are made of hard plastic...fine on fleshy parts of the animals body...but be careful on the boney areas.
9. DON'T EVEN THINK YOU CAN DO A MANE AND TAIL PROPERLY..it just won't happen!!
Pros;
1. Erm...am thinking..oh yes...fairly portable.
2. Not messy.. once you get to grips with the trigger.
3. Does take off the excess water and cuts drying time.
4. Handy for sweaty horses, (until they dry and the sweat marks are still there despite using almost a whole container of water)
5. Spill red wine on your pale carpet?...grab the anivac and get cleaning...
Overall rating.....3 out of 10.

 

[leslie02]

I have recently purchased the small anivac system for my horses. It is absolutly brilliant and worth every penny. I did have problems initially getting my grey horse clean however i asked the company for advice and they could not have been more help. as an experiment i tried it on one of my horses who had been washed by the conventional method earlier in the day and was amazed to see even more dirt come out in the water from the anivac. My horses have never been cleaner

 

[shabiska]

Well Anivacs rep has visited and replaced the hose and heads...turns out they were faulty and not giving enough of a jet of water..hence the dribble I was getting. It functions much more efficiently now. Patch tested it on a horses thick winter coat and it did a good job. I do have my horses very clean for shows so the suggestion is to do several cleans with the anivac (or one deep and meaning bucket/hose wash) at the start of the season and maintain them over the year with the anivac, which I think will work well for both me and the horses!! It'll be intersting to see the results on their summer coats next season now the new hoses are on. Found the rep. extremely helpful and very approachable, and should I have any further problems/questions gave me his tel. number to contact him on. During the patch test wash it was nice to see my mare get cleaned and dry quickly in a very short space of time, without freezing my arms off or dripping water everywhere...now for those of you who clip that's an easier situation to be in So..have re-thought the idea of selling it (sorry hubbie!!)...decided it's now worth keeping a hold of!