Happy Horse Hay steamer v Haygrain

Gingerwitch

Gingerwitch

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Anyone any info - anyone got one - are they worth buying?

my hay will be either loose hay or hay nets, for two big horses

Anyone got one and wish they had the other?

Am aware that haygrain or is haygain is a lot more expensive as there advertised price does not include vat -
 
I've got the Haygain, managed to get a 6-month-old one off eBay a few weeks ago. It does an excellent job. Doesn't come with a timer switch though which I think is rather shocking considering how much they cost!
The lady who sold it to me said that that HappyHorse one isn't proven to get the bale hot enough to kill all the bacteria, moulds etc, I'm not sure if that's true though.
The bigger Haygain one (whole bale size) has a different sized motor to the smaller one, my OH worked out that running the big one once a day would be cheaper than running the smaller one twice a day.
Happy to answer more questions about it, very impressed so far. My horses didn't love it as much as soaked hay (which they were used to) tbh but they scoff it all up now. It smells gorgeous when the hay's 'cooked'.
 
Thanks Kerilli - that was what was making me stop and think about the temperature and the fact that happy horse says "may" not like "haygain" says "will" ....., if ime (or rather santa) is going to spend just over a grand on the happy horse and it only "may" kill the bacteria i would rather put the other money myself and get the haygain.

Now the lady at Happy horse said that you can only put "strung" bales into the haygain steamer is this true? as we only get the big bale hay at our yard.

I was wondering about the horses eating it, as mine will love horseage or equilidge for a week and then go off it - but then again they go off the soaked hay and then the dry hay! lol
 
For the grand total of £7 I made my own! Large waterbut which was previously used as a bin for keeping readigrass (now just buy a smaller type bag of grass), a wallpaper steamer which my mother-in-law no longer needs (lives in a care home, won't be doing DIY) bought an electronic timer and an adapater to fit the timer into the socket. Drilled a hole in the bottom of the tub, insert the steamer hose and half a breezeblock in the bottom so the nets sit off the bottom and the steam can circulate.

I've been using this 3 times a day since August without any problems. The wallpaper steamer works at 100 degrees and for a very large night net I set it for about an hour from cold water, smaller nets about 40 mins from cold.

I just couldn't afford £600 and now my home made steamer has worked so well, I can't justify the cost of a professional one. I think the key to the home made version is to buy a rigid/hard plastic rather than normal bins which can get a bit soft in the heat.

Ludo absolutely loves the hot steamy hay - grabs it out the net when I'm trying to empty into the haybar! The smells reminds me of biscuits cooking!
 
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I made my own too, from a good quality wallpaper steamer + bin. It didn't steam the nets thoroughly, bits were done and bits were totally dry, because there's only the 1 inlet point for the steam. The haygain has 2 metal plates with 5 big metal prongs coming out of them, each with 4 nozzles, deep into the bale, so = 40 inlet points. The whole bale gets thoroughly steamed. It's totally different (unfortunately - i'm not completely mental, i much preferred the idea of my £20 version to the £1000+ version!)
Gingerwitch, as soon as I run out of small bales I'll go on to loose hay, i'll just cram it in.
 
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