steam & easy hay steamer

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gnasher1964

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Hi, thinking about buying the Steam n Easy hay steamer advertised for £229, anyone bought one and if so can you tell me if its worth buying please?:)
 
A cheaper option is to buy a very big bin with a lid cut a small hole in the bottom of the bin and insert a wall paper steamer, hey presto a hay steamer that you haven't paid £££ for.
 
Hi thanks for your reply, what worries me is, would be steaming the hay properly at the right temperature etc as the companies that make the steamers state that they have metal plates in steamers and the steam is distributed properly to kill spores and mould.
 
Hi
currently using soaked hay/kettle in wheelie bin. Am considering using wallpaper steamer - once the hole has been cut in the bin though it is unable to be used for anything else - is it dangerous/would it flick the trip leaving it on for 10 mins or so and anyone know how much they cost to run as opposed to 2 x full kettles of boiling water (btw my vet said steaming was not as good as soaking for 30 mins but I find it such a faff!)
 
4x4 said:
Hi
currently using soaked hay/kettle in wheelie bin. Am considering using wallpaper steamer - once the hole has been cut in the bin though it is unable to be used for anything else - is it dangerous/would it flick the trip leaving it on for 10 mins or so and anyone know how much they cost to run as opposed to 2 x full kettles of boiling water (btw my vet said steaming was not as good as soaking for 30 mins but I find it such a faff!)
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Steaming and soaking do two different things. If you want to lessen the sugars in the hay for a lami/fatty then soaking is required. Times vary but latest thing I read said 6 hours and don't forget to change the water or you just get a broth of sugar that you add to your hay! The steaming - and a kettle of water will not be sufficient to do much, I'm afraid, will kill off spores. The big companies will tell you that it needs to reach X centigrade for Y minutes. Can't remember what that is but have used a wallpaper steamer and it certainly matched the likes of Haygain' requirements. The difficulty is in the inlet of steam into the container as you don't want the hay to block the steam. I use a wheelie bin with an inner plastic lattice that sits about 6 inches off the bottom of the bin. This allows the steam to enter under the lattice and it is forced up through the hay which I put ( in a net) above. The net is covered with a plastic feed bag and tucked around the hay to enclose the steaming space and I put a sheet of polystyrene on top and then close the wheelie lid. I have the steamer on a timer so that I don't have to bother to be around to switch it on or off. In fact the wallpaper steamers tend to switch off once the water is gone but I prefer to do a final switch off of the power just in case. I did read that the hay steamer companies were looking at whether or not double steaming reduced sugars. But I soak hay for 6 hours, then drain and steam. The hay smells wonderful when it comes out warm and the horses love it. How much does it cost? I couldn't afford a Haygain, and couldn't justify the cost for just the horses I have ( might be different if you had a lot of horses or had to steam a lot of nets for horses kept in I suppose). Wheelie bin cost £25, wallpaper steamer about £20. Inner grid has to be plastic so I made one up of old broken plastic electric fence posts! Cost of electricity - can't be sure but can't be much.
 
Well whoopee-do! OH having been read these posts by me spent the afternoon - well 1/2 hr actually - making me a steamer from a wheelie bin and wallpaper stripper and it works. Fab!
 
GREAT! I think mine got an COPD horse through a difficult winter and into Spring in an almost 'cured' form. Glad your OH was such a help!!! If you're really bothered about spores and mycotoxins, you can buy a mycotoxin binder ( cheapest from Thunder Farm, Norfolk, I think they are called) and sprinkle on a spoonful before steaming. Its also recommended on the haygain site but they sell he same stuff, repackaged in glossy horsey packs for much more!
 
Thank you for all replies.... I decided to buy the 'Steam n Easy' hay steamer from the company selling them on ebay and it cost £229.00 with free delivery, arrived very quickly via city link and had it up and running within half n hour. It holds 3 large haynets and steams it perfectly within 20 minutes. The hay came out smelling lovely and was scoffed up by my three who all have dust allergies and cough at the slightest bit of dust.
I feel that messing about with bins and wallpaper steamers is not the way to go as you want to make sure that your steamer reaches the right temperature to kill off moulds etc which are the main cause of any horse/pony getting copd, so it was an afforable price compared to the other companies out there who charge a few hundred pounds more, all I can tell you is that there were no coughs from my ponies after I used the steam n easy, and previously when I used to soak hay they still coughed, I hope this helps as there is no bigger chore in winter than trying to soak hay.:)
 
Hi happyhooves, so far so good although still detecting a bit of a 'heave' after a long hack but hopefully with constant steaming that should lessen. She is such a thief though, if you leave an unattended hay net anywhere or a bit of hay waiting to go into a net or the steamer - wham -straight into gob! Then we suffer!
Thanks for giving me the kick up the bum to get it done - btw how many nets do you do in advance - like say if you were going away?
 
Good that its working; can't understand why more don't do this as it is no effort or difficulty to make one and all for about £50!
Those who compare it to soaking are, of course, comparing lemons and oranges since soaking doesn't do anything for moulds, except maybe increase them when wet hay is left about; it is used to reduce sugars!
Its the same for steamed hay however - don't even think of steaming days in advance- as wet hay will attract fungi etc from the air and go mouldy. Steaming wont preserve the hay alas! SO, hopefully you have a tame sitter who could operate the steamer and you could leave as many filled nets as possible for your stay away, or just the amounts for a net pushed into feed bags maybe? - I steam a day's worth of hay overnight and leave it shut in the steamer until last hay feed, when I tip out the 'drip water' and rinse out the steamer and set it up to steam on a timer overnight. And in the morning Voila! breakfast is ready.
 
Hi thanks for that, I normally leave enough nets for them to soak daily, not sure if they'd be able to remembet to turn it off so might get a timer for it - thanks again !
 
gnasher1964 said:
Thank you for all replies.... I decided to buy the 'Steam n Easy' hay steamer from the company selling them on ebay and it cost £229.00 with free delivery, arrived very quickly via city link and had it up and running within half n hour. It holds 3 large haynets and steams it perfectly within 20 minutes. The hay came out smelling lovely and was scoffed up by my three who all have dust allergies and cough at the slightest bit of dust.
I feel that messing about with bins and wallpaper steamers is not the way to go as you want to make sure that your steamer reaches the right temperature to kill off moulds etc which are the

main cause of any horse/pony getting copd, so it was an afforable price compared to the other
companies out there who charge a few hundred pounds more, all I can tell you is that there were no coughs from my ponies after I used the steam n easy, and previously when I used to soak hay they still coughed, I hope this helps as there is no bigger chore in winter than trying to soak hay.:)
Click to expand...
I think you have been so sensiable doing it yourself can be dangerours if not
done correctly.
 
HI there

I bought one about a while back and I've just thrown it away. My husband started to call it the 'Steam n Difficult' because it was such a nightmare . Firstly the connector between the hose and the steam generator kept breaking - so I bought at least two new ones of those. Secondly it is very large and difficult to clean out, so you'd have to tip it on its side to clean - bulky and heavy. Thirdly you had to de limescale it once a week or it would stop working. I have a tiny yard and we were only using it once a day, so it's not like we were steaming for five hours a day or something, but even so we had to delimescale it much more often than we thought we would have to - which was a bothersome job - once a week. I found it temperamental - and basically cheap. I bought it because the haygain was so expensive, but now I've gone and bought the one horse haygain, for double the price - but at least it works, and is 'easy to do'. I wish i'd just swallowed the price first time round and bought the haygain straight away. Hope this helps.
 
As a related aside, I tried making my own hay steamer last year (wallpaper steamer, wheelie bin with hole at the bottom, wooden struts at the bottom to give room / stop the hay touching the steamer). It worked well for a week or so with light use (1 horse) but then the steamer cut out as soon as it got to boiling temperature. It did the same for two different wallpaper steamers. Just wondered whether anyone else had this? and whether / how you managed to fix it?! Thanks!
 
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