Steam Easy hay steamer?

[B&J]

Does anyone have a steam'n'easy hay steamer? Are they good? My budget doesn't go up to the haygain level so looking at the yard size on from this company.

 

[TallSue]

Why not make your own, wheelie bin and wallpaper steamer. Much cheaper and if you google it you will find instructions how to do it. This is what we did, set it up on a timer and the lovely steamed hay is ready when you need it. Brilliant.

 

[Orangehorse]

I got one, but I don'tuse it, have gone back to soaking hay. One reason is that I accidently kicked it and the plastic plate inside snapped off - metal joined to plastic. It can still be used, obviously, but I found it very tedious and frankly, I worried what it was doing to the electricity bill! I used to boil a couple of kettles of water to put into the steamer so it came to the boil as quickly as possible, but there was a faulty connection with plug, so sometimes the vibrations of the boiling container would loosen the plug and it would stop boiling, so I would be doing things around theyard, thinking it was steaming the hay and it wasn't! I don't like to go off and leave electric/water things unattended either, so would tend to hover round. I was a bit horrified to see in the literature that some people put it on and then went riding, leaving the whole thing boiling away unattended.

It seemed to take ages and ages too.

I got it for the same reason, I couldn't justify/afford one the pukka ones, and tried it to see. I would say that the horses liked the hay when it was steamed.

 

[hairycob]

I used a homemade wallpaper steamer & wheelie bin one one at a previous yard & it worked really well. Had previously tried the kettle into a tub trug method - rubbish. In the end the bin split by the hole we drilled for the steam to go in just before I left that yard but it would have been easy & cheap to replace. The bin lasted 2 years being used twice a day. The only thing I would say about steamers is remember to plan ahead if very cold weather is forecast & don't leave the steamer & hose attached & outside when it is going to be -10 - takes ages to defrost everything with a hairdryer!