GroomPod 480 Recirculating bathing system marketplace transcript

Susy Welcome to episode four eighty of the Groom Pod recorded on May ten, twenty twenty six. I'm Susie, the groomer, and as always, I am joined by my partner in crime, Barbara Bird. Welcome back Barbara. Happy days to you. Oh happy.

Barbara Days indeed. I'm really excited to do today's show. I'm all prepared. Actually prepared. Susie.

Susy We took an extra week to get all prepared. Yeah.

Barbara I used the time. Well.

Susy Good. Okay, well, welcome back to the groom pod. We are diving deep into the tub, literally to talk about a tool that can completely transform your workflow. And it's one that I've been using since day one of grooming. Thank goodness. I was trained by somebody who had a actually a hydro surge when I started. We're talking recirculating bathing systems. And this week what's new is brought to you by Best Shot Pet. Best shot. It's brought to you by Best Shot this week. What's new is brought to you by Best Shot. It's a grooming day. A battle against mats and tangles. Take control with the ultimate duo from Best Shot. First, transform your grooming routine with the max. This ultra concentrated single ingredient conditioner is a total game changer. It conquers stubborn mats, reduces drying time, and turns your recirculator into a high performance shedding machine. Then put the finishing touches on your masterpiece with the all new ultra Max anti stat and scissor spray, it's a perfect lightweight companion for effortless combing and precise scissoring while completely eliminating static and those pesky flyaways. Professional results start with the right products. Visit best dot com or your local distributor like Cascade Grooming Supply to grab your bottle of the Max and the new scissoring spray today. Best shot made from the best stuff on earth. I got to get better with this, you guys.

Barbara That's good.

Susy I saw it. It started to disappear down and I was like, ah, okay. As you all know, this is a learning experience for me because we've switched over to the video format, which I'm enjoying. Actually, I must say I'm enjoying, so I can't edit the audio as clean, but I'm learning how to edit the whole video thing a little bit better. So you'll see my progression. But right now we're kind of in the baby steps. So, uh, working at it, you know, where else I'm in baby steps is in the van. So I discovered the beauty of power, of power, powerful electricity coming from a gigantic generator, because now I can actually dry a dog in a crate with a blower, a fan on it and dry a dog on my table at the same time. So all of a sudden my two dogs stops have become so much shorter. It's like getting a raise. I gave myself a raise, which is good because.

Barbara So can you also run the a C with that coat on?

Susy No. Probably not. That would. I'm. I have not tried that. But I also have a fantastic fan vent and windows I can open so I get a lot of cross breeze. Oh and I don't put any heat on. Yeah.

Barbara You know.

Susy Amazing.

Barbara In, in my six months being a mobile groomer in Tucson, um, a galloping groomer, it was called. It was in the summertime and it would get to be one hundred and forty degrees in my grooming area and I could not run the dryer and the air conditioner at the same time. And so it, it just it was excruciating for us and the pets. So that was that was an old model first level van for sure.

Susy Yes. Well, this is really I'm living in the lap of luxury. But I'll tell you, it did get up to about seventy five. Really strange heat wave we're having here in the northwest, and I'm working away and I've got the windows open and the fan on, and I'm just drenched in sweat because the window, because I love the windows. But the sun is beating in on the window. I worked for an hour before I remembered I had air conditioning.

Speaker 3 It was so funny. I was like.

Susy Man, this is hot. Oh.

Speaker 3 Right.

Susy I have air conditioning. This is so cool. So I flipped it on, and I can dry a dog and have the air conditioning on. And that's really cool. That's cool. I've never had that. Never.

Barbara It's been what a luxury. What a luxury. I know.

Susy I know. And I must say I absolutely love the big windows that are in the door. Apparently Brandy's van, which is three years old, she has no windows at all. It's just in there with no windows. I would go crazy. I got the two windows up on the top, on the pop top, and I can actually open those. There's sliders on them so I can get airflow up there. But I also have two big windows on the the opening the door on the side. And so the dogs. Yeah. The dogs stand on my table and they look out the window, which is something I have not had. I have access to the short side of my table. So when the dogs are looking out, I can actually get even ears because they're trying to look out the window and I can stand on that side of the table now and just I can work on the head. It's my heads are so much more symmetrical now. Leaps and bounds. There's nothing, nothing like a new vehicle to really invigorate and excite you about your job. And it has, I think my grooming is a little better. And so it's.

Barbara Even way better than you had hoped. Oh, yes. Yeah.

Susy And it makes sense though, because as a brand new vehicle, it was, it cost way more than anything I would have ever paid for in my I mean, I would have made do with something else. But yeah, this is cool, I get it. So I wanted to talk to you a minute about using steam to clean. I'm thinking I want to get one of those steam cleaners, but I wasn't sure like what the methodology. Do you just point it at the at the area? Do you have to wipe it down afterwards?

Barbara You do have to wipe it, you know, like, okay. Um, there's, there's two ways to do it. There's the, there's the spray and wipe way. And then sometimes you have an attachment that looks like a, a long vacuum attachment that has a Terry cloth wrap elasticized wrap on it, and you get about six of those and then that.

Susy Okay.

Barbara Um, wipes as you and you, you know, so I would suggest that you get that because the steam and then wipe your constant, you're constantly at risk of steaming your own hand.

Susy Excuse me, I will, but.

Barbara No doubt but you would do that, you know.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Susy The other question is. I have put one in my cart in Amazon. Some of them don't get very good reviews. So my thinking is I want one that has a reservoir and a hose. And so I'm not holding up a kettle. Looks like holding up a kettle is kind of awkward, am I right? If you guys have any input on this, let us know in the discussion group. I'd be curious to hear if you're using steam to clean your van. And if you're using one that has a reservoir that sits on the ground and a hose like a canister vacuum.

Barbara Because they don't hold very much. And so it's really not heavy, but it's, um, very time limited, you know, like you only get so much steam and then it's out of water, but.

Susy With the kettle.

Barbara But yeah, but, but.

Susy If I get the one that's a canister on the ground and then the hose.

Barbara Yeah, those are actually those are actually the better. But for the inside of a mobile van, I don't know that you really need the floor.

Susy Okay.

Barbara Kind.

Susy Um, okay.

Barbara Um, talk to me after the show and and I'll look at your cart and see if, um, I can, you know, like you can also you can go to, uh, you can search for best of, you know.

Susy I did that, that was my video entertainment last night when I was going to sleep. I watched a bunch of videos on the hand steamers, but I thought I'd ask for real experience from you and also real experience.

Barbara And I just want to add again that for me, that is the ideal way of cleaning Without chemicals. I mean, there's just like no chemicals involved except H two o. Good old H two O and you can add some vinegar in there if you want to.

Susy Well my vinyl looks so. I mean, the whole Sharon and Tom kept really good care of this. So the interior looks brand new, but I noticed that in the crannies behind the little bit of vinyl upholstery, if you will, the padding that it looks a little grungy back there. And I was thinking it would be certainly a good way to get it out of there. So let me know if you guys do that. On another note, um, the coat defense I went and did the dog that has no follicles anymore on his back and you know, and Chris.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Susy Chris was saying it might be hormonal. I don't think it's hormonal. I also don't think it's s a because there's not collections of shedding skin on the hair follicle, on the hair, the actual hair. It says when they have. An s or.

Barbara S a yeah.

Susy Yeah. That that there's always usually when the hairs are at the base, there's like a collection of dead cells and stuff and I can't see any gunk down there. Uh, I think.

Barbara Has it been diagnosed?

Susy They are, they have been to their regular vet, but they have not gone to the dermatologist. They're saving up for that. So flash forward to well, no flash back to a couple of weeks ago when we had the coat defence guy on. I know it's yeast. It stinks like yeast. They're very holistic, natural kind of people. So I went over there with my little coat defense packet, and I gave them the small size of the powder to use on him and the instructions and the booklet that they gave me and the website and all that stuff. And then I bathed the dog with the coat defense shampoo. And I must say, I was really surprised. It did not feel like a saponified product. Yeah.

Barbara You liked it more than you thought you would.

Susy Way more than I thought.

Barbara Yeah. Me too, me too. It did not act like soap, you know, even though I know that it's a liquid soap. But it must have something to do with the additives, you know, and. Well, and. They're not that sophisticated over there that they really know how all of these essential oils might be operating. They. Because they actually copied that formula, you know, and, um, so, uh, they just, I don't know, I can't see it. I can't, I mean, I can look at the ingredients. I, I have like stared at those ingredients and said, what could make this be so different from, you know, like Castile liquid soap and it just is. Um.

Susy That dog felt so nice when I was finished with him. His hair felt great. No residue left on none of that weird feeling that I always get when I use something that's saponified. I was really impressed. Yeah. So these people are they are not the wealthiest people in the world. And they realize that going to the dermatologist is going to cost them. But I also think that throwing more medicine at it might not be the right answer, because they have tried all kinds of stuff at the the general dog physician. and it hasn't really changed anything. And I don't know if it's cooties in their yard or something in their house. We cannot figure it out. But this is the second dog, so I think it must be environmental. So I'm all for backing off on all the medication and trying the coat coat defense system. They went ahead and ordered the other stuff online while I was working on the dog. They were so excited and then I gave them the powder. So you guys can come on that journey with me because I'm excited to see how it evolves. This dog has the wrinkly spots on his ankles are all chewed up and raw, and no hair grows on his back at all because he lays on his back. And does this. See? Now I can show people that he does this on the ground with his back.

Barbara Any excuse for wiggling around? That's Susie.

Susy You know it. You knew it. Um, yeah. So I think that he I don't know if it's possible to damage the follicles by just rubbing on it because he does it so often, but he gets he has like one hair here, one hair here, one hair here. And, uh, he never he didn't start out that way. He was a fully haired dog when he was little, so I don't know.

Barbara Anyway, baby, what kind of dog is he?

Susy Havanese.

Barbara He's a Japanese with no hair on his back. Son of a bitch.

Susy Yeah, I think I've even taken pictures of it. I might have them in my phone still. Uh, it's weird because I asked Chris about it, but I'm sure it's not hormonal and it's not a hormonal cream, and they are super cautious about using fragrance free stuff and, you know, clear, clear, like everything is all healthy, appropriate, not chemical, which is why I thought perfect candidate for coat defense. So we'll see what I think so.

Barbara Well that's that's a good Keep him occupied.

Susy Yes, I.

Barbara Agree. It's affordable. It's affordable. So it is affordable. It will allow them to save up for a dermatology workup. You know like.

Susy Yes and.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy And they're all for doing that. They want to do that. But it's something they have to budget for. And I understand and but it's so weird because this is dog number two that is having the same thing. And of course, I always go to diet and yes.

Barbara That's.

Susy Feeding.

Barbara That's got to be environmental.

Susy Then it is. Except for the Mister.

Barbara Was the other one. I have a dog food. What was the other one?

Susy Shitzu shitzu.

Barbara A shitzu. They have more skin problems. They they have a lot of skin problems. Um, yep.

Susy But but they so he was, he was, he was making the diet. And I know that he wasn't putting in everything that needed to be in the diet. So after about a year ago, I convinced them to go to a commercial dog diet. And I'm pretty sure they have stayed with the commercial dog diet, but they keep trying to get things that are supposedly more healthy, and I'm not seeing any of it translate into anything on the dog. It doesn't. It's not the food. I don't think it's the food once they got on the commercial diet, because I do think some of it was the food he was he was cooking for both dogs, the old dog and this dog. So that is the only thing I can find that in the house. Those are the two.

Barbara I can't think of a food making a dog bald.

Susy It's the second client I have whose owner cooks for the dog, but without an official, without using supplements or anything else in there. And, you know, just making people food for the dog that has horrendous skin. The second dog in this other household as well. So two households, two owners that make their own diet and two dogs that have pathetic skin. It's weird. I didn't even know these people were cooking for their dog until we really got into the nitty gritty of talking about what this could possibly be. And then I find out he's cooking for this dog, too. And then I find out he cooked for the last dog, which I never knew because it was theoretically the daughter's dog. Anyway, I digress, we might have to cut some of that out because that's, you know, it's particular. But anyway, keep your people happy, keep working with your people. So I um, yeah, that's it. That's all I have.

Barbara Weird. That's it.

Susy Yeah, it is weird.

Barbara Oh that's.

Susy Weird.

Barbara Follow this.

Susy Yes.

Barbara Oh, detective.

Susy I love it. I'm a detective. I'm a I'm a skin detective. I want to find out. Allergy, by golly. Well, we should probably move on to the actual topic that we're going to talk about, but first, let's hear about our sponsor. Let's hear from precision sharp and Groomer. Are your shears working as hard as you are? If you're ready to level up your scissoring game, it's time to check out Precision Sharp. Whether you're sculpting intricate styles or tackling heavy bulk work, their Sliding Thumb Lynx and Bobcat series are built for the job. The link shares are your go to for lightweight, lightning fast precision. While the Bobcat series gives you that extra power and control you need for those challenging coats. They hold an edge beautifully and feel perfectly balanced in your hand all day long, thanks to a sliding thumb ring. Find your next favorite pair at precision sharp dot com, where performance meets perfection. Whether you're looking at the bathing beauty from Hanby or other high pressure systems, these machines are about more than just getting dogs clean. They are about saving your back, saving your time and saving your product. Recirculating bathing systems. I started with one right from the start. Like I was saying before, the girl who mentored me had one, and I think there were a few days where she taught me how to dilute shampoo into a bottle. Then we moved right on to a recirculating bathing system. And I personally have never looked back. You got in on the bottom floor as well, didn't you?

Barbara Well, I think I did about eight years of hand bathing, plus my four years of apprenticeship before I got my first hydro surge bathing system. And I was a skeptic because I my training to be a bather was kind of excruciating. It was a lot of, um, not good enough. Do it again, you know, like that kind of treatment And, um, and it was embarrassing for me because I came from a dog show background and you would think that I would be an impeccable bath brusher from the get go. But I wasn't, I wasn't, I was getting the dogs cleaned, but I wasn't getting them brushed out real well. And, uh, I just kept getting hounded and reprimanded and that kind of stuff until I got good. And then I got really, really good. And so I didn't think that a goddamn machine could do a better job than I am, or even do as good a job as I was doing, so I. But I had to open my mind because on the first groomers Lounge email group. We heard from a number of groomers that swore by this method of bathing and, you know, and it was such a big expense to I mean, I just I could hardly justify it, but I finally just took the plunge. And then I, I never looked back, you know, and, and it did take some of a learning curve because I had to learn how to be effective with the, with the recirculating system, it requires some mindfulness, which a lot of bathers don't have a men to that. Can I get an amen?

Susy You can get an amen. And you can also get a ding there you get a ding. Yeah it's true.

Barbara Ding. And an amen too. Oh that's woo hoo. Yeah. So but I I'm very excited to see the the groomers marketing marketplace starting to have a number of systems. I found. Six and I thought there were only like maybe three. But I dug around and I found six bathing systems, um, available to groomers these days and there may be more that I didn't find. So it's, it's a more people are getting on board. Certainly, uh, Mobile people that make stuff. Well, some bathing tubs are coming now with a recirculating system option. And they're marketing, you know, like this is the better way to do it. And so there's a whole lot more marketing going on. There's a whole lot more explaining the benefits going on in the marketplace. The whole thing. It's, it's flowering you, you know what I mean? It's flowering, it's flourishing. And, and I'm excited to see something that I've been so passionate about catch on and become more mainstream.

Susy So the wagging tails vans have always had a recirculating bather built into their tubs. It's called a super sudser, And it is not nearly as efficient as a solitary pump in the tub is. It's underneath the tub. You cannot really. It takes a lot of water to fill it and to make it work. And in my case, it's not working. And Tom was out. Spend a couple hours trying to get it to work. But it's better than nothing. I mean, if you've never used a recirculator, it's built into these vans because of its efficiency. And even though it's not the most efficient, it's still a good system. And they've had that in there since nineteen ninety, whatever, two thousand. But Suzy.

Barbara But Suzy, the name tells you a lot. Super sensor. That means they in engineering their system, they focused on foam.

Susy Yeah. Like I said, it is not not quite the same animal foam.

Barbara I mean, the, the, the recirculating systems that I've used there, they are more too much foam chokes the system, you know, like they're not made to foam. They see these people are it's like the cosmos system. You know what, what was funny at, at, at, at Atlanta was that the Hanvey man and Bathing Beauty was the booth was right adjacent to the Cosmo bathing system. So I got to kind of peek into that. And that's just a frothing system, a frothing system, you know, so that when you put a lot of suds and foam froth onto. A coat, you've got to break it down with the heavy system. The foam stays. In the tub. And at the end of the bath, you just use some fabric softener and a spray gun, and you just spray it and it just disappears the foam, and then you're left with dirty water that just goes down the drain. Um.

Susy Yeah. Well, if I ever get the super sudser working, I'll give you a better review of it. But it's just basically it's a recirculator. It's just there is no one of the essential parts of a recirculating bathing system, I feel, is the nozzle configuration. And that's one of the things that handy has that a lot of the other companies do not have is a really specific needle sharp kind of, um, pattern in the end of the nozzle that really gets in under the hair. The super sudser uses one of those, um, adjustable garden sprayers. So that right there, you know, it's hard to compare.

Barbara More of the right. Um, so here's, here's how I approached the assignment.

Susy Okay.

Barbara Can I tell you please? I took the heavy bathing beauty as the gold standard of recirculating bathing bathers. Me too.

Susy And at the top of my list.

Barbara So I itemized all of the features that I know about the system. And then I compared all of my others to that. So for example.

Susy Okay.

Barbara The air, the air switch.

Susy Yes.

Barbara So, you know, like having a portable air switch that you can, uh, use on the floor or mount it on the frame of your tub.

Susy Or carry it into the house.

Barbara Or carry it into the house, or you can put it on the edge of the tub if you have a lip there. Like I had a regular bathtub and there was a, you know, like, so I could put it there. So, um, I looked at the flying pig, the o paws, the Aeolus, the turbo wash and the hound wash systems and, um, the flying pig. I thought I felt like the flying Pig was the closest. And actually, it was a. I think it for the money the flying pig sells for two hundred and thirty seven dollars. So the Hanvey sells for like six fifty to seven hundred dollars plus fifty dollars shipping. Should we go.

Susy Should we go pump by pump so I can put up the graphics?

Barbara Okay. So you want to do it. You want to can you put let's just start with it.

Susy Yeah. Well, let's why don't we start. You want to.

Barbara Start with a handy. Yeah. Okay.

Susy So give me a second here. And this is where the the host is learning on the job here. Okay. It says it's paused. Here we go. Okay. Do it. Okay. It's. Oh, there we go. No, that's not what I want. Make it come. Oh, I know what's wrong. Thank goodness I can edit this.

Barbara Well, take your time.

Susy It says it's lost. Okay, we'll stop that and then we'll go.

Barbara Right. There's us.

Susy Yes. Okay. Here we go.

Barbara Hi.

Susy I'm going to try it again. I'm going to go. Where did it go? It's disappeared. There we go. It just left. There we go. Look at that. Can you see it?

Barbara Oh, there it is.

Susy Yes!

Barbara Hey, baby. Okay, so that blue color there, all that blue color and that blue color color is called heavy blue. So. That's, uh, that's the heavy special color. And, um, the nozzle on that was the spray design. The spray pattern was engineered by Curtis Hanby, who took probably months of trying different nozzle spray patterns to arrive at what he thought was the best pattern. And it's got it's got it. So that it has kind of, a larger hole in the center of the pattern. And then some holes. Not too fine, because if you get if you get a sprayer that has too fine a spray pattern that doesn't. Sweep the stuff through the coat as fast it. It tends to lay on the top of the coat. So you lose pressure though. And then the other thing that's really remarkable about the Hanvey is that very flexible hose. This was one of the big differences between the Hanvey and the original hydro surge, which used a washing machine hose.

Susy That thing was so stiff. Oh my gosh.

Barbara Yeah, I know, it's so stiff that it actually puts stress on your wrist to turn it and sweep it and use it. So this this very flexible hose is very ergonomic and hand friendly. It also has, um, a, uh, thumb lever that you can move with your thumb to reduce the volume or increase it. So you can turn it up and you can turn it down for faces or puppies or, you know, whatever.

Susy Um, it's called a flow regulator. A flow regulator.

Barbara Yeah. Flow regulator. The um, and it, the, another thing you might notice on the hand Hanvey is you can just see one of the little feet sticking out. So it has little four little feet on the four corners of the bottom, and that lifts the pump off the surface so it doesn't suck up a, uh, a bath mat. Right, right. It doesn't suck up a bath mat or, um, you know, it just makes the flow happen more, um, uh, efficiently.

Susy It also combats the problem that these pumps have in the stainless steel tubs. My tub in the trailer was textured, so the water was able to sneak underneath it when there weren't as good a feed on it. This one, the feet lifts it up so it doesn't suck down to the top of the stainless steel tub or, you know, it was really it's really difficult. It's surprising.

Barbara Really.

Susy Who knew? Yeah.

Barbara And and very significantly, it has built in GFCI. So you it's already engineered so that it can't electrocute you. Some of these others don't have built in psi. You have either have to have a, an outlet that's a GFCI, which you should have anyway. But I didn't because I had a, I was in a very old building. Um, it either they eat it or you have to buy a, an adapter that has a GFCI, but do not use any bathing system without a GFCI protection because, uh, Uh, shit can happen. Um, the other thing that that there's a lot of special engineering that goes on and the top of the Hanvey. Um, not only does it have a good handle so that you never have to lift it by the hose or the cord, but it has um protection around the wire. This, this picture doesn't really show you the electrical wire does it? But can you see.

Susy Can you see my mouse. Does that show.

Barbara Yeah. There's your mouse.

Susy Okay. Right here. She's talking right here.

Barbara So, so. Right. Well but that. Yeah. Right there. But there's that. It actually doesn't show the electric cord, which is, by the way, um, pretty long. It's either nine or ten feet in length. And so yeah, pretty, pretty much can get it out of the tub. Um, even if it's a big tub. Um. Oh twenty five foot length.

Susy Yep.

Barbara The hose is five feet. The, it's a, it's much heavier than some. It's ten lives, ten pounds, but it's very balanced. So it just almost never over in the tub. Almost never. That's just not an issue. Uh.

Susy You know what I noticed with this comparison, Barbara, when I was looking at them, everybody uses different statistics and you have to do a little math sometimes to figure out how these pumps compare to each other, because they list such different statistics on them. Such different specific details.

Barbara That's true. They describe them differently. Uh.

Susy Hanvey also sells all kinds of parts for the bathing beauty as well.

Barbara There's the there's our there's our spray pattern right there. Yeah. Right there. There's the spray pattern on the sprayer. And you also see the, um, volume valve on the sprayer. So and you can, and you can unscrew the top of that sprayer and clean it separately.

Susy And you can use it like a garden hose where you stick your finger over the end and spray into the cup.

Barbara Sometimes you can take the whole thing off and use it like a garden hose. Yeah. Let's look, shall we? Look at the, um, flying pig.

Susy Do you want to go to Flying Pig or do you want, like, I've got them organized in powerful to least powerful. So like the next like the next high flow contenders that actually have as much pressure as the bathing beauty are the O pads and the pump biz hound wash. So do we skip those and go down to the other ones? Or how would you like to do it?

Barbara Okay, no, if you want to do it that way, I'm fine.

Susy Okay, let's do a pause. Next.

Barbara Oh, pause.

Susy Yep. That's this one right here.

Barbara Okay, so I'll pause is, um, pretty much a knockoff of the bathing beauty. And it's much cheaper. It's like four hundred dollars, I think probably plus shipping. Right. Um. And it is orange.

Susy Yes.

Barbara And it has the you know, the one thing that I, I looked at the video, I watched the video and um, it, it seemed to be pretty good, except I didn't like that the bottom filter was separate from the pump. So you have to place the pump on the filter in the tub in order to get the filtration happening. Did you notice that right here.

Susy Here's a picture of it. So this filter goes on the bottom. And if you notice the area that at which the water draws into is really small in the center of the pump. And then there's a little bit of outlets on the side. That's not the way the bathing beauty is. It just sucks. The whole base of the bottom is screened off.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy Yeah. And so this screen goes underneath.

Barbara That holds that holds that light white little spongy screen.

Susy Yeah.

Barbara Yeah. I, I didn't really like, I didn't really like that setup. It does, it does have oh, pause does have um, an air switch though. Yeah. And um.

Susy And the other thing is.

Barbara Also the nozzle is somewhat customized.

Susy It's a little.

Barbara Weird.

Susy I think they get a close up of it. Here it is.

Barbara Yeah. I just think that I suspect that those holes in the nozzle are what I would call too. Fine.

Susy I think you're right. I bet you're right. So they've got it at about three point nine nine. It's four hundred watts of power with a flow rate of thirty gallons per minute. See, and everybody uses different numbers. It was really confusing. This one's nine pounds.

Barbara That's a lot of gallons. That's that's a lot of gallons per minute.

Susy That's why it goes in the high flow contenders area. It's a high flow pump. And the other high flow pump is the hound wash from hound wash. Yeah. And I've got a picture of that right here. And it comes with a very similar nozzle, although a little bit different because it's gathered around the center and it's the pump has got a handle on the top, and they do give you hose with it, but I don't see any GFI thing. Right. I don't see any.

Barbara I didn't, I didn't see that either. I didn't see that.

Susy Yeah. And it's for nineteen from uh, pump biz And I would say this is a company that makes pumps. It's not a dog centric bathe your dog kind of a setup, but it's got like a ten foot cord and, um, it's supposed to be in water.

Barbara Yeah, I, I thought it looked pretty good.

Susy It has a foot.

Barbara It has a pressure switch. It doesn't. Does it have a handle?

Susy It does have a handle. I'll show you the handle. Handle on the top of the pump right there. See that?

Barbara Oh that's good. Okay. I didn't see the handle.

Susy And then if you go down here, here's the statistics. And it does have a foot switch.

Barbara It's got a longer hose. It's got an eight foot hose. It's got a foot switch.

Susy Yeah. It does have a foot switch. Presser foot switch right here. Hands free operation.

Barbara They claim their hose is. Garden hose adapter included. That's. I think that's the sprayer.

Susy I think they just mean the sprayer.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy Uh, and then it does say that it has GFCI shock protection on it, but I'm not seeing it in the picture, so I hesitate to make any comment on that. Um, but that's an option. It's for nineteen. So those are the two that have similar pump strength to the bathing beauty. Then if we go down to the mid-range lightweight options you've got the flying pig. Do you want to do that one.

Barbara Yeah. The the flying pig. It has a unique feature which I think could be. the big problem it has. It doesn't have an air switch. It has a remote switch that you hold in your hand.

Susy Oh.

Barbara So yeah. So how long before I lose the remote?

Susy Yeah. That's true. That's right here before I.

Barbara Yeah. How long before it falls into the tub? Because you put it on the side of the tub and then you the dog kicks it off.

Susy You're not wrong there.

Barbara Yeah. So, you know, like I just worry about I think it's unique. And I thought, oh, how cool is that? And then I said, not so cool. Yeah. That's just a crisis waiting to happen.

Susy Yes. What do you think? What do you think?

Barbara Very small. It fits in the palm of your hand. That means it could easily get lost under a mountain of dog hair on the floor and get swept up. And it's got a. The flying pig has a unique spraying system. It has very fine spray surrounded by plastic teeth that go through the hair. No. No. And you can see in this picture how fine the spray is. You know what the another thing that happens when you have two fine spray pattern is it makes it more sudsy. So I'm not that I, I think that price wise it's your best deal. Seven dollars. Yeah. And and it comes in purple.

Susy I know it does have a flow regulator. And it also that showerhead is adjustable so that it varies the amount of water that comes through.

Barbara It has a, uh, a two layer filter. So that's kind of shown on. See it has feet.

Susy Yep.

Barbara That's cool. It has feet. It has a double layer filter. So that's good. But uh, and the, the purple color appeals to me and the price is definitely affordable.

Susy Look at how big it looks right here. Do you think that's deceptive? That is really tall. That's a golden retriever. No, it's up at the dog's back.

Barbara It can't be that big.

Susy Yeah, I don't think so.

Barbara Bigger than my dogs?

Susy Yes. Uh, yeah. So I think that's a little.

Barbara What else do they say? Ah, they're, uh. That looks like a GFCI plug.

Susy Yeah, it says it has to go into a must use a grounded outlet. So it has to have the three points.

Barbara Uh.

Susy I don't know. Yeah. There it is. Right there.

Barbara It, it, they say that.

Susy It's.

Barbara High pressured. They, they actually say that it's not suitable for mobiles because of the electricity and not suited for, uh, extra small dogs, not for smalls, uh, because it's so powerful.

Susy But it has a flow regulator, so you just turn it down. That's a silly thing. What are they saying that for? That's silly.

Barbara Well, I saw it.

Susy Well, I, I agree, but it's still silly.

Barbara Um it was a narrative. It was in a narrative description. It wasn't in the.

Susy The um so flying pig gave zero technical uh specifics. Zero. We know not how big that pump is. We don't know what that pump weighs. We don't know much of anything about the actual pump itself. They just have a lot of marketing on everything else. So I could not find where it listed anything about how strong the pump is. But it does come in lots of colors.

Barbara Yeah, it comes in, uh, yellow, red and purple and also.

Susy And also.

Barbara Green.

Susy Sage. Yep.

Barbara And sage and white.

Susy Yep.

Barbara Black and white.

Susy I agree with you. I think it's probably a good bang for your buck entry level.

Barbara I so I think it's an entry level. Yeah. Um, and you know, I'm telling you that, uh, when I went to Atlanta, it was just like the day after I learned about the flying pig and its price because of the groom pod. Thank you. Groom pod. And so I. I was able to tell Huanvy that there was a new competitor on the market, and the price was two hundred and thirty seven dollars. And they just about shit their pants.

Susy Yeah. I'm sure. Because.

Barbara And you know what I noticed as I looked at some of these others, they had they have Of almost all of them have a reduced price where they have the original price xed out and it's like fifty dollars less now. I think that probably happened after Flying Pig hit the market.

Susy People love a bargain, you know, you want to think you're getting a deal.

Barbara So what? What? Hamby actually, um, their team had a an interesting reaction. They said, looks like we need to have an entry level option.

Susy That's a good idea for them.

Barbara And I, and I think that that's what they need to do. They have to get something, you know, like a lot of the features of the Hamby Bathing Beauty are features that happen at the Hamby factory that are that are called a build out, right? Like it has that extra plexi glass, um, cover at the top that protects the wiring and the stuff coming out of the top of the pole and just, and also improves the balance in the, you know, it has a lot of build out features. Yeah. And these, the flying pig is, is more like what you get out when you just get the pump. And, uh, you know, like they just put a slap a hose on there. They have their nozzle, they have their.

Susy They give you a cleaning brush.

Barbara To.

Susy The little brush to clean it. I love that. Yeah.

Barbara I've been trying to get Henry to do that for four years.

Susy I know you have.

Barbara I know because because we have those little two sided brushes that you get from China that you rotate around and once a larger size, and then you rotate it around and it's smaller and they're so cute and they're so effective and efficient and they cost like a buck. Yeah, especially you could get you get, you know, two hundred of them.

Susy Yeah.

Barbara For two hundred bucks.

Susy And.

Barbara Way to everybody.

Susy Just throw it in. Yeah. So it shows.

Barbara Tried to tell them it shows the company's commitment to effective cleaning of the bathing beauty because biggest concern is dirty water or contaminated water going on the pet.

Susy Yeah. And That's.

Barbara Because. And you know, what happens is that not so much the shampoos, but but, uh, conditioners really deposit more waxy, slimy stuff in the mechanism of your bathing beauty. They are the cat's meow. Oh, boy. I don't use that phrase. They are the shit.

Susy Yeah, you use that one.

Barbara Ah. Absolutely. Uh. But the way to go. But what was my. Where was I going with that? I got so excited by my own words.

Susy Uh, you were talking about conditioner being the that that conditioner.

Barbara Well, it's because conditioners have a Thick, creamy, waxy stuff that doesn't, you know, unless you clean it out after every bath, which you're not going to. But it's absolutely the best way to apply conditioner. It's if I, if I had one, if I had a bathing system, I would use it for sure for all my conditioning, for getting conditioner through a double coat. You can't beat it. You cannot get with your hands conditioner. Use twice as much conditioner and you can miss hole spots. And I remember when we turned a a Samoyed. Like pink on its haunches, because I was using the lab white shampoo and the bather didn't wet the hair thoroughly before using that shampoo. And this is shampoo and conditioner. I digress, but forgetting for for getting products through thick coats. You can't do it by hand as well as you do it with a a bathing system for sure, but you pay a small price of buildup occurring from the ingredients of the conditioner. Now you can get rid of that. You can usually, uh, you need to clean your bathing beauty, your machine, your equipment at least once a week, if not every night. But I never did mind. I didn't even do it once a week. I did it about once a month I would take my hand bathing beauty apart from the bottom. And it's just four screws and um. Oh, pause takes about four screws to. We haven't got there yet.

Susy No, but let's, let's do the next one. Let's move.

Barbara Dog. Shammy.

Susy Yep. Because that pump is comparable to the flying pig pump. They're both about the same strength. At least you're kidding me. No.

Barbara You mean a turbo wash?

Susy Yes. The turbo.

Barbara Wash?

Susy Yep. It's a quarter.

Barbara Turbo. The turbo wash is the brand that forever stainless. Uh, which is your premier stainless steel tub maker? Um, I mean, in those, though, that company has integrity to give away. They really have a lot of integrity. I love that company. And they have this pump that they use as a turbo, um, wash and but forever stainless doesn't retail the bathing system. They sell it with their. You know, to accompany their tubs. It's got a, um.

Susy But you can buy it at dog dot com for four hundred.

Barbara dog dot com. You can get it for four ninety seven seventy seven free shipping.

Susy Yep.

Barbara Um, and it has a. They say the hose is flexible And there's that.

Susy That's that washing machine hose. That's washing machine.

Barbara That's another washing machine hose. It's going to be heavier. It's going to be sturdy.

Susy It's going to last forever.

Barbara Heavier, but it's going to last forever. And it's going to be heavy. And it's not as flexible as the heavy hose. It's a six foot hose. What did you say their hose was ten feet.

Susy Um I go back here.

Barbara Yeah they did.

Susy The hose I think the cord is ten foot. The hose is five feet.

Speaker 4 It was hot.

Barbara Yeah, it's five feet. And this is like. And this is six feet. So excuse me. Better deal comparable. Um and what they do is they have um two different nozzles. One is a high volume low pressure and the other one is a medium volume high pressure. So that's an interesting little option to think about. Um what I don't like about the, the pump is that it doesn't have a handle. So you're going to be likely to bathers are going to probably lift it by the cord. Yeah. And that's, you know it does have a volume control.

Susy And an air switch. Um.

Barbara Yeah. And uh.

Susy And a GFI.

Barbara At g f I um. And. you know, you can get from forever stainless. You can get a stainless steel basket that you put the pump in that keeps it from tipping over. So and it serves as a filter. I like that idea. I, I'm just, I, I've got to see what I'd like to have one made for the, the heavy pump, which I think is a little bit too long on the bottom to fit into that cage. But the idea of having a cage around the whole pump that attracts debris and hair. That's a, that's a good, you know, filter system.

Susy The other nifty thing the forever stainless tubs have is a well to set the pump in so you don't need as much water. You just need to fill up the well where the pump sits. It's recessed. Yeah.

Barbara If you get a stainless steel.

Susy That's what their tubs. But that's right.

Barbara But I hate stainless steel tubs. I think they're loud. I think they're stressful.

Susy So I thought they were loud. But it turns out that the one in the van is really not loud. I thought it was, but it's not so loud. It's not so defective on the because you're mostly deflecting on the dog. I was surprised because I've never had a stainless steel tub. Well, not since I've been. Not for twenty years. And I was surprised that it. It's only loud if you're standing there with the cone nozzle, with your canine two on both motors and you're flailing it. But if you're using it like a normal person does, not so bad.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy Yeah, not so bad a normal, well, I'm not normal, so it's hard to say.

Barbara Hey.

Susy Let's take a real quick break here and hear from show season, and then we'll be back with our budget compact entry point bathing systems. Okay. Apparently my mixing board is having an issue. All right. Let's look at the two compact options we have here. Let me see if I can find them. Uh, the areolas a a how do you say that?

Speaker 4 I know, I.

Barbara Don't know a.

Susy It sounds good.

Barbara Ah. Areolas. I don't know.

Susy A e e o yola's. I don't know.

Barbara Is it a e o o a o a o a s?

Susy Okay, there we go.

Barbara Here we go.

Susy Look at this cute little thing. Isn't it cute?

Barbara It is. Look at the feet on it. It's got some. It's got suction feet. That's to keep it from tipping. Because the main thing that would happen with this little baby is that it would tip. But it's got suction cups on the bottom. So to keep it from tipping. I didn't notice that before. This is a good picture. This thing.

Susy Weighs. Yeah. This thing weighs three point nine pounds compared to the ten pounds that the bathing beauty is, and the twenty pounds that the pump is. Pump is. That thing is a beast.

Barbara The pump is pump is twenty pounds. Ten pounds. That's twenty pounds.

Susy Twenty pounds on their website. I don't know if it was accurate that.

Barbara That can't be.

Susy It seemed a little excessive.

Barbara That seems way excessive.

Susy Yeah. So this is a cute little one. It's got the same spray nozzle as the first two. We looked at the apar and the hound wash ones. It's got that same kind of spray nozzle.

Barbara Yeah, I think, yeah, I think they, it all comes from China. Um but it does seem to have a volume control on it.

Susy Yep, yep. Got it.

Barbara Regulator. See. Um and let's see. An air vent for smooth water flow. I don't know what that is.

Susy Um it's something that it's said on the box from China. So they thought they'd put it on the, on the website.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy Right.

Barbara So it's got thermal protection which is good. You would think you might lose that with a cheaper unit, but it's got that um look at the dimensions. It's only Three inches by three inches by eight inches high. That's.

Susy Yeah, it's a little thing.

Barbara Yeah, I don't know. I think I was actually thinking of getting one.

Susy Oh yeah. Well, because that might work for your place.

Barbara Yeah. For, just for my little two little Maltese. Yeah.

Susy But yeah, absolutely. Or you could get that one from chewy. But here, here's the thing. This one is two point nine nine. But if you go over here you'll see.

Barbara Is that AliExpress. Yes.

Susy Yes. Look it.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy Pink and white.

Barbara But then yeah. But you know what. You can pay up to one hundred dollars to have that shipped. Yes. From Ali Express.

Susy But they've got it from a bunch of different men. You know, a bunch of different people are selling it at least two here. Here's another one.

Barbara Yeah, I know I, I saw a bunch of them. They're all over AliExpress. Yeah. And they all have a remote. They have the remote system.

Susy They sure do. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So those last two, the new generation pet bubble machine one hundred and thirty six bucks. That's pretty cheap. But you get what you pay for.

Barbara But I don't we don't know what the shipping is. I, I did find um seventy dollars shipping and one hundred and something dollars shipping when, when I was looking at AliExpress. So, um, that, that's kind of the fine print you need to look for. Uh.

Susy Very true. I suppose if I was going to get that budget friendly one, I would just buy it from Aeolus.

Barbara Yeah, I because are you going to get the right kind of a connection? Is it going to be a a US plug or are you going to get some kind of Chinese plug that doesn't doesn't work for us. I don't know.

Susy Okay. Well, let's talk just a tiny bit about a do it yourself system, because lots of groomers out there have built their own system. Now, I don't like messing with electricity and water so much. So, and I'm very lucky to have two hydro surges and two bathing beauties over the years that I've collected up. So I have some backup. I always have backup for my bathing system because I never want to have to work without it, because I do do some big hairy dogs. But if you get, uh, you can get a pump with a screen on the bottom that's put out by little giant, and you can go with a sixth or a quarter horsepower, depending on what you're looking for. Then you got to get an air.

Barbara Power is what you really want. If you're doing commercial. Um.

Susy Yep. Then you can get an air switch in a GFI. Uh, that's pretty cheap.

Barbara Yeah, I put, I put together a, um, a do it yourself system. Yeah. One, one year I, my bathing beauty crapped out. I remember the week before Christmas.

Susy We might have that on podcast actually. That might be in some of the earlier podcasts.

Barbara Yeah. And I, and I went on Amazon and I found a pump. I still got it. I got it in, in my outdoor closet. I found a pump for like sixty dollars. It was just like almost identical to the, and the thing about it, it took less water. Than the Hanvey bathing beauty. So it was really very water efficient. And, um. I, I don't think I had, I had trouble doing the air switch. I found a place, but it didn't, the air switch didn't fit or something like that happened that, that was a bit of a mess. But I, what I used to do is I, I had a drying table that was, that was side by side to my tub and I put a, um. A plug in place on the table like a strip I could. Yeah, a strip and I could just cut the electricity to the. Just push the button and cut that off. Yeah. So I would just it was right in within reach of my right hand, but far enough away from the tub that it wasn't going to get any water. Yeah. And I would just reach over and shut it off. And that worked okay for me. And the pump worked perfectly.

Susy Yeah, I searched under, I searched on YouTube, and then I searched also on, uh, just the internet in general. And I found lots of do it yourselfers who have kind of put their formula up. And so there is ways to do it yourself. You certainly can. Uh, and I would say.

Barbara You're not going to have the happy bathing beauty. You're not going to have that. I'm telling you that flexible hose, I love it. Me too. And the the spray nozzle, I love it. Yup. Um.

Susy I think the nozzle makes a huge difference. The power. And then having the bigger holes in the pattern with the the center hole as well. I think that really makes a difference. Yeah.

Barbara Yeah, I, I agree. Um, but you can do that and I will, I will look at my pump. I have to get, I have to find it. It's stored out of my sight. I will try to find it if it's still available because it was so affordable.

Susy Well if you still have it, you don't need to buy one little thing.

Barbara I mean, I have to find it, right? You know, like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know where my caretaker put it.

Susy Right. I get it, I get it.

Barbara He's got the outdoor closet stacked up in a certain way, you know.

Susy Ah.

Barbara I can't just go in there and pull something off the shelf because the whole thing might fall down anyway.

Susy I should come over with my label maker and I can label everything. I'm really good at that. You should see the van. There's labels everywhere.

Barbara I wonder where I wrote down. I probably wrote down the name of that pump, but that many years ago that. But that was. No, it isn't a little.

Susy It's not a little. Jane.

Barbara No, because I know listen, I've had a lot of pumps because I had a pond.

Susy Right. I remember well, cool. Okay. Well, I think that pretty much covers everything we could find on recirculating bathing systems that are available today. Yeah. Barbara was hinting at it when we started. There were no there was only hydro surge. And then Hanby came in with Bathing Beauty, and that was our options. Or do it yourself. And a recirculating bathing system is not a shampoo delivery system. It doesn't work the same way. It doesn't do the same thing. You don't get what you get from a recirculator in a shampoo delivery system.

Barbara I have one, I have one more comment to make. I wanted to make a comment about the oh pause video. They have a video showing the unit in use washing a dog and they're not washing the dog. Right.

Susy I saw that.

Barbara You know, they're not washing the dog, right? They're not you know, here's the deal. Don't you learn when you when you one of the first things you learn is that each leg has four sides.

Susy Yes.

Barbara It's got an outside and inside a front and a back. and you have to address each side to make sure you're thrown. And the easiest way to get to the inside is to lift the leg of the opposite side and bathe the inside of the leg across from you. And they don't do that. And she she does the face last, but never does. Under the tail. Listen, you gotta do the butthole last.

Susy That's the money shot area.

Barbara You know, like it's all she does. All bathing all on the outside of the dock. There's no inside. She doesn't stand the dog up and do the inside. The inside of the chest and the underbelly. She she doesn't raise the tail up and get the area really good. She doesn't lift the back legs up and get the that that special distance between the hawk and the paw that gets dirty.

Susy It. Sure.

Barbara That needs to be definitely scrubbed a little bit, probably. And the same thing with the front legs. The back of the legs need a little bit more work than the side of the lake. And that doesn't happen. And it, I just, I find it so misleading because if you were to buy the machine and do the bath exactly like you see it in the video, you would not get a clean dog.

Susy Nope.

Barbara I saw that and then you would. And then you would be like a like there was then you would be like putting the you would like ditch the recirculator. You would.

Susy Put the blame.

Barbara As good as you.

Susy Yeah, it didn't work. The blame.

Barbara It didn't work. It didn't work for me. Well.

Susy There's a reason.

Barbara It's so misleading. And and it's in a video and it's marketing the device. You know, if you're going to market the device, bathe it correctly, please.

Susy Yes. And on that note.

Barbara On that note.

Susy Yes, we're going to call it a day. Thank you for being here. Thanks for supporting our sponsors. We couldn't do without them. And we couldn't do it without you guys on Patreon either. We really need that. It definitely supports the show and happy grooming to everyone. See you next time on the Groom pod. Bye now.

Barbara Bye bye. Remember to take care of yourselves. Really, we love you. We need you. See you next week.