Hot take: those $15 UV flashlights on Amazon are a scam for finding pet stains

I bought one of those cheap UV lights for $15 thinking it would show me every cat accident on my carpet. Turned out it showed glowing spots everywhere from just dust and laundry detergent residue. I spent 2 hours scrubbing phantom stains before I realized the light was just picking up normal household stuff. Ended up buying a $40 enzymatic cleaner that actually works for real messes. Anyone else find those cheap UV lights more trouble than they're worth?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_piper8d ago

Oh man, I had a buddy who fell for this exact same thing. He bought that cheap UV light and went to town on his beige living room carpet. He was so excited when he saw all these glowing spots, thought he'd found years of hidden pet stains. Turns out he had just used a laundry detergent with optical brighteners the week before. He spent a whole Saturday renting a carpet cleaner and scrubbing every inch of that floor. When he finally figured it out, he was so mad he threw the UV light in the trash.

jennifer9658d ago

Give your buddy some credit, that UV light actually helped him do a deep cleaning he probably needed anyway. Most people never think to rent a carpet cleaner unless something forces their hand, so maybe that glowing detergent was a blessing in disguise. Plenty of hidden stains won't show up under regular light, so even if he was chasing ghosts, he still ended up with a cleaner floor than when he started.