Survey says… the most popular odor problem is Pet Urine Odor by a 2 to1 margin.

Why is it so difficult and pervasive?

There are several reasons.

1. When urine spots are allowed to dry on flooring, carpeting, bedding, clothing and other porous or fibrous materials, a chemical action occurs that changes the uric acid (that is in all mammalian urine) into ammonia gas and urea salt.
2. Urea salt takes 2 forms, the first permanently bonding to what ever it precipitates on, the second crystallizes on the bonded version or other crystallized salt and remains water soluble.

The challenge to removing the odor is 2 fold.

1. Remove as much of the crystallized urea salt  as possible leaving as little behind as possible.
2. Neutralize the bonded urea salt so that it will stop producing the nasty mercaptan gas that we all know and love.

The real question is what will neutralize the bonded urea salt? There are many products on the market and the internet that claim to be able to quickly and easily and permanently eliminate the odor produced by urine residue.  Many of them actually work under the right circumstances. I.E. no detergent residue present in the area being treated.

There are some additional considerations you should be aware of as well. The carpet padding used in residential carpet installation is capable of storing a very large volume of urine residue. Further, it seems to either change or interfere with efforts to neutralize the urea salt that generates the mercaptan gas.

Most of the time mercaptan gas is produced when urea salt and hydrogen sulfide (HS) come together in the presence of water. Water is a catalyst and is necessary to facilitate the reaction. Because urea salt is really hygroscopic (it grabs water vapor right out of the air) when the relative humidity is higher than 50% there is enough water vapor to catalyze the reaction.  That’s why when you run the heat or A/C hard enough to lower the relative humidity below 50% there is no odor.  But come spring with open doors and windows and high humidity the odor returns big time.

Unfortunately, cat spray (not urine) does not play by the same rules but it produces an easily differentiated odor. One that is more musky than the smell of mercaptan and requires only warm air and no water vapor.  It is also more difficult to eliminate because it is almost always on vertical surfaces that liquids tend to run off of easily.

The good news is that there is actually a product that will do both! OdorXit Concentrate works on both mercaptan producing urea salt and the oily scent spray.

Cleaning the involved areas before applying OdorXit Concentrate is really important, not just to reduce the amount of contaminate to be neutralized but in the case of scent spray, to emulsify the oil so that water based OdorXit Concentrate can do it job.

Like any chemistry experiment there are little nuances or secrets that need to be known, understood and executed. This information is available at the OdorXit Odor Wizard.