Meet Lynn Allen of Tool Klean, Makers of UV Sanitizers & UVC Cleaning Devices for Groomers

Joe Zuccarello (00:27):
What’s up everyone? Joe Zuccarello here and welcome to Hey Joe, a podcast brought to you by Paragon School of Pet Grooming. Check out our site ParagonPetSchool.com for lots of really cool information on a variety of programs, products, and to connect to educational resources such as webinars, podcasts, current events, special news certifications, and lots of other helpful information to help you grow yourself, your team, and of course your business. Let’s get started with this week’s episode.

Joe Zuccarello (00:58):
Hello. Hey Joe, listener audience. This is Joe Zuccarello, your podcast host, and here we are yet again with another wonderful episode of the Hey Joe Pet Pro podcast. And I am, as we always do, I always try to target some helpful people, some industry experts, some experts in their own field. And today our topic, our subject matter topic is sanitization of not only the equipment that you might be using in your grooming businesses and part of other parts of your business, but also the space in which some of your staff members and team members work as well to provide a safe, healthy environment, not only for the people that you walk this business life with in your organization, but also for the pets that visit you and for the pet parents who we make those service promises to take very good care of these fuzzy creatures they call their family members. So joining me today, I am excited to have Lynn Allen. Lynn is the president of Tool Clean, and Lynn and I met each other quite some time ago and we’ve always kind of tinkered with the idea of having some time together on the podcast. So Lynn, here you are. You made it to the Hey Joe podcast. Thanks for being a guest.

Lynn Allen (02:13):
Yay. Thank you so much, Joe for having me on. I greatly appreciate that. It just is just great to get the word out and I just think education is perfect for groomers, and I want to thank you so much for having me.

Joe Zuccarello (02:32):
Oh, it’s a pleasure! I’m sure we’re going to have a good time together today, Lynn, I know that you are sort of not only a serial entrepreneur, which I would love for you to be able to sort of introduce yourself to the Hey Joe listener audience, a hey Joe podcast listener audience. Maybe by letting us know what you do at Tool Clean, what your position is at Tool Clean and what your focus is there. But really to start us off on the journey of how Lynn, the businesses you own, some of the credibility that you have, some of the pet industry experience especially. So let’s start with who you are today and the earliest days of on your journey to where you’re at today.

Lynn Allen (03:20):
Okay. Well, I’m very passionate about the pet industry. That is my industry. I’ve been in it forever, and it’s a passion. It’s of the heart. And that journey has been amazing. When I opened my very first grooming salon, I was very, very excited to be able to learn how to put out a quality dog. One thing led to another, I trained groomers with the same excitement and have had 15 grooming salons. I had four salons going at once when I lived in Minnesota, and the other salons were located in New York and the state of Washington,

Joe Zuccarello (04:07):
Hold on, hold on, stop just a second. You had had 15 grooming salons and you had as many as four in operation at one time. So listen, anybody listening out there knows how hard it is to operate One, maybe two, even a handful, but 15 grooming son, and you’re a professional groomer, right? And you’ve had other pet industry experience, a pet industry and really dog experience in your earliest days too, right?

Lynn Allen (04:37):
Yes, I’ve owned a boarding kennel, had a very large boarding facility when I lived in Minnesota. I’m also an a KC judge, and I have raised some of the top show dogs I’ve won at Westminster, and I still judge. I judge our nationals, mostly dachshunds, but I’ve raised Cockers and Chanels was also kind of how the grooming fits in too. When I was going to all the dog shows, I wanted to have a career where I was my own boss. I’m very entrepreneurial and that’s how I started in grooming. I loved grooming. I did show grooming already, and then I started to groom for pet owners and they love the trims. That’s how I started.

Joe Zuccarello (05:26):
So in our show prep, and my audience knows, we always do show prep, right? So listen, I’m always trying to make sure I’m bringing the heart or the nectar of the information from our subject matter experts like yourself to the listeners. With that being said, one of the things you told me is you recognized at a certain point in your career timeline, and we’re not going to say, I won’t say ages or anything like that, but you knew that really professional grooming, the act of professional grooming every day or even owning salons had an expiration date to it.

Lynn Allen (06:03):
I think it does. I think that your body really kind of breaks down. I equate it like a man who works with a jackhammer. No, it’s very constant and it does break the body down. On my last salon, which I sold to my girls, they actually told me to get out. I was doing 12 dogs a day. I went down to four. I got slower and slower. They were four gorgeous dogs. There was beautiful, however, so I made a choice that I was going to retire in the active grooming salon, but stay in the grooming industry, and that’s what I developed. Tool clean products. The background of Tool Clean is to develop products that have not been seen in the grooming industry before and to make life easier for the groomers. So we have a whole bunch more products coming out, but I started particularly with sanitation. It was so important and needed an education. A lot of groomers didn’t really know how to truly sanitize the right way. And we had a lot of customers, and this is all experienced on my own salons, and customers would come into us and maybe there was a clip of burn or something got transferred from one pet to another, and the need for cleanliness is really important and sometimes we missed that.

Joe Zuccarello (07:37):
Okay. So let’s take a moment to explain before we get into the cool technology and such. This is, Hey, for all of you out there that thought you were tuning into something pet related, it is. But you’re going to get a science lesson here. So Lynn’s going to give us a in language and verbiage that we can understand. But before we go there though, Lynn, one thing you made a point of talking to me about was, and I kind of knew this, but when you described this technology to us in just a minute, one thing you said is cleaning is different from sanitizing. Give us sort of the ABCs of that.

Lynn Allen (08:20):
When you’re actually cleaning your tools, you’re getting hair and dirt and debris off, but that doesn’t necessarily get the heavy duty bacteria or fungus or ringworm off of your tools. So that’s not, cleaning is far different than disinfecting and sanitizing your equipment, unfortunately is a lot of methods being used where the groom is feel like they’re sanitizing and cleaning, such as the ultrasonic units. They clean and they’ll get all the hair debris off, but they’re not getting the germs off. Not unless you’re actually putting in some sort of disinfectant liquid, which is not really good for your equipment. I would say most growers do what I do, and we have $1,500 Japanese shears that we love. Even blades are so expensive, but if it’s not disinfected and cleaned properly, they wear down. Those blades can get rusted. Those shears can get rusted. So really the less opportunity there is for soaking them, dowing them, spraying them, the better off the equipment.

Joe Zuccarello (09:38):
That makes complete sense, Lynn, because so what you’re saying is cleaning, we should do both, right? Absolutely. But we shouldn’t only do cleaning. So I mean, they can be inclusive of one another, but not exclusive of one another. So we really need to do both. And again, to your point, our groomer friends out there love their equipment and we like to see the equipment that’s using and people that are passionate about any career, you could be a mechanic and just love this set of wrenches that you have and you bought, they’re for you. So this investment we’ve made, this investment in our tools and our equipment and cleaning them helps to maintain the life of them. But what you’re saying is in order to come through with that service promise and not transfer some yuck from one dog to the next, or even in the air, there’s these particles, there’s the bacteria and germs that we don’t see.

Joe Zuccarello (10:45):
When you’re saying cleaning, you’re probably talking about things you can see, right? You’re taking care of the things you can’t see sanitization. What you’re saying is we got to pay attention to the things we can’t see and that gets missed. I know in this industry, that gets missed a lot, even if we try, sometimes we just don’t have the discipline to do it because it’s not obvious to us. So what you are talking about is something that makes this easy, right? Because a groomer groomer days are hard. So you’re going to be speaking to us, you’re going to give us a science lesson next on this. How do you make sanitization processes easy and fast for the pet professional, but also for all of my employer? Hey, Joe, listener audience out there, all of the employers, this is something, it’s really, if you’re the employer, if you’re the boss, if it’s your name on the building or your name on the lease, you almost have you a responsibility to require your staff to do these things too, because they may just not realize. So carry this message to them. Tell them to tune in, subscribe to the Hey Joe podcast so they can listen to Lynn. Now, Lynn, it’s time for our science lesson. So what technology did you discover along the way in an effort to make the grooming professionals’ job and the environment in which they work safer?

Lynn Allen (12:12):
So I’m going to start out by saying there’s a lot of things that happen to us as groomers or happen to the dogs that’s caused by, I call it the unseen enemy, germs, bacteria, ringworm, fungus. We don’t even sometimes know that it’s on our equipment. And here’s an example, nobody really thinks about when we talk about clipper burn that in, a dog might come back and it’s got an open sore and we know it was a clipper burn. Well, I don’t think groomers realize what that process is. So the blades always heat up and you can cool them down. They’ll always heat so the blade stays hot. Well, when the blade hits the skin and opens the pores, it gives a germ with bacteria an opportunity to invade the skin of the dog. When there’s no germs on the equipment, clipper burn almost doesn’t happen unless you’ve actually burned the dog.

Joe Zuccarello (13:23):
Wow, okay. Yeah, I could see if you’re opening a door,

Lynn Allen (13:27):
You, you could get a reddish skin, which is going to calm down and you ease it with powder, but not that open festering sore. That comes from the clipper and that comes from the germs that were on the blade.

Joe Zuccarello (13:42):
Okay, okay.

Lynn Allen (13:44):
So what’s the best way to do that? And do it quick. Do it without liquids. Do it without a mess. And myself, if you asked me if I sanitized my equipment, I’d say, sure, when I was grooming before I knew all of this, but I didn’t like I should. I’d say, okay, I’ll do it the next day. I was so exhausted at the end of the day and that never happened. So I might use the same blades and equipment use after use, which is really not a good idea. So I was determined to find a way to actually make it easy on the groomer and to not have the mess of all of that. And I discovered UVC light sanitation. Now, UVC light’s been used in hospitals for deep disinfects in surgery rooms, many other the water treatment plants. So why not develop that technology into small portables, usable salon equipment?

Joe Zuccarello (14:58):
You’re talking UV light, you’re talking. When we talk about UV protect, when we’re using a sunblock, we’re protecting our skin against the uv or we’re UV light. Sometimes it can come through our windows and fade our floors uv. And sometimes we see this UV sort of demonstrated as this purple or blue light. And at the time of this recording, I mean we’re four years past covid now or past the most height part of heightened part of covid. We’ve heard of put the UV units on your furnaces or on your air conditioners and condition your air. Now, we’ll come back to that in a minute and you’re going to be able to why that’s not a great idea. But is that the light you’re talking about? So you’re talking like the light that comes from the sun, essentially, we’re trying to duplicate that and put it to workforce.

Lynn Allen (15:46):
So you just mentioned blue rays and purple rays and stuff. So this is a blue light that falls into the blue frequency. It’s a germicidal wavelength. Now, when we talk about the sun produces many wavelengths, so you have, if you’re out in the sun, that’s BA is what they use for the technology of healing wounds. So you can get deep into the skin. C is a germicidal UV wave. That’s what they don’t want to come through the ozone layers. And they say the dangerous sun rays come through the ozone layers. That’s UVC and that’s a germ killing frequency. So we have light bulbs now that can produce that frequency. When that frequency is produced, it destroys the DNA of pathogens, germs, viruses, mold, mildew, anything that’s a living pathogen. If it hits that frequency and it’s exposed, the DNA gets destroyed and therefore you’re destroying. That’s how that works.

Joe Zuccarello (17:11):
So the different types of uv, A, B and C, C is the one that you’re harnessing, which the reason why you don’t want it to come through the ozone layer is from what I understand, because I mean to some degree our whole world is we’re surrounded by germs and pathogens and bacteria, and some of them actually make us stronger and more and immune to some things, but used in a controlled purpose like what you’re talking about, we can put it to work for us.

Lynn Allen (17:37):
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And it’s a great technology. Now when you use uv, because it is so strong and it does it job so well, you can’t be in the same with a product that’s being used. That’s a UV product. So no pets can be nothing living, right? It kills everything living, not that it destroys these pathogens. So you have to be a little careful. You don’t want to look into it. It could hurt your eyes, you or your skin to be exposed. So in using these products or any products that are uv, you want to make sure that you are out of the room, there’s no pets in the room, or you use it in a contained, like a cabinet or a box or that type of thing.

Joe Zuccarello (18:23):
Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about that. I want to go back real quick and I want to really drive home the thought of there’s lots of sprays or washes that people will submerge their, what comes to my mind, and it’s not saying that these products are necessarily the most awful thing to use. They just may not be the best things to use. So especially if what you value, what you as a professional p groomer need is you need to get your tools sanitized and get back to work, but you also don’t want to introduce, let’s face it, I think some of the active ingredients for some of these liquid products, I mean they’re carried to the product through with water, and that can rust, it can rust some things, it can gum some things up. I mean, even if it’s just oily or wet, it actually attract more of that debris that we just cleaned off of our equipment. What you’re saying is this is done dry, this is

Lynn Allen (19:26):
Done. Yep. This is done dry. And you have to be careful of those sprays. A lot of them are Lysol based. You can’t put the blade back on a dog’s skin with that kind of toxic spray on blade because it will set up an allergy or infection or something. Like dog could be very allergic to that.

Joe Zuccarello (19:48):
Yeah, some chemical reaction at that point, right?

Lynn Allen (19:50):
Chemical reaction, yes. You have to be very careful what you use.

Joe Zuccarello (19:53):
Okay, so let’s talk about, because I’m sure some people out there, their bells and whistles are going off. They’re like, whoa, wait a minute. You’re telling us to go ahead and use UV in this case UVC, but you’re telling us we can’t be in the room, so hold on, time out. How do I do it? And you mentioned something about a cabinet or a box. This is where, well, you took the science and you said, we’re going to not only put it to workforce in its scientific method, but you’re going to then create an environment where these can be used safely while contained, but then you have some products, and I want to explore those three top products. I know you and I talked about before about how this product can be used. Let’s start off with first, how would a grooming professional use UV to sanitize their handheld equipment like blades and shears and such?

Lynn Allen (20:55):
So we started out, that’s why our name is Tool Clean because we started out sanitizing tools and we developed a cabinet, small cabinet Oven Pro is what our product is called. Wall Mountable, very easy. You simply put your blades, you put your scissors and combs brushes. The nice thing about UV is you can disinfect anything. So it can be wood handle brushes, it can be plastics, collars, leashes, sponges, toothbrushes, anything. In fact, what I used to do in my salon, because I tested a lot of this equipment, I went back to my salons, the girls purchased from me and I put the equipment in there and did the testing myself. And I found that we were able to very easily upcharge our customers offering to sanitize the dog’s collars and leashes and their grooming tools at home if they just brought it in. So yeah, we were charging $5 extra with each trim, and they were very happy and they were bringing their combs and everything else in. I had a lady bring a dog dish. I said, that’s washable, but oh well. We’ll do it for you.

Joe Zuccarello (22:14):
We’ll do it. You’re willing to pay us. We’ll do it. We’ve got the cabinet. So you started. You started by harnessing this technology in a cabinet where industry professionals can insert their equipment, close a door. How long does it take for this UV technology to do its job?

Lynn Allen (22:38):
Five Minutes.

Joe Zuccarello (22:40):
Really?

Lynn Allen (22:42):
10 minutes Optima. If there was a dog that came in and we know there is a ringworm issue or a cat, I suggest 10. But think about the ease of this, Joe, you want to sanitize your equipment between dogs. You’d love to, you haven’t been able to before. You don’t have the time for it. Time is the thing that we lack the most in a busy grooming salon. Now you could just stick your equipment into the oven, set it, go back, wash next dog. By the time dry, put it under the dryer, get your dog. You’re going to finish out, your equipment’s ready and it’s fresh and it’s clean and it’s sanitized to go on. So you can work on your finished dog so you’re not transferring it. So it’s that quick. It’s five minutes. You’re done.

Joe Zuccarello (23:40):
Lynn, real quick. Everybody out there listening to a podcast. This is the Joe Podcast. And again, just so a reminder, we’re talking to Lynn Allen, who’s the president of Tool Clean, and Lynn is giving us a science lesson on how UVC light that one of the three different versions of UV light is used to help sanitize quickly, safely easily our equipment, either even during the same dog’s grooming or between dogs grooming. When we go from Fido to Bruno, we sanitize our equipment. What you’ve just described is this cabinet approach that Now, Lynn, I’m going to ask you, you call it an oven? Does it heat up?

Lynn Allen (24:27):
It’s not hot.

Joe Zuccarello (24:29):
That cannot be the only person that’s ever asked you that question, right? No.

Lynn Allen (24:32):
Everybody asks me that. It looked like a little microwave oven. So we just called it an oven. But no, there’s no heat. It’s just light.

Joe Zuccarello (24:44):
I see.

Lynn Allen (24:45):
Yeah, there’s really nothing but the light doing its great job on all of the equipment.

Joe Zuccarello (24:53):
So remind us again for maybe people that have paused the podcast, went to work, came back and are restarting the podcast, what pathogens or germs and bacteria and the like, what are some of the heavy hitters? What are some of the ones that we see in the salon? Well, we don’t really see them, right? They’re there. We just can’t see. We don’t What are the ones that we now know? Because you’re teaching us that we are either exposing ourselves or the pets to, what are some of the ones that are like, I hate to say scary, but sometimes the things you can’t see are the ones that scary the most. What are some of the heavy hitters there? What are some of the biggest violators?

Lynn Allen (25:35):
Well, I want to start out by saying everybody knows currently that there’s a viral, an enteritis going around, which is very contagious. There have been grooming salons where customers won’t even bring the dogs in unless the groomers are disinfecting tables and everything. So everybody’s aware of that that’s going around. So of course, viruses is big on the list bacteria. That’s your worst for giving infections on the skin if it’s on blades. Even if you were to take, what happens, I’ll just give a scenario that everybody will probably agree with. You have your slicker brush, you’re brushing the dog, okay? The tip of the slicker, one of the pins hits your finger. You’ve got a major infection going, right? Okay,

Joe Zuccarello (26:35):
I’ve had that. I’ve had one of those pins go in my CLE of my thumb or my finger. It’s

Lynn Allen (26:40):
Terrible for two weeks, and that just doesn’t go away. That’s a bacteria that was on the end of the pins of the brush that didn’t need to be there. So bacteria, big time on our tools. Viral enteritis is, even if we take our brush and we’re brushing the rear, we’re getting whatever was in the rear on our brush ring wear. They’re very big with cats. Dogs have it too, but you don’t even know sometimes that they have it until you do a shave down and there’s that patch and you go, oops, I, SIA conditions. Everybody knows the cocker that came in with a horrible seborrhea condition. It also UVC works very, very well on mold too. Very well on mold.

Joe Zuccarello (27:36):
Okay. Alright.

Lynn Allen (27:37):
Microtoxins, things like that. So anything

Joe Zuccarello (27:41):
To, I’m sorry, to your point Lynn, is that slicker brush situation? Oh my gosh, I was thinking shears and clipper blades. But you’re right. I mean if we’re doing our job, we’re probably getting that slicker brush, a little pins all the way down to this skin. We’re getting through those mats and who knows what’s in those mats. And then you bring up the dog butt kind of thing where we are in that rear end area, who knows what has been back there for how long? And then we take that same brush in some cases at the very best, we use our hand and we get the hair out of that brush, throw the hair away, we put that on our grooming station, and then the next dog comes in and we grab that brush. We start brushing the next dog out. That’s right. We could be transferring that not only to the dog, but I mean this is a human issue too, because I mean, we’re not talking the difference between zoonotic and non zoonotic bacteria or germs or illnesses or viruses. We’re just talking about some good old fashioned spreading yuck around the environment. And really now you told me too that sometimes it’s bacteria. That’s where the smell sometimes where all smells come from. So if we can get rid of some of the bacteria, might we also be then improving the air quality? And we’re going to talk about the other units here in a minute. I can’t wait to talk to it.

Joe Zuccarello (29:05):
We improving just the overall environment, just air quality and odor.

Lynn Allen (29:10):
Oh, absolutely. Bacteria. Well, we can get into the other products because I’d love to talk how that

Joe Zuccarello (29:16):
That’s right.

Lynn Allen (29:17):
But before we go on to the other products, what I really would like to address is UV will also destroy worm eggs and larva. Yeah,

Joe Zuccarello (29:32):
Yeah. Tell us more about that.

Lynn Allen (29:33):
Why larva, worm eggs, anything that is in that butt area and we’re brushing it like crazy with our slicker brushes, we can’t see it sometimes it’s so small, but UV will also take care of that. We’ll dry it right up and destroy that flea will take care of flea eggs. Now it won’t take care of something that’s a hard shell because the ray doesn’t penetrate, but it does take care of eggs. So you’re talking about tick eggs, you’re talking about flea eggs. Any sort of worm eggs or segments that happen to be on the dog, it takes care of that.

Joe Zuccarello (30:17):
So if it’s on the dog, obviously we’re not going to put the dog in your oven. We’re not going to be able to do that. Right? And we can’t use UV light directly on the dog. But what you’re saying is that when we’re using our tools, we’re picking that up off the dog

Lynn Allen (30:33):
Right here. We clipper all that hair off and all that stuff is in the hair. We just clipper it off, which all falls onto our brushes and combs that are sitting on the table. When you think about the transference and how it happens, it’s so fast we don’t even realize it.

Joe Zuccarello (30:51):
No, no. And really with those moving parts, we’re probably throwing some of it in just the air and it’s going to settle on its own even potentially without a vehicle, like a clump of hair or a cotton ball that we use to clean the dog’s ears or something like that. So let’s talk then. That’s a really great point about the eggs and such. I had forgotten about that. So thank you for bringing that up. You told me about that yesterday and our show prep, let’s then talk about just that, right? So the hair and everything else kind of falls on the table. So you said, you know what? Hey, we got this oven, we got this box, the sanitization box that we use for the handheld equipment. What about that table top? So then you kind of went after another device that can be used while you’re in the room because it’s focused, right? But I mean, we can’t put the whole table in a box. So what do we do? No,

Lynn Allen (31:48):
So we have what we call our UV stick. It’s kind of a wand and you can just, what I would do between groomings is I would get all the hair off the table and turn on the wand real quick and do a low slow scan on the grooming table. And that UV light is killing all the bacteria, worms and everything that’s on that table. And it also gets into all the crevices. Our tables have that metal strip around them and all of the bacteria gets in there, and unless you actually tear down that table, put it in the tub and disinfect it back in the tub, you never get into those areas. So they contain a lot of bacteria in there. So the sticks are very small, very if there are groomers going into homes, and it’s very easy to put right in your tote and they do a great job. So it’s a just a very slow scan and it’s going to destroy most everything that’s on that grooming table. That would be a contagion factor onto the next dog.

Joe Zuccarello (33:00):
Now is this something Lynn that plugs in so it plugs into an outlet, right?

Lynn Allen (33:05):
No, it has a adapter so you don’t have to plug it in.

Joe Zuccarello (33:14):
Okay, so it’s cordless. So this, that stick is

Lynn Allen (33:17):
Cordless. It stays, stays charged.

Joe Zuccarello (33:20):
Because I was going to ask you, and I didn’t do this during our show prep, but I was going to ask you, I guess the same thing would work if you took this then to the tub, but I wasn’t going to say anything if you plug it in. So I don’t want to recommend you use something plugged in near the tub, but this, you use cordless at the tub too. Yeah,

Lynn Allen (33:36):
Use it cordless. Now, I used to use a stick with great results because our tub that was copped and it was an older tub used to get some of the black mold on it because of how much we wash dogs. And if the tub is dry and you use that UV stick over that, that tends to go away. So it does kill the mold around the tub area too.

Joe Zuccarello (34:03):
Wow, okay.

Lynn Allen (34:05):
Yeah.

Joe Zuccarello (34:05):
So now we’re talking about all the handheld, right? So now, okay, well we’re turning into a UV shop, so got our tools taken care of and we’ve got our tabletop and other surface internal surface flat surface areas taken care of. But then there’s a lot of my listeners out there that then say, okay, you brought up upper respiratory, this virus that’s going around right now, and we’ve got canine flu out there, we’ve got canine cough out there, we’ve got feline influenza, and we’ve got all kinds of stuff that’s in the air even. Hey, we’ve even got the common cold for people in the air and oh, that’s right. Also say we’ve also maybe got a little covid still around at this time. So all of that being said, flu, whatever else, you got a lot of these things in the air. So I want to talk, you have talk to us about the air before we get into the solution, but talk to us about the air, because earlier in the podcast I had mentioned something about during covid, we were all told, put these UV air scrubber cleanser units on our furnaces or on our air conditioner ventilation systems in our homes.

Joe Zuccarello (35:18):
And that was a way to sort of knock down or help control potential covid spreading of covid in our house. Talk to me about, now, talk to me about how UV does or does not help in the environment in open space in air.

Lynn Allen (35:38):
UV is phenomenal for air environment control. The problem with the units that they put in furnaces is the air is moving too quickly through the furnace in order it to be effective. So we’ve developed a portable that you put right on the grooming table that will actually destroy any pathogens that are in the air. And we have to keep in mind pathogens, and I say pathogens, I mean germs. I mean the whole gamut of it actually float on water droplets. Our environment of our grooming salon is all moisture and humidity. That’s why everything can get around so quickly. When one groomer has a cold, everybody’s getting it. Not when you’re going to utilize UV technology, at the end of the day, you’re going to find that you can actually control it and not have most of your staff out sick.

Joe Zuccarello (36:49):
Okay. So let’s unpack this just a little bit more. So you’re saying then that obviously the pathogens, they live on humidity and we know humidity adds to odor and just stale air, and we try to maybe do some air exchanges. We try to do everything we possibly can, but even outside of the grooming room space, so let’s say you have a full service pet care facility, your daycare play yards inside with maybe rubber mats and rubber mondo flooring where dogs do their business, and I can’t even imagine how porous surfaces could ever be properly sanitized. But let’s talk about canine cough specifically. So what you’re saying, if I’m hearing you correctly, by using a device that is allowed to stay in a space for a period of time, people and dogs cannot be in that space though, right? So this is that one unit that you’re talking about that you cannot be, you or any other creature dogs or cats cannot be in that space while this is being used. But we can use this device to help curtail, I mean, it’s probably hard to say we ever eliminate it, but help to curtail some of these pathogens like canine C and some other things. Correct.

Lynn Allen (38:11):
Not only correct, but it actually does. Our lab testing showed when we tested for parvo and canine cough for viral enteritis with our open whole room units and the testing results came back at a 99.998% kill. Wow. So we’re not talking about 75% or 80%, we’re talking about close to a hundred percent. A hundred percent is disinfect anything that’s under a hundred percent considered sanitize. So

Joe Zuccarello (38:54):
You, you’re scrubbing the air essentially, you are disinfected scrub

Lynn Allen (38:58):
And you’re not doing it with toxic sprays and liquids.

Joe Zuccarello (39:04):
So if you are a pet lodge or a daycare with indoor play yards grooming anywhere, you could have a holding room where maybe it’s just a bunch of kennel banks or your lobby. Let’s not forget about the lobby. The dogs walk in with these little feet that have been, who knows where, stepping in, who knows what, even the bipeds as humans with our shoes. So how long in a space must we not be in there? Any living creatures need to be in there? When you roll this portable unit in and do you turn it on and run? I mean, how do you

Lynn Allen (39:48):
Turn it on and run?

Joe Zuccarello (39:50):
How are you not in there for at least a minute? How does that work?

Lynn Allen (39:54):
Well, first of all, our products have timers that do a countdown and they go beep beep. And then they go, beep, beep, beep, beep. And then you run.

Joe Zuccarello (40:06):
But you’re not, it’s like one of those sci-fi movies. You’re not explode if you’re still half out the door, right? No. Okay. Alright. I don’t want to scare anybody.

Lynn Allen (40:15):
We have remote control with our units too. I see. So you can operate them.

Joe Zuccarello (40:21):
So how long does that have to be in the space?

Lynn Allen (40:24):
Yeah, 15 minutes.

Joe Zuccarello (40:26):
15 minutes. Wow.

Lynn Allen (40:28):
Okay. That’s our testing showed 99 point 98% kill in 15 minutes.

Joe Zuccarello (40:38):
And what kind of square footage does a portable unit cover in 15 minutes?

Lynn Allen (40:46):
So we have a small tabletop unit, which is, by the way, stainless steel. So it’s a quality of the tubs and the cages stainless lasts forever, and that covers about 600 square foot area. Now that is extremely popular with mobile units too, because at the end of the day, the groomer can just turn that on, put her equipment out on the table, turn the unit on, close the doors and leave. It goes off on its own, and she’s disinfected the whole place before tomorrow morning she gets going again. Wow. Then we have larger units for kennels, which go up to about a thousand square foot space where the light hits is going to be disinfected.

Joe Zuccarello (41:38):
I see. So you could have, if you have different wings, like a lot of boarding facilities have different wings, pets maybe while they’re out, if we transport them outside to do their business, we could train our staff. We could have a protocol where our housekeeping staff of full service picker facilities could then roll the unit in, turn it on, put a sign on a door, do not enter UV in process or something, and then they go back 15 minutes later, they move that they go to another. I could see this being used maybe even more than one unit being used in these facilities. And for all of you, Hey, Joe, listener audience out there, you know that the Hey Joe podcast is all about education and not necessarily about commercial, but we do like to promote products that do a really great job. And we wanted to, Lynn and I, we talked about this.

Joe Zuccarello (42:32):
We wanted to bring the science lesson to you first. We wanted to make sure that you understood what should you know about the science behind the difference between cleaning sanitizing and disinfecting. And some of the things that we just can’t see are kind of gross. And I mean, some of the things we can see are kind of gross, but some of the things we can’t see are kind of gross. But Lynn’s company, Lynn, is tool clean, unique in this science. I mean, is this a unique space? Is tool is tool clean? The only product in this space?

Lynn Allen (43:09):
So it’s not necessarily unique to the world out there, but we are the only ones who have made products for the groomers for our pet industry. Fantastic. Yeah. We’re EPA registered company and there’s a lot of regulations behind this. This is not just something that you can get off Amazon and there’s regulations and because we own salons and we have to be careful of inspectors and fire marshals and all of that, we have to go with a company that is extremely reputable and understands all the US regulations. So we are the only ones promoting this type of technology in the pet industry.

Joe Zuccarello (43:55):
Now, what’s interesting about that is because I was going to say, I’m sure there’s naysayers out there. This is just hocus pocus, right? It’s just selling a fancy blue light. But when you talk about being EPA registered is EPA registered EPA registered, we are epa, I’ll tell you in a previous life, having to register products for the EPA, that is no joke. I mean, they take things. The EPA is, they take things really, really seriously. So I can’t say that the EPA would greenlight something that would approve something that was just pocus pocus.

Lynn Allen (44:33):
Our products are considered pesticide devices. So EPA, that’s big claim. Yep. EPA regulates all pesticides, even lawn products, Lysol, that that’s all has to be EPA read. So devices are anything that’s used as a pesticide to kill germs, and that’s what UVC is considered.

Joe Zuccarello (45:00):
Yeah. That kill claim, that’s what EPA makes you prove. I mean, EPA, again, in a previous career, previous life, I was developing some really great new products and had to live the EPA minute in the EPA regulation space. And like I said, it is no joke. So let me ask you something. We’re going to start wrapping up, Lynn, but let me ask you, this sounds, and I know the answer to this, but I’m going to be an advocate. I’m going to be the mouthpiece for the audience out there. This sounds incredibly expensive.

Lynn Allen (45:39):
It’s not. It’s really not. Yeah.

Joe Zuccarello (45:44):
Are you talking a few, I mean, few hundred dollars? You’re talking a few thousand dollars. You’re talking, I mean, what are you talking

Lynn Allen (45:51):
Right off the top of my head? That stick I was telling you that cleaned the tables so well, it’s $60. The oven that will do all of the blades and brushes and cones and all that. That’s about 120. Yeah, the tabletop that I told you does about 600 square foot area and does that beautifully. It’s about $250 in that range. 260. So it’s not expensive.

Joe Zuccarello (46:25):
Well, no, not considering. Maybe some of the veterinary bills you might be saddled with. If our friends in the veterinary community, I love them. I really do. And we have a lot of them that are podcast listeners. But it is easy sometimes for them to say, oh, your dog has this condition. Was he groomed recently? And it’s easy, right? We’ve all been the dark board and really, I mean, sometimes, in fact, many times it’s completely legitimate as much as we don’t want to own up to it. We might not have understood up until now how that was possible. But now I think that sometimes we are, we’re not just the dark board. We are the blame in some cases. So I think that’s a really inexpensive way. I think it’s an inexpensive, prudent insurance policy maybe for something, right? Let’s go the

Lynn Allen (47:14):
Extra mile less expensive than the best year.

Joe Zuccarello (47:17):
Yeah. No, I agree. So we’re going to start wrapping up. And so Lynn, thank you so much for being a guest on the Hey Joe podcast. I know we did show prep yesterday and I still learn more today from you. There’s still a lot more for the audience to learn. So for all of the audience out there, you know that if you go to paragon pet school.com to the Hey Joe podcast resources page, you’ll see this podcast and you’ll see all of the resources that Lynn and her team at Tool Cleaner are going to provide. We’ve got, Lynn, I know you’re providing some education pieces, some links to products, and at the time of this podcast, and we don’t have to say what it is, but you’re even offering really the Hey Joe listener audience a discount on some products too. So to find out those details that that’s correct that Lynn is offering, go to the paragon pet school.com webpage, to the resources center, to the Hey Joe Pet Pro podcast and find there some. Keep learning about this, right? Because this is something that put in the right hands and used with the right discipline can actually enhance the service promise that we make to our pet parents and the pets that we take care of while they’re in our care briefly out there. So Lynn, anything that we missed? Is there anything like, Joe, you forgot to ask me this question, or do you think the rest of it’s going to be picked up in some of the continuing education resources that you’re providing?

Lynn Allen (48:49):
I think a lot of the education will be picked up, but I did have one more thing just to add. Sure. And I’m adding this because it just happened today. We had a local cleaning service called and asked us about our UV and said that they were contracting out to a very large veterinarian facility for cleaning. And the veterinarian insisted that they add UVC light sanitation to the protocol. So here’s a cleaning service, not in the pet industry, but wants to get a contract for a veterinary facility in the pet industry, and they’re coming to me for an education on it.

Joe Zuccarello (49:30):
Wow. That’s fantastic. Our friends in the veterinary community, again, they understand science. They’ll probably back you up at every turn on this as well. Lynn, thank you so much. I know I got a ton out of it, and when I get a ton out of it, I know the Hey, Joe, listener audience also got a ton out of it. Thank you again for being a guest on the Hey Joe Pet Pro podcast and keep us updated. Let’s maybe do another episode as you continue to develop more products and maybe new uses of the technology.

Lynn Allen (49:58):
Thank you so much for having me on, Joe.

Joe Zuccarello (50:01):
Are welcome. We’ll talk to you next time.