Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Beckheed it we go at home with Gary
Solvin where we usually have a discussion and learn something
about a particular product or a particular problem in our home,
and today is no different. Jim Parker with Unique Solutions
is joining us and we're going to talk about biofilm. Jim,
welcome again that home with Gary Salvin. How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm good. Yeah, everything's been good. We've been We've had
we've been busy over here.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So that's great. That's great. So I teased our conversation
by saying we're going to talk about biofilm, because when
I use that phrase sometimes when I'm talking about your product,
people go, huh, what's biofilm? So I'll let you start
out with what's biofilm? And where is it in our houses?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's a great question. So biofilm is a combination of bacteria, mold,
and fungus. I want you to think of it kind of.
I use the word matrix. It's a it's a living
organism that has this outer protective shell around it. And
where it can be found in our houses is our
(01:07):
sink drains, our shower drains, our dishwashers, are washing machines.
And then if you have a hot tub or a
swimming pool, a jetted bathtub, all of those internal closed
loop plumbing systems will eventually have or already have what's
called biofilm. And so what we do is we go
in and basically clean that biofilm out.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Does it smell bad?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It can, absolutely So. For example, I use washing machines
are very common. Most people have a washing machine in
their home or their apartment. And so if you've ever
opened up your washing machine and you have that odor,
it's that mildewy, just it almost smells like you left
your clothes in there for a week after you wash them.
Type of sell you know, yeah, exactly, there you go.
(01:56):
Good analogy. I like that one. And so if you're
smelling that, more than likely you have a biofilm build
up within the machine itself, including the internal components and
the plumbing system and even the drain going down.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah. In fact, that's how I found your company. Oh gosh,
it's probably been what six years ago with a product
called Awesome. And I had this smelly wash machine and
you know, I cleaned the seal with some bleach and
it wasn't getting it done. And I found this product
(02:32):
and then when I got it in the mail, it
was like two ounces in this little flask. What in
the world is this? Well, we'll give it a try.
Well yeah, long story short, it worked. And you were
explaining that. So a lot of people say when I
tell them that story, they oh, I just put bleach
in it, that'll do it. That doesn't do it all
(02:53):
the time, right, I mean, it doesn't do it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It doesn't do it at all. Actually, So, bleach is
very good for killing what we like to call free
floating planktonics or single cell organisms, bacteria that's just out there.
It's great in you know, if you put that in
so water and you know, whatever ratio you want to use,
(03:15):
that can disinfect things, which is fantastic, and that's what
bleach is for. However, when you already have this biofilm matrix,
this organism that's already living, bleach is unfortunately not able
to penetrate those outer epidural layers. It just doesn't have
the ability to do it.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Kind of jelly, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, it is. That's a that's a great way too.
That's a great analogy. It's it is exactly like a jelly.
And if you if you had it in your hands.
And so a lot of customers who use it for
their hot tubs, they will notice that it is a
very sticky, sliny substance. It's almost glue like. It's a
saccharide by nature, so it's very glue like and sticky.
(04:00):
So it really is a very complicated organism. And this
is why awesome is. We've been in business for almost
thirty years doing this, twenty nine and a half years
this it'd be thirty years and twenty twenty six. But
this is why it's it's such a popular product because
it works so extremely well in breaking down that that
organism and then flushing that out of the system.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
And hence the small containers. It doesn't take much for
a wash machine. And after you run that cycle and
that biofilm breaks down and it's kind of in the washer.
I mean you can see it and it's gross. It's
no wonder it's smelled bad.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah it is. It's It really is nasty, and it's
just it's one of those things that you don't like
to have to do, but knowing that you do it
is a good thing not only for your you know,
look at it from this perspective too, not only for
the odor aspect of it, but now you're doing a
very good deep clean on your machine. So it does
(05:01):
allow your washer or your dishwasher, or your jetted bathtub
to work more efficiently, which then in turn, you don't
have to buy a new washing machine maybe as often,
or a dishwasher as often. We're keeping it much cleaner.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, I see that. Gosh, I think when you talk
about biofilm and I think of a hot tub, I
don't know if I want to jump in a hot
tub if it has been clean. To be honest with,
do hot dub people there talk about your product and
teach people about that, because it's definitely going to be
(05:35):
in a hot tub.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh, it absolutely isn't hot tubs. If you own a
hot tub and you've never purged it with specifically awesome,
you have biofilm in your tub, that's just if you
and and can it be dangerous? Absolutely, it can be
dangerous because what ends up happening is this, you you
have biofilm. Let's say we'll just use a hot tub,
right and if you know, if you're noticing that, so
(06:00):
in a hot sub, we have to put a sanitizer
like chlorine or bromine into our hot hubs, and there
are others, but those are the two most common ones.
If you're noticing that, boy, my hot tub is just
eating up chlorine all the time. I'm putting it in
every single day. That's a problem. And so that chlorine
is attacking things. Now it's not getting to the biofilm,
(06:20):
but it's seeing something bad in there, so it's attacking it.
Hence the reason why our chlorine is dissipating so rapidly,
and if by because our sanitizer decay rate is so high,
then foreign stuff gets into the water. And now if
you get into a hot stub, well, let's say you've
had a cut on your hand or your leg and
there's a low level of sanitation and you've got bacteria
(06:40):
in the water. Now, these are where you can start
getting you know, staff infections. There's a we call it
hot subrash pseudomonous. You know, you get into your hot
sub and you start getting itchy all over. Oftentimes that's
a hot sub rash, and that's caused by a bacterial
infection because of the water.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
One thing we haven't talked much about, Jim is using
the awesome in drains. Can you kind of walk me
through that? Yeah, what was vanity during?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So you can use any one of our our awesome products,
any one of the gel products, particularly just because it's
a little bit stronger. And what you're gonna do is
you're gonna mix one tea spoon with about three gallons
of water, which is a very doesn't sound like a lot,
you know, we talk about such small amounts. Yeah, but
it's a very strong combination of a very good mixture.
And then all as you simply do is pour that
(07:32):
right down the drain, let it sit for ten to
fifteen minutes, run through its course, and then just give
it a good rinse with you know, if you're using
it in a shower drain, obviously the shower drain is
a little bit bigger, right, so you want to you know,
get that poured down there, Let it drain down there.
It's just as the water in the and the awesome
you know, is going through that piping. It's just gonna
start clearing that stuff off. And then the turn the
(07:53):
shower around for five minutes with cold water and just
let it flush down. And you might have to do
it a couple of times, but You can do that
with every rain in your house, your kitchen sink, your
garbage disposal, you can do it with your bathroom sinks,
all of them.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, because I get a lot of calls on vanities
that smell because everything we use them gel gel theodor
and jel toothpaste, you know, gel and hair spray, and
it gets sticky and it's probably helps collect the biofilm,
does it not?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Oh, it does absolutely, And our bathroom sinks are absolutely
probably the dirtiest drains that we have in our house.
You know, when you think about it, we're brushing our teeth.
All of the bacteria from our mouth is going right
into the sink. For you know, as guys we shave
our faces. Well as we shave our faces, we're taking
off skin cells with that razor blade. All of that
(08:41):
goes right down the drain. We wash our hands, all
of that goes down there, and parts of it will
stick and stay into that plumbing system and over the
course of and it doesn't take long. You know, within
a few days, that biofilm matrix can start to build
up and now you start getting those odors.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
So it's a big question. Erebody stinking right now? Is
How often do we need to do this deep cleaning
of hot tubs, spas, drains, dishwashers, washing machines. How often
should we do this? Is this a once a year
thing or every month?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
That's a great question. So my philosophy is for your dishwasher,
for your washing machine. If you do have a jetted
bathtub in your master bathroom or in your home somewhere,
those are monthly. Those are those are a monthly cleaning.
And once you have that first initial set of cleanings done,
sometimes it takes a little bit, Especially with a jetted bathtub,
(09:34):
you might you might need to do several purges to
get that jetted bathtub clean, dishwashers and washing machines on
the on the first go around, it probably take a
couple of them after that once a month and then
just do that that maintenance. Just try to try to
get to it. I do mine on the first Sunday
of every month. I go around and clean everything out
and then I do all my drains. Now, hot tubs,
(09:56):
swim spas, those are about for hot tubs, about every
six months is our recommendation for swim spos. It varies
with swim spots because they're a little bit bigger, But
most people will do a purge, drain and refill on
a swim spot once a year for your hot tub
about twice a year.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
A lot of jetted bathtubs aren't used. Is that good
for biofilm or bat for biofilm?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
That's a breeding ground for biofilm. Okay, Yeah, even if
you're not using your jetted tub, and I get this
call every day, I'm getting this odor, but I don't
use it, So does it really matter? Well, remember a
lot of a lot of pathogens. Specifically lee Jionella is
an airborne and so if by chance you have that
(10:44):
in your jetted tub, well it's gonna come out of
there eventually as just air motion flows through there. So
even if you're not using your jetted bathtub, it is
still a good idea to run the purge through there
once a month to just clean it out and make
sure that that the system is staying healthy.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Jim, When originally when I found your product, I think
I got it at Amazon might be wrong. Where where
do people pick up some awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So yeah, the vast majority of our customers do purchase
their products through Amazon or through our our hundreds of
retail locations throughout the country. I think amazon is is
by far and away the easiest option for most customers.
Just Amazon makes shopping easy. So amazon is is definitely
a great place to get our awesome products. We do
(11:36):
have awesome products at various retailers throughout the country, mostly
hot tub stores and pool stores.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And then you can also get your awesome products from
our website directly at awesome dot com.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay, and that is a h H s O n
me dot com. Awesome. It's spelled a little different, spelt
a little different, all right, ahh, so m me dot com.
Most people have this problem. Some people know it and
(12:06):
ignore it. Other people want to get it fixed and
so take action. It's it's not healthy. I I do
that washing machine, Like I said, I don't know about
every month, but it's probably every other month, and it
certainly keeps things in check. Hey, Jim is great talking again.
Thanks for checking in. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Thanks, Garry, have a great rest of your slimmer.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Great talking to you, all right, take care of my friend.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
All right.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Uh, well, we haven't talked about that product for a while.
We never really talked about it for DRAMs and as
I dug in, I think that's going to be an
answer to a lot of the drain issues that we
have and getting rid of odors. You can pour it
down the you know the little vent hole at the top,
you can put it in the drain and it's it
(12:56):
certainly does what it's meant to do. So we'll open
up the phone lines for your calls. It's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. You're at home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Garysullivan.
All right, Beckheed it we go at home with Gary
Solvin where we usually have a discussion and learn something
about a particular product or a particular problem in our home,
and today is no different. Jim Parker with Unique Solutions
is joining us and we're going to talk about biofilm. Jim,
welcome again that home with Gary Salvin. How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm good. Yeah, everything's been good. We've been We've had
we've been busy over here.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So that's great. That's great. So I teased our conversation
by saying we're going to talk about biofilm, because when
I use that phrase sometimes when I'm talking about your product,
people go, huh, what's biofilm? So I'll let you start
out with what's biofilm? And where is it in our houses?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's a great question. So biofilm is a combination of bacteria, mold,
and fungus. I want you to think of it kind of.
I use the word matrix. It's a it's a living
organism that has this outer protective shell around it. And
where it can be found in our houses is our
(01:07):
sink drains, our shower drains, our dishwashers, are washing machines.
And then if you have a hot tub or a
swimming pool, a jetted bathtub, all of those internal closed
loop plumbing systems will eventually have or already have what's
called biofilm. And so what we do is we go
in and basically clean that biofilm out.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Does it smell bad?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It can, absolutely So. For example, I use washing machines
are very common. Most people have a washing machine in
their home or their apartment. And so if you've ever
opened up your washing machine and you have that odor,
it's that mildewy, just it almost smells like you left
your clothes in there for a week after you wash them.
Type of sell you know, yeah, exactly, there you go.
(01:56):
Good analogy. I like that one. And so if you're
smelling that, more than likely you have a biofilm build
up within the machine itself, including the internal components and
the plumbing system and even the drain going down.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah. In fact, that's how I found your company. Oh gosh,
it's probably been what six years ago with a product
called Awesome. And I had this smelly wash machine and
you know, I cleaned the seal with some bleach and
it wasn't getting it done. And I found this product
(02:32):
and then when I got it in the mail, it
was like two ounces in this little flask. What in
the world is this? Well, we'll give it a try.
Well yeah, long story short, it worked. And you were
explaining that. So a lot of people say when I
tell them that story, they oh, I just put bleach
in it, that'll do it. That doesn't do it all
(02:53):
the time, right, I mean, it doesn't do it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It doesn't do it at all. Actually, So, bleach is
very good for killing what we like to call free
floating planktonics or single cell organisms, bacteria that's just out there.
It's great in you know, if you put that in
so water and you know, whatever ratio you want to use,
(03:15):
that can disinfect things, which is fantastic, and that's what
bleach is for. However, when you already have this biofilm matrix,
this organism that's already living, bleach is unfortunately not able
to penetrate those outer epidural layers. It just doesn't have
the ability to do it.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Kind of jelly, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, it is. That's a that's a great way too.
That's a great analogy. It's it is exactly like a jelly.
And if you if you had it in your hands.
And so a lot of customers who use it for
their hot tubs, they will notice that it is a
very sticky, sliny substance. It's almost glue like. It's a
saccharide by nature, so it's very glue like and sticky.
(04:00):
So it really is a very complicated organism. And this
is why awesome is. We've been in business for almost
thirty years doing this, twenty nine and a half years
this it'd be thirty years and twenty twenty six. But
this is why it's it's such a popular product because
it works so extremely well in breaking down that that
organism and then flushing that out of the system.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
And hence the small containers. It doesn't take much for
a wash machine. And after you run that cycle and
that biofilm breaks down and it's kind of in the washer.
I mean you can see it and it's gross. It's
no wonder it's smelled bad.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah it is. It's It really is nasty, and it's
just it's one of those things that you don't like
to have to do, but knowing that you do it
is a good thing not only for your you know,
look at it from this perspective too, not only for
the odor aspect of it, but now you're doing a
very good deep clean on your machine. So it does
(05:01):
allow your washer or your dishwasher, or your jetted bathtub
to work more efficiently, which then in turn, you don't
have to buy a new washing machine maybe as often,
or a dishwasher as often. We're keeping it much cleaner.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, I see that. Gosh, I think when you talk
about biofilm and I think of a hot tub, I
don't know if I want to jump in a hot
tub if it has been clean. To be honest with,
do hot dub people there talk about your product and
teach people about that, because it's definitely going to be
(05:35):
in a hot tub.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh, it absolutely isn't hot tubs. If you own a
hot tub and you've never purged it with specifically awesome,
you have biofilm in your tub, that's just if you
and and can it be dangerous? Absolutely, it can be
dangerous because what ends up happening is this, you you
have biofilm. Let's say we'll just use a hot tub,
right and if you know, if you're noticing that, so
(06:00):
in a hot sub, we have to put a sanitizer
like chlorine or bromine into our hot hubs, and there
are others, but those are the two most common ones.
If you're noticing that, boy, my hot tub is just
eating up chlorine all the time. I'm putting it in
every single day. That's a problem. And so that chlorine
is attacking things. Now it's not getting to the biofilm,
(06:20):
but it's seeing something bad in there, so it's attacking it.
Hence the reason why our chlorine is dissipating so rapidly,
and if by because our sanitizer decay rate is so high,
then foreign stuff gets into the water. And now if
you get into a hot stub, well, let's say you've
had a cut on your hand or your leg and
there's a low level of sanitation and you've got bacteria
(06:40):
in the water. Now, these are where you can start
getting you know, staff infections. There's a we call it
hot subrash pseudomonous. You know, you get into your hot
sub and you start getting itchy all over. Oftentimes that's
a hot sub rash, and that's caused by a bacterial
infection because of the water.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
One thing we haven't talked much about, Jim is using
the awesome in drains. Can you kind of walk me
through that? Yeah, what was vanity during?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So you can use any one of our our awesome products,
any one of the gel products, particularly just because it's
a little bit stronger. And what you're gonna do is
you're gonna mix one tea spoon with about three gallons
of water, which is a very doesn't sound like a lot,
you know, we talk about such small amounts. Yeah, but
it's a very strong combination of a very good mixture.
And then all as you simply do is pour that
(07:32):
right down the drain, let it sit for ten to
fifteen minutes, run through its course, and then just give
it a good rinse with you know, if you're using
it in a shower drain, obviously the shower drain is
a little bit bigger, right, so you want to you know,
get that poured down there, Let it drain down there.
It's just as the water in the and the awesome
you know, is going through that piping. It's just gonna
start clearing that stuff off. And then the turn the
(07:53):
shower around for five minutes with cold water and just
let it flush down. And you might have to do
it a couple of times, but You can do that
with every rain in your house, your kitchen sink, your
garbage disposal, you can do it with your bathroom sinks,
all of them.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, because I get a lot of calls on vanities
that smell because everything we use them gel gel theodor
and jel toothpaste, you know, gel and hair spray, and
it gets sticky and it's probably helps collect the biofilm,
does it not?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Oh, it does absolutely, And our bathroom sinks are absolutely
probably the dirtiest drains that we have in our house.
You know, when you think about it, we're brushing our teeth.
All of the bacteria from our mouth is going right
into the sink. For you know, as guys we shave
our faces. Well as we shave our faces, we're taking
off skin cells with that razor blade. All of that
(08:41):
goes right down the drain. We wash our hands, all
of that goes down there, and parts of it will
stick and stay into that plumbing system and over the
course of and it doesn't take long. You know, within
a few days, that biofilm matrix can start to build
up and now you start getting those odors.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
So it's a big question. Erebody stinking right now? Is
How often do we need to do this deep cleaning
of hot tubs, spas, drains, dishwashers, washing machines. How often
should we do this? Is this a once a year
thing or every month?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
That's a great question. So my philosophy is for your dishwasher,
for your washing machine. If you do have a jetted
bathtub in your master bathroom or in your home somewhere,
those are monthly. Those are those are a monthly cleaning.
And once you have that first initial set of cleanings done,
sometimes it takes a little bit, Especially with a jetted bathtub,
(09:34):
you might you might need to do several purges to
get that jetted bathtub clean, dishwashers and washing machines on
the on the first go around, it probably take a
couple of them after that once a month and then
just do that that maintenance. Just try to try to
get to it. I do mine on the first Sunday
of every month. I go around and clean everything out
and then I do all my drains. Now, hot tubs,
(09:56):
swim spas, those are about for hot tubs, about every
six months is our recommendation for swim spos. It varies
with swim spots because they're a little bit bigger, But
most people will do a purge, drain and refill on
a swim spot once a year for your hot tub
about twice a year.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
A lot of jetted bathtubs aren't used. Is that good
for biofilm or bat for biofilm?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
That's a breeding ground for biofilm. Okay, Yeah, even if
you're not using your jetted tub, and I get this
call every day, I'm getting this odor, but I don't
use it, So does it really matter? Well, remember a
lot of a lot of pathogens. Specifically lee Jionella is
an airborne and so if by chance you have that
(10:44):
in your jetted tub, well it's gonna come out of
there eventually as just air motion flows through there. So
even if you're not using your jetted bathtub, it is
still a good idea to run the purge through there
once a month to just clean it out and make
sure that that the system is staying healthy.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Jim, When originally when I found your product, I think
I got it at Amazon might be wrong. Where where
do people pick up some awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So yeah, the vast majority of our customers do purchase
their products through Amazon or through our our hundreds of
retail locations throughout the country. I think amazon is is
by far and away the easiest option for most customers.
Just Amazon makes shopping easy. So amazon is is definitely
a great place to get our awesome products. We do
(11:36):
have awesome products at various retailers throughout the country, mostly
hot tub stores and pool stores.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And then you can also get your awesome products from
our website directly at awesome dot com.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay, and that is a h H s O n
me dot com. Awesome. It's spelled a little different, spelt
a little different, all right, ahh, so m me dot com.
Most people have this problem. Some people know it and
(12:06):
ignore it. Other people want to get it fixed and
so take action. It's it's not healthy. I I do
that washing machine, Like I said, I don't know about
every month, but it's probably every other month, and it
certainly keeps things in check. Hey, Jim is great talking again.
Thanks for checking in. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Thanks, Garry, have a great rest of your slimmer.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Great talking to you, all right, take care of my friend.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
All right.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Uh, well, we haven't talked about that product for a while.
We never really talked about it for DRAMs and as
I dug in, I think that's going to be an
answer to a lot of the drain issues that we
have and getting rid of odors. You can pour it
down the you know the little vent hole at the top,
you can put it in the drain and it's it
(12:56):
certainly does what it's meant to do. So we'll open
up the phone lines for your calls. It's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. You're at home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Garysullivan.
At Home with Gary Sullivan News
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