We have 8 dogs and I hate to say how many cats. I like to think that I keep up after them pretty well, but when my mother visited, she didn’t hesitate to tell me that I was kidding myself. She said it was like sleeping in a cat box. I was SO embarrassed. I imagined how many friends must have come over and just not said anything out of politeness. A few months later the problem got worse when my oldest dog had a fall and was partially paralyzed. He tries, but he often has accidents as he scoots around. So I started a serious search for a pet odor eliminator that would keep up with old dog accidents, young macho dog marking territory, cat boxes on every floor in the house, and really nasty cat smell around the front door where the outdoor cats come up from the barn and spray.

I think at this point I have probably tried every brand out there. Some of them don’t work at all, some almost work, but then the smell comes back. (Like the time we put Nature’s Miracle on my daughter’s snow boots and thought we had gotten rid of the cat pee smell — until she got into the car and the floor heater started blowing onto her feet!) Some products seem to work well enough to the human nose, but the dogs can still smell the residue in the carpet.

Finally I ran a web search to see whether there was anything I had missed, and I found the SCOE 10X web site. We decided to try it, even though it is very expensive, at $29.95 plus shipping for a 13 ounce bottle of concentrate that makes a gallon.

I would have to say, this stuff works. SCOE 10X stands for Super Concentrated Odor Eliminator. You dilute it 10 to 1 and apply it wherever there is pet or human urine, poop, vomit, anything that stinks. (They even have a testimonial on their website from someone who cleaned the carpet in a coroner’s van with it. I don’t even want to think about that!)

The company sells a small but effective blacklight for $9.95. I went ahead and ordered one so that I could see exactly where the stains were. I’m convinced that I save a lot of money by being able to see exactly where the stains begine and end, so I don’t waste any of the expensive SCOE.

On the downside, it takes a lot of odor eliminator to get a house really clean with as many animals as I have, and you have to keep after it all the time, so it does get expensive. On the upside, the stuff is way cheaper if you buy the larger sizes. If you can afford to order the 5.5 gallon pail, which makes 55 gallons, you will only spend $9 a gallon, compared to nearly $30 for the small size.

You can also get various types of applicators, including a kit to inject the SCOE solution down into your carpet pad, and a big heavy-duty spray bottle. I don’t have carpet, for obvious reasons, so I haven’t tried the former, but definitely you would want to pour or inject the product into carpets and not try to spray it. I find that the spray bottle usually doesn’t deliver enough of the liquid to any given spot. It’s way better to pour and let it soak, especially if your surface is pourous like unfinished wood (the front porch) or concrete (my basement floor.) I only use the spray bottle for the side of the leather couch, which one particular cat likes to mark, and for spot cleanups on fresh accidents.

My house seems to really smell good now. I had a real estate agent walk through, and she marvelled that I had so many animals and the house didn’t smell, so that was pretty much the acid test. Also, the dogs don’t sniff and mark any more, which tells me that I have managed to break that cycle. This is a true odor eliminator, not a masking scent, so what you smell in my house now is fresh!

The company has been reliable on shipping, but in emergencies it’s annoying to have to order by mail instead of being able to dash out to a pet supply and pick up a fresh bottle of odor eliminator. The company charges only actual shipping, no additional packaging or handling charges, but the shipping definitely adds to the total cost. Still, this is beyond doubt the best product I’ve found to get rid of pet odors.

Rating: 9