Tea Tree gel?

[bshillam]

I know about Kanberra gel - in fact I got a small sample at one time and thought my goodness such a small sample it was amazing stuff.

Well, years forward my new boat has some smells in it I'd like to completely eliminate. I know the sanitation lines need replaced, those are scheduled for replacement next month. As well as a full furnace pull/service. Have you tried the less expensive versions of the tea tree gel such as Starbrite or other brands. There's some on Amazon that offer gel for a gallon for the same price as 84oz of the Kanberra.

What say you?

 

[Miz Trom]

Hi M. BShillam:


We bought the 24-oz refill of the Kanberra gel for living aboard for 5 months with our two dogs. It lasted well, and 3 months after disembarking our boat still smells new, although the gel has reduced in size to tiny pebbles and we know we need to replenish soon.

We bought some less expensive containers of the Amazon imitation Kanberra gel - Safe T Air - to put around our dirt home for while we were gone. Did not work at all, i.e. the dog odor got worse. Our dirt home is in St. Petersburg, FL and we keep the a/c and a dehumidifier on while away from home.

The first time I had to go home I immediately ordered the Kanberra Gel refill for the dirt home. It arrived the day I was flying back to the boat, and our watch-over-the-house friend immediately commented upon how much better the house smelled two days later.

Stick with the expensive Kanberra. It works.

Cheers,
Mrs. Trombley

 

[HopCar]

First buy Peggie Hall’s book.

 

[Moonfish]

We have been using Kanberra Gel since it was first introduced to the boating market back in 2009 or so. It is one of the four things my wife requires us to continue using as liveaboards (the other items are H2Out Space Dryers, Forget About It for Boats holding tank treatment, and AC powered dehumidifiers). We also tried the copycat tea tree products and found they do not work nearly as well as Kanberra.

In fact, in light of the current health "situation", we are using Kanberra Soap most of the time when washing our hands as research shows tea tree oil to be a naturally effective germ, bacteria and virus killer. We're also liberally using the spray throughout the day.

As we use and swear by Kanberra Gel and those other products we sell them in our online store - except for dehumidifiers! It comes in quite a few different forms and sizes:

https://www.pacificnwboatertested.com/collections/kanberra-gel

 

[Simi 60]

How bizarre is that
As an Australian I had never heard of this product but while looking through marine trade supplies website today I saw it for the first time.

And then there's this post.
Spooky


https://marinetradesupplies.com.au/product-category/kanberra-gel/

 

[Comodave]

Does everything in Australia cost that much or is it the exchange rate but that looks really expensive there? It isn’t cheap here but much less than that posting.

 

[HiDHo]

We use Melaluca a USA company cleaning products which are based on tea tree oil from Australia on our boat and in our home. The oil heals cuts, fever blisters, etc. I tried Renew, a skin lotion on a skin tear accident, it took several months to heal the dime size area which no longer forms nasty looking crust. My wife is a cancer survivor and has used Mela products for over twenty years because they are a natural cleanser that’s chemical free. So for us tea tree oil or gel works.
Excuse the skin tear information, it might be TMI.

 

[Moonfish]

Only the tea tree oil itself is imported from Australia (and is certified by the Australian Tea Tree Industry Assoc. as 100% pharmaceutical grade). Kanberra Gel is made here in the US. When they first approached me at the Oakland Boat Show about 11 years ago they said it had been developed initially by the US Navy to sanitize the recirculated air in nuclear submarines. Research shows that TTO kills mold, germs, and even strains of viruses (the ones tested).

What originally convinced me was a side-by-side time lapse comparison of two bagel pieces in jars. In one jar the bagel was by itself. In the other there was a small amount of Kanberra Gel. Over a couple weeks the bagel without gel quickly got moldy (and quite colorful in a furry sort of way!), while the one with gel looked exactly the same as when it went in.

We agree, the Kanberra Gel is not necessarily cheap. But we have been using it for a decade, the last 7.5 years as 24/7 liveaboards/workaboards. Combined with H2Out Space Dryers and dehumidifiers, we've not had any mold on our boat.