I would like to hear from farms who own and use a “Hay Gain” aka Hay Steamer. They certainly are expensive…I’d be interested to hear from folks not associated with selling them…
In a nutshell, YES!!! I’ve had mine for almost a year and it’s already paid for itself. Three of my five horses have allergies that have greatly improved by eating steamed hay vs. rinsed hay. I no longer have to feed bagged forage to the fatties (which was making them fatter!).
I did kill the boiler about three months in. It was still under warranty and HayGain was awesome to deal with–I went directly through them even though I purchased the unit from SmartPak. They emailed me a return shipping label and had the repaired boiler back to me within four days.
LOVE my HayGain!
Which size do you have?
The half bale.
I made one from a steam cleaner and a big plastic tub/bin with a top. Just cut a round hole in the side of the plastic tube and inserted tube from steamer. Works great.
I have the half-bale HayGain. Extremely well made. Has done wonders for my horse who was diagnosed with recurrent airway obstruction disease (fancy term for heaves). I really like concept of killing the mold and dampening hay. No soaking in water in Midwest winters. When I go to shows I steam a few bales and take with. Expensive upfront, but cheap in the long term.
[QUOTE=ToTheNines;7155405]
I made one from a steam cleaner and a big plastic tub/bin with a top. Just cut a round hole in the side of the plastic tube and inserted tube from steamer. Works great.[/QUOTE]
TotheNines-would you share pictures of your steamer?
Question for ToTheNines: Do you mean that you’re using a steam carpet cleaner for the tub device you made? Or something I, a house-cleaning dummy, have never heard of? Thx.
It is a Saeco steamer. I will try to post a link to the steamer and a pic of the setup. My internet service has gone bad, so I will do the best I can.
Here is setup:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/858685_10200180031697935_132771568_o.jpg
Can’t find the exact steamer, which I bought quite a while ago, but there are lots like it for sale.
ToTheNines,
I’m pretty tired of soaking hay, haven’t had to mess with it that much during the summer months but am dreading the coming fall and winter when I really need to soak or steam. I am considering making my own basic steamer similar to yours. I’d like to ask you a couple of questions.
Are you setting flakes of hay into the tub and shaking them out a bit to get space between the flakes?
Do you have a rack or spacers in the bottom of the tub that the hay sits on so that steam can move under the hay?
How long do you steam your hay for?
chicamuxen
[QUOTE=ToTheNines;7155600]
It is a Saeco steamer. I will try to post a link to the steamer and a pic of the setup. My internet service has gone bad, so I will do the best I can.
Here is setup:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/858685_10200180031697935_132771568_o.jpg
Can’t find the exact steamer, which I bought quite a while ago, but there are lots like it for sale.[/QUOTE]
Very creative. Thank you for sharing.
It’s not really about the about of time you steam the hay it’s about the hay reaching the temperature required to kill the “bad stuff”, which I believe is around 200F (I’d have to check my steamer to be sure). So ideally a homemade steamer should have a temperature gauge as well. 
Sorry for not keeping up too well. I am having to use my slower backup internet service today. I put about three flakes in the tub at one time, so the steam permeates pretty well. I put a couple of pieces of pvc pipe at the bottom to raise the flakes a bit off the bottom of the tub, but other than just setting it in the tub, I do not fluff the hay.
I fill the machine with water to the top, and let it heat up. A light goes on, which tells me the machine is ready for me to turn on the steamer button. This starts the steam through the hose and into the tub. After a while, another light goes on that tells me it is out of water. I am pretty careful to get it turned off when that happens. Have never tried to let it stay on and empty for too long. I have it on the back porch so I can keep an eye on it, but I am looking into timers. I would say it takes about 15 minutes to heat up, then about 15 minutes to finish steaming. As I recall, I checked the specs on the steamer, and was satisfied with the max temperature. It is pretty dang hot and steamy when I open the lid. Have to wait a few minutes before I can lift the hay out.
I was very diligent about steaming for a while but did not see a big difference with my IAD (inflammatory airway disease – I guess there are a lot of names for it) horse. So now I am soaking but I may go back to steaming. Would love to hear thoughts on one versus the other.
I made a steamer today following TotheNines’ design…I used a wallpaper steamer, formed a frame in the bottom of the tuppertote with PVC and cut a hole for the steamer hose in the side of the bin.
I steamed the hay for about 30-40 minutes - and boy did it smell good when I opened it up. The ponies loved it!
Thank you TotheNines for sharing your creative design!
Thanks for sharing such a creative design. It is worth it.
I know this is an old thread that was bumped up but for anyone who’s considering making their own hay steamer, give some thought to your choice of plastics as not all of them are safe when they get hot. PVC is not suitable for high temperatures and neither are most of the storage tubs that you get from department stores. Neither of them are food/water safe either.
That aside, I had a haygain for a while and loved it. I have a few different allergies and usually feel a sting in the back of my throat when I sniff even a nice fresh bale of hay. The first time I used it I tried a just-going-mouldy bale of hay that I would normally throw out but I wanted proof of what it’d do to mould and the bale that came out was so nice, moist and sweet-smelling that I ended up offering it to my horse who ate all of it. No sting in the back of my throat, no coughs, just clean hay.
I ended up selling it as I move around a lot but if I ever end up in the one spot for a long enough period of time I’ll be buying another.
I once made a very low budget steamer with a wallpaper steamer (50$ at a generic home improvement store).
Put the paddle on the ground facing up with a couple of bricks or boards on either side to keep it in place and make a gap for the hose. Stack a couple of flakes of hay on top. Put a clean muck bucket upside down over the whole thing (same muck bucket that was previously used to soak the hay). Fill the tank with water and plug it in!
Even with a big gap around the bottom this did surprisingly well, the hay was nice and steamy all the way through. I didn’t test for a particular temperature, I was just going for dust control.
I recommend that anyone going the diy route get the steamer and try thus first as a quick test before they start buying all the piping, etc.
