Michael Sweigart, who makes masks as a hobby, was doing laundry one day when a piece of silicone fell onto the floor. When the Barnegat, New Jersey, man picked it up, he noticed there was hair stuck to it.
Tired of using lint rollers to get hair off of his family’s clothes, he wondered if it would do the same thing in the dryer.
Sure enough, the silicone attracted hair and didn’t melt. After trying several formulas and prototypes, he came up with a soft silicone disc that can go into the washer and dryer, where it would “pluck hair off clothes and then drop it to the lint trap.” And the FurZapper was born.
He took his invention to the ABC TV show “Shark Tank” and all five sharks were interested. Ultimately, he made a deal with Lori Greiner,
Now he has expanded his product line to include two new products: the LintZapper, which removes lint and fur from small spaces, and the FurZapper Glove to gently and effectively remove loose hair.
Sweigart came up with the idea for the LintZapper when he was being prepped in the operating room for knee surgery. After shaving the knee, the nurse put on a sticky glove to pat and remove loose hair. Although sedated for surgery, Sweigart was lucid enough to ask for a glove to keep and was determined to turn it into a product.
Rather than a glove, Sweigart came up with idea for smaller sticky surfaces that could easily fit into a purse or a pocket. The LintZapper is a small booklet of 40 individual lint sheets. It is 100% biodegradable and eco-friendly and works well in small areas. It’s also effective for those spots in a car or truck that a vacuum can’t reach.
Sweigart says sneaker lovers have also discovered that the LintZapper is perfect for keeping footwear clean and crisp. It fits easily into nooks and crannies and removes unwanted hair and other debris.
The FurZapper Glove is an eco-friendly, waterproof, double-sided silicone glove that can be used to remove excess hair on pets or remove it from car seats, couches, beds, rugs and clothing. Sweigart says it works best on short-haired dogs and is like a gentle massage for them.
With three Labrador retrievers, we have no shortage of fur in our home. I decided to try out all three products. Actually, I already had the FurZapper and have used it while doing laundry.
I decided to give the original FurZapper a real challenge — washing and drying three often-used dog beds. After a regular cycle in the washer, all three went into the dryer with the FurZapper.
Upon removal, the dog beds had a few remaining hairs. But I found a lot more in the lint trap. The washing machine did not have any hair residue left in it. All three beds were clean and relatively hair-free. My rating for the FurZapper: 4 out of 5 stars. It retails for $16.99 for a package of two.
Next up was the LintZapper. I often use a lint roller on clothes just because of the sheer volume of dog hair. So I tried it on the car. After vacuuming the car, there was still hair in crevices between or under the seats that I couldn’t reach. It was easy to spot as we have two yellow dogs and a black interior.
I used the LintZapper to reach those areas and it worked very well. Still a few stray hairs, but five sheets did a good job of getting to those hard-to-reach areas in our eight-seater SUV. My rating for the LintZapper: 4 out of 5 stars. At a suggested retail price of $3.99 for 40 sheets or $8.97 for 120 sheets, I will use this again either on the car or on furniture.
Last up was the FurZapper Glove. I had tried another glove when brushing my dogs and it worked fairly well, snagging hair that I could easily peel off the glove. How would the FurGlove compare?
A few strokes on our chocolate Lab’s thick coat and I didn’t see much hair on the glove. And I definitely could not peel it off.
I decided to try it the cargo area of our SUV to see if it would pick up the errant hairs that the vacuum missed. That was a little better, but it was clear that the FurZapper Glove works better on short dog hair than long Labrador hair, which Sweigart readily admits.
My rating for the FurZapper Glove: 3 out of 5 stars, simply because we’re not the right market. At $14.99, it’s also a bit more than I’m willing to spend.
The products are available individually or bundled at various retailers such as Chewy, Amazon, Walmart or QVC. Sweigart intends to add more products, including one targeted for longer haired dogs. I am eagerly awaiting its launch.
Abby Kirkland (abbykirkland77@gmail.com) is a freelance writer and animal lover living in Mt. Lebanon.
First Published: November 15, 2023, 10:30 a.m.
