Air Fresheners: A Smoker’s Comparison of Oust, Febreze, and Get Out Smoke Eliminator

One of my main gripes in life are hotels which designate too few rooms to their smoking clientele. Many a time I’ll check into a 300-room place to find they only have 20 smoking rooms. It always always turns out that they need more, but they steadfastly refuse to convert any more to smoking rooms. So. I and countless others end up trying to find solutions to smoking in a non-smoking room. No, as a matter of fact I am not getting dressed first thing in the morning to schlep downstairs and outside to have my morning cigarette. Besides, I need to smoke to write. It helps me think. So what is a smoker to do?

Febreze Air Effects
The first thing I noticed about Febree was that this comes out rather thick and wet. While parts of it will linger in the air, you also need to spray it well away from yourself or you will get heavy drops of wetness falling on you. Not a pleasant feeling.

Second, the scent was very strong. It doesn’t take a lot of this stuff, so do not go trigger happy with it or you’ll be gagging and sneezing the rest of the day.

I do like the can design a great deal, though. It’s a very pretty can with a trigger rather than the traditional spray nozzle. That is a vast improvement over other brands.

Does it work? Yes, amazingly enough, it does. Now, I do not know if it would work for pre-existing odors around your house, but it absolutely does work on cigarette smoke if you spray it both before and after you have a cigarette. Now, before you ask, I’ll answer that immediate question forming in your head: As a smoker, no, I cannot smell the smoke myself. Lars does not smoke though. He is very susceptible to the smell of smoke. He cannot detect any scent of my having smoked in the room all day when he returns from the Port in the evening. That, folks, is a pretty tough test for Febreze to have passed.

Again, I must warn you though as to how strong this Febreze stuff is. Seriously. Do not over-spray it. A quick burst is more than enough to get the job done.

As far as lastability of the scent goes, when we returned from shopping (gone about 3 hours), when we entered the room the smell of the spray was heavy in the air. Too heavy, actually. I mean I like this scent, but only in moderation.

At just around $3 per can, this is not a bad option. Not quite as good as the Get Out, but not a bad option if you cannot find the Get Out.

Oust Air Sanitizer
First off, the damn sprayer is awkward and with my longish fingernails, I end up with half the crap spraying into the underside of my nails. Come on guys. I know there are better nozzle designs out there. Hell, copy off of Febreze if ya have to! What is currently on this can sucks majorly.

Secondly, there really is no scent. Now, I could live with that bit if they weren’t trying to tell me that there IS a scent and that I should try all of them. I got the yellow can and could smell nothing, including freshened air.

The stuff is light and doesn’t fall onto everything like Febreze and Get Out, but that is the feature that I believe makes them work so much better than the Oust. The other two have heavier formulas to actually trap particles. This one just kinda blows them around a bit, which results in ummm no results at all.

Now, some cheap air fresheners do leave behind a scent, and do not do a thing for smoke so you end up with not only nasty ol’ smoke smells, but smoke smells mingled with the air freshener. Here you just have the nasty ol’ smoke smell. This, shockingly enough, is a plus to me. You see, I like the fact that it has no real discernable odor because it just makes it that much easier to know that this crap is not doing a damn thing at all and that I need to go try something else.

Get Out Smoke Eliminator
I found this in a cigar store by the Miami airport one day. I walked in desperately hoping to find something like this, but expecting to be disappointed. The nice young lad grinned widely and told me to go stand by the guy who was smoking a cigar. He whipped out this lovely brown can and sprayed a few seconds. The smoke disappeared like magic. The gentleman continued to puff his cigar. This Get Out kept the smoke from going beyond where it had been sprayed. I bought 2 cans. The cigar dude bought 2 cans. The shop began using it daily and sold out by the next week.

They had ordered it on a whim and the case had been sitting there untouched for 6 months until that day. Afterward they were scrambling to dig out the old purchase order to buy multiple cases. I wish more places would stock this stuff. Apparently word has not gotten out yet as it is very difficult to find. I did happen to see some at one of the cigarette kiosks in the Sawgrass Mills shopping center in September though. I bought them out.

At around 6 bucks per can, it seems a bit expensive. It is worth it. You see, this wonderfully coffee-smelling spray not only gets rid of the smell, it eats the smoke particles. You are not just covering up smell here, folks. You are eliminating the danger.

If you are using this everyday with every cigarette at around a pack a day, this can will last you about a week. The scent is a subtle vanilla coffee, which smells marvellous.

The spray is not overly heavy. In other words, the surfaces around you will not end up all wet like with other sprays. Besides, this one actually does work. I don’t care what you say about your sensitivity level, I am telling you I could pull the same test on you and Get Out would win.

Does it work for cat boxes or burnt food odor? I have no idea. It was made specifically for smokers and it does everything it claims to do.

In Conclusion
So, if you are a smoker, or are around smokers, your best bet is to find the Get Out Smoke Eliminator, but if you are in a bind then the Febreze is an acceptable substitute… but skip the Oust altogether.