Customer Story

Transforming athletic facility hygiene: Proven results in a division I college environment

THE CHALLENGE

Top athletic institutions recruit the best talent with stellar track records, brand recognition, and state-of-the-art facilities. These places are welcoming, clean, and fresh, without any concerns about safety.

A Division I college in the US continuously upgrades its athlete experience. Despite renovating locker rooms and sports medicine rooms, and expanding training areas, it still struggled with odors. Housekeeping swept and mopped daily to remove visible dirt but didn’t disinfect. Occasionally staff would use foggers and electrostatic sprayers, but the odors and health incidents did not improve.

They knew smell meant bacteria. Athletes, with open cuts and wounds, were vulnerable to infections and they wanted to keep them as safe as possible.

Our Solution

The college chose to implement EPIC iO AURA™, an automated room disinfection solution. It was scheduled to run every night, without the need for manual intervention or human variability. EPIC iO AURA™ disinfected every exposed surface, which had already been cleaned by housekeeping. The college observed a 95.7% drop in germ count throughout the room is now studying the correlation between this decrease and athlete satisfaction and health.

Takeaways

You Can't See Bacteria, but You Can See Their Impact on the Ozone Level

An infected room consumes ozone faster than a sanitized room. This can be observed in the initial hour-long plateau; this is a clear sign of a contaminated room. EPIC iO AURA is the only disinfection appliance that demonstrates its effectiveness through AI and IoT (patent-pending).

Smells Come from Germs

Odors are caused by bacterial metabolism, and each odor is unique. Locker room odors are mainly caused by staph and C. diff (Staphylococcus aureus and C. difficile). Housekeeping staff is over overworked and may not be able to thoroughly disinfect, leaving room for human error such as missing spots. Let them focus on vacuuming and detergent-based wiping and mopping, and use the autonomous EPIC iO AURA™ every night, seven days a week. With EPIC iO AURA™ there is no human involvement, it will reach every square inch of the room, including equipment, tables, chairs, floors, walls, ceilings, handles, and switches, with an average of 40- 50 hours of active disinfection per week.

Low & Slow

Conventional wisdom of rapid and aggressive chemical-based disinfection is harmful to housekeepers and surfaces. Additionally, they don’t reach everywhere, every night. EPIC iO AURA™ maintains a very low and safe ozone concentration that runs all night and has the same kill rate as a high concentration for a short time.

Lab Analysis

Many rooms and HVAC vents have never been fully disinfected. To test for the current biohazard level of contamination, the college invited EPIC iO to run an overnight disinfection.

The shocking results showed an early plateau, during which germs were using up the ozone as quickly as it was being pumped in. Half-way through the cycle the EPIC iO AURA finally overcame the bacteria and shot up. It was so sensitive it even uncovered the fluctuations caused by the HVAC cycling on and off.

Overnight ozone levels reveal mid-cycle moment germs were overpowered

Before and after swabs, in a swimming pool ladies locker room

Solution Overview

The solution consisted of installing a wall- or ceiling-mounted EPIC iO AURA™ unit in each room, near the HVAC inlets and as far as possible from the HVAC returns to maximize disinfection.

The unit was connected to the WiFi network via a nearby cellular modem for remote control, notifications, and reporting via an app. The unit only required an electrical outlet for power.

To ensure safety, the solution included a magnetic contact that attaches to the door and a PIR sensor that attaches to the ceiling. Both will immediately disable the unit if motion is detected.

The units were set to run seven days a week, from 11 PM to 5 AM Sunday through Thursday, and 11 PM to 6 AM on Friday and Saturday, for a cumulative weekly disinfection of 44 hours.