Dwain McDaniel is finally cashing in on a years-old investment on which he had all but given up.
“I wondered why I bought them,” McDaniel, owner of Urbana-based UpKeep Maintenance, recently told the News-Gazette about the electrostatic sprayers he purchased several years ago. “These were pretty expensive, and I didn’t know if I was ever actually going to be able to use them.”
In the age of the coronavirus, McDaniel is finding no shortage of demand for the sprayers that can distribute a disinfectant that will wrap around every surface in a room. Since the middle of March, McDaniel’s company has been cleaning hospital-owned buildings every night instead of once a month.
“We haven’t had to lay anyone off, even though a lot of our buildings are closed,” McDaniel said. “We’re busy enough to absorb the people from the buildings that were closed and move them to some of the Carle buildings.”
The electrostatic sprayers work the same as the devices farmers use to water their crops and that car manufacturers use to paint their vehicles.
“It wraps around the back and underneath, inside of it,” McDaniel said. “It puts out small 4-micron (0.004-millimeter) droplets, so it coats everything with a very thin layer of disinfectant. It’s safe on keyboards, mouses, telephones; it doesn’t short anything out.”
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