Ozone Generator Industry Expose

What happens when the Government fails to properly regulate an industry?  You get "the greatest show on earth" snake oil salesmen type claims, ridiculous youtube video sales pitches, and some pretty amusing stuff, that's for sure.  Anyone can claim anything they want it seems without the threat of repercussions. This is too bad because ozone really does work as advertised at permanently removing organic odor causing material.  This “expose” will help you figure out how to tell if the ozone machine you’re looking to buy is being honest with their claims.  We wish we didn’t have to play Industry watchdog, but we also hate to see people get sold a bill of goods other than what they thought they were getting.

The first ozone generators that gained wide appeal in the USA used Mica plate corona discharge technology and wre made by Alpine Industries, the Multi Level Marketing company that was subsequently admonished by the Federal Government for making “false claims” as to what their machines could do.  They got into trouble by selling shock treatment ozone generators as “ozone air purifiers” for occupied areas without proper warnings on how to use their machines, as well as making a number of false claims.  Most ozone generator vendors today create only “shock treatment” ozone generators not intended for use in occupied areas to avoid getting into trouble with Uncle Sam.  Regardless, there is a push in California and the Federal Government to throw out the baby with the bath water and eventually make all ozone producing devices illegal, even though their benefits are well established. 

Ozone generators are mainly sold via Internet or Mail order.  Most companies, for instance Jenesco also use Mica ozone technology to create ozone.  That type of ozone technology requires frequent maintenance and the eventual return trip to the repair shop in due time. At least Jenesco is a well established company that appears to stand behind their products. Then there are the newer "Mica plate" ozone generator companies such as MaxxBlaster and Bio3Blaster, two companies that advertise aggressively, which claim to have invented a new type of Mica technology that is “permanent”, without offering much details.  We wonder how safe that technology actually is over time.  Below we'll discuss some other aspects of their "sales pitch" that deserves some scrutiny. 

New ozone technology has emerged from Asia that we feel is superior to Mica plate technology for many reasons, chief among them is the ability to embed metal in the ceramic material vs on thin wire mesh.  This new “high voltage” ceramic element technology creates a much stronger spark and lasts over 10,000 hours under normal conditions (40% or lower humidity).  Brands such as ForeverOzone, Sylvan, AirZone, and many “Made in China” ozone generators use high voltage ozone elements to produce ozone.  It’s much cheaper than both Mica and UV technology, UV technology being the most expensive.  What about UV ozone  creating technology?  We like it, and even considered using UV lamps in our own generators, however, in the final analysis, we just couldn’t rationalize the added expense (would have lead to three times higher prices) plus the fact that UV lamps lose 30% or more effectiveness within 1 year and can cause problems if broken (mercury poisoning) made the final decision to use the new high voltage technology instead.  The knock on corona discharge technology of course vs UV is that corona discharge ozone generators produce much lower ozone levels with high humidity.  Whether it’s a UV light or electrical spark splitting the oxygen into ozone, higher humidity lowers output in ALL ozone generators, regardless of what you’ve read.  Also, ozone plates do not produce nitrious oxides, the hydrogen content in the air (From H2o) creates small amounts of Nox, but hey, you’re not supposed to be breathing the air during a shock treatment anyway, and you’re not supposed to do it outdoors but rather indoors with the AC on (which keeps humidity in check), so these things are just non issues which are meant to cause confusion in the final analysis.

How do you know the ozone generator you’re purchasing produces the amount of ozone being advertised?  Here are 3 points to ponder:

1) How much voltage is created by the power generator and how many power generators are used?  Basic rule, and you can confirm this with any electrical engineer knowledgeable with ozone, it takes around 1000 kilovolts (KV) of power to create 1000 milligrams of ozone.  If a vendor has a 3000KV transformer and is claiming their machine produces 16,000 milligrams per hour for instance, you'll know something isn't adding up.  For instance,  you can add 3 ozone plates to one of our "bare bones" system but it will still produce 3600 mgph of ozone.  Each plate will get less "juice" and glow a little bit lighter purple.  These are just the facts of physics.

2) How much does it cost to replace the ozone elements? Some vendors don't even sell replacement plates, so you're stuck once your ozone plate or element is finished. Others will try and sell you a soup sandwich by telling you their Mica Plates are "permanent".  Ozone is very corrosive and it takes high voltage to create ozone. Is there anything in that equation which lends itself to "permanent"?  Not in the real world.

3) How many amps does the ozone generator use? It takes a 3000-4000 volt transformer to produce around 3600 milligrams of ozone from ambient air at 40% humidity and will require around .35 amps. A 120 CFM AC Fan will require around .15 amps. That's  .5 amps to produce 3600 milligrams of ozone. This type of unit will require a 1 AMP fuse, but that doesn't mean the unit is pulling 1 amp.  Find out how many amps the ozone generator actually pulls.

Bottom line, this isn't rocket science folks.  An ozone generator is a high voltage transformer and an ozone element / plate or tube.  The only things that ozone will not destroy over time is hardwood and stainless steel. To create an "indestructible" ozone generator, you need to keep the design simple, no flashing lights, no switches, no mother boards, etc and you have to make it easy to maintain because certain parts will need to be switched out over time.  The end result shouldn't cost much.  If it does, and you're paying too much.  Period.