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Have you ever heard of an ozone generator
?
Or an ozonator? Chances are you haven't, but you need to!When we bought this house it smelled. REALLY bad. It had been locked up for about a year with no chance to air out. The house is close to Lake Michigan making for very high humidity in the summer so that made it even worse. And with wood paneling EVERYWHERE in the house it seemed to really absorb a damp, moldy and musty smell. The previous owners also had dogs and cats so that smell was in the vents, in the closets, everywhere! So between the stinky animals and the musty smell - we could hardly stand to go inside.
We had the windows open for weeks to air it out, cleaned the house top to bottom - and I mean every square inch was scrubbed in here. We removed flooring and put in new, we primed and painted and had the vents cleaned out, but there was still this smell.
We were talking about the house with some family when an uncle suggested we try his ozone generator
.
We had never even heard of such a thing. He told us how he had bought
one when they had some smoke damage in their house after a very minor
fire. They had tried the many things that were recommended to remove
the smell, but nothing worked.He had this ozonator
,
(though at the time he bought it, it was a smaller version) gave it to
us and sent us on our way. And I will only recommend that ozonator as
they make a product far superior to any other out there. Their
knowledge is above everyone else and their product outlasts and
outperforms any other one out there.We immediately doubled checked the directions on how to use it and got right to work. HOLY MAN! This thing was the miracle we were looking for.
What it does:
Now I am FAR from a scientist so I will try to explain this in very simple terms. You can easily do a google search on ozone to get more in depth information (you should, it's amazing!).
An ozone generator
creates new ozone, whether it be in air or water. Ozone is comprised
of 3 oxygen atoms. When coming in contact with a virus or bacteria, the
3rd atom detaches and attaches to the other matter in order to oxidize
it.Depending on where you live you may not have ever had "ozone" warnings, but living in Phoenix for a few years, you would occassionally hear on the news that ozone was high and for elderly, small children or those with breathing issues should stay indoors. Here in WI, we don't get those warnings very often so we are less familiar with it. We all need ozone, but too much of it can cause breathing and coughing issues during high ozone times.
Ozone is produced naturally in the atmosphere from ultraviolet radiation. It is also formed from lightning bolts during a storm. Have you ever went outside after a big storm and could smell the clean fresh air? Ozone is constantly being made and destroyed over and over in our atmosphere. Really, you should read about it.... the more you know :)
"Artificial" ozone is created typically for use in the air and water. If you have a hot tub you have likely heard of an ozonator. Hot tubs usually contain ozonators to put the ozone gas into the spa to act as a powerful sanitizer to kill bacteria and viruses. Ozone generators are also used for drinking water to kill bacteria and viruses, increase shelf life, remove chlorine oders, etc. The same thing can be said for the air - to create ozone to kill harmful bacteria, viruses which can also cause awful smell to linger on an item or in a room.
So an ozone generator is a big, mean killing machine when it comes to bacteria and viruses of all kinds. See where I'm going with this?
What you need:
an ozone generator
a cheap box fan
What we did:
There are some precautions you need to take when doing an ozone shock treatment such as removing all pets and humans, removing objects or covering them with a plastic as over time ozone can break down certain materials.
We did one room at a time and worked out way through the house. Set the ozone generator in the room with a box fan directly behind it, turn it on, leave the room and shut the door. The purpose of the fan is to cool the plates as well as to move the air into the ozone generator and to move the new ozone around the room. We let it run for about 20 minutes and then went on to the next room. While the shock treatments were going on we pretty much stayed outside or, for instance, downstairs when the ozonator was working upstairs. Once it was done we opened the windows and the doors and let the room return back to complete oxygen - which was about an hour later.
We continued our way through all the downstairs rooms before it was time to head out for the day. When we purchased the house we continued to rent somewhere else because there was a lot of stuff that needed to be done here, so we would come to work on it for the day and then head "home".
Our results:
The next day when we came back to the house to work, we walked in the front door and about fell over. The nasty, musty, moldy, stinky smell was gone. COMPLETELY GONE! It was crazy and we were shocked. It just smelled....like....nothing. There was no smell, just fresh clean air. Holy #$^!
Now we were so excited. We spent the entire day doing the rest of the house making sure it got everywhere possible: the basement, the crawl space, the closets, the garage, everywhere we could think of. The smell continued to leave. It was unreal.
But my favorite shock treatment we did? The vents! As I said before, the previous owners had lots of dogs and cats that they never cleaned up after. When we cleaned the vents it was FULL of animal fur so I knew it was probably nasty in those vents.
We put the ozone generator
and the vox fan in front of the air return and turned on the furnace fan
only. Then we turned on the ozonator and the box fan behind it and let
it run for about 45 minutes while we stayed outside. We ran in to
unplug the unit and box fan, but left the furnace fan to continue moving
the air and left for the day. When we came back the next morning....WOW.
I had no other words. This was almost miraculous. All smells were gone. There was no smell. The ozonator killed all the leftover bacteria from the nastiness that was in this house. I felt it was "clean" after I scrubbed the floors and the walls, but now I knew it was clean. You could feel it in the air - it was like a breath of fresh air.
How could I not have known about such an amazing thing.
We immediately hopped on Amazon and order our own ozone generator because we knew this was something we couldn't live without.
Since we bought our own ozone generator
we have already gotten our money's worth. About every 6 months I run
the ozone generator through my vents. During summer months when our
humidity levels are so high (we don't have A/C in this house yet) I like
to run the ozonator just to kill all the mold that grows from high
humidty levels. I also like to use it before we have a lot of guests
coming over just to give the room fresh, clean air.
Another thing we use it for is our dogs. My mom is allergic to our newfoundlands, so she has a hard time staying in the house for long periods of time. Even though we have all hard floors and I do vaccum 1-2 times a day (they have a lot of hair!) she still can be bothered by the dander. So I like to run the ozone generator through the vents and in the main rooms (living room and kitchen) before she plans to come over for a longer time - say for a birthday party or holiday. Since doing this my mom has been able to stay for hours and NEVER has had an issue with the dogs. This itself is a miracle as she used to start reacting within 30-60 mins of being in the house.
We have also lent it out to friends and family for things like animal smells, musty smells, a used car from a previous smoker, dander issues, you name it. Just think of all the things you can use this for as it kills bacteria and viruses and gets rid of smells that Lysol and air fresheners can't.
Check out these ozone generator
and see why you need to get one today!
do it yourself
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