My friend has been using one and they say it’s an “ozone cleaner” and that it disinfects whatever you spray the water on?
Is this bullshit?
Here is the explanation from the website: Ozone spray is the amazing, easy-to-use cleaner, sanitizer and disinfectant made from just tap water. This patented ozone spray machine takes ordinary water then electrifies it, creating aqueous ozone, an earth-friendly, totally safe and chemical free spray to clean and sanitize countertops, floors, windows, door handles and any hard surfaces in your home or business. The EnozoPRO (Hygeia) aqueous ozone sprayer is battery operated and kills 99.9% of bacteria and common viruses in only 30 seconds
In: Chemistry
Ok listen, it totally sounds like snake oil bullshit, but it actually works. Urine, feces, body odor, all of it within a number of cleaning sessions are eventually neutralized by the aqueous ozone.
After using the machine, all the smells are gone. When it’s really pungent, the smells will come back but after multiple applications, the smells will eventually dissipate.
Count me as a believer after using one of those machines after a few months.
They make approved cleaning products using it. SAO is different than ozone gas. We use this in my gym https://www.alphatechpet.com/tersano-stabilized-aqueous-ozone-dispenser.aspx
They have pdfs and links to a bunch of the science and data and what not.
Also I’m not a bot lol I just happen to know this product so I linked it.
In principle diamond catalysts with electrical current can create ozone in water. Looking at their instructions and being a chemist myself here are some thoughts.
1. Ozone’s half life in water is relatively short, maybe 4 minutes. This appears to use a battery that charges the water in the reservoir before you can use it. It is unclear how long that takes. Thus keep in mind ozone has a half life of about 4 minutes in water and also produces hydroxide radicals.. So if it requires long charge time ozone will be made and then degrade as more is made. Given the charge time isn’t mentioned it is hard to tell how much ozone will be in the bottle at use, there will be some probably. If charge is quick this may not be a problem where it is quickly made then used. I do NOT know if that is how it is done.
2. Diamond catalysts quickly develop scale (a chemical crust that quickly degrades catalyst performance. Which brings me to the instructions:
3. You discard this after 3 uses according to their instructions, likely I am guessing due to the scale buildup on the catalyst.
4. The cost. From what I can see online this costs $229 each. Is that worth it? Most definitely not. That is about $75 per use. There are far cheaper ways to safely disinfect things for much much less.
Is it a scam? In principle it could work assuming their claimed science is valid where they showed results of testing it. But that is not a scientific publication, it is just stuff on their website. They claim a proprietary diamond catalyst so I cannot comment on if it is one of the various doped diamonds that have been documented to work, or work well, or work at all. I am aware of diamond catalysts in scientific publications that show that certain types of doped diamond catalysts along with specific handling of the water through the catalyst to optimally work. If it works then it is not a scam.
Is it a foolish waste of money? If you have money to burn then no, if you don’t then yes. There are cheaper ways to do this that would cost a few dollars. Hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle for example. Please note I am not familiar with possible damage to things like granite counter tops etc. with either approach so always test it before using it on various surfaces. I would imagine those bottles of with hydrogen peroxide cleaners probably warn about surfaces that might be damaged so read the bottle.
If they were “electrolyzing water to make ozone” they would also be creating a bunch of hydrogen gas. Ozone gas also has a smell to it—it’s part of the smell you get when there’s a thunderstorm and it’s sort of similar to chlorine. People can smell it at very low concentrations, so it should be noticeable if there’s even 0.1 part per million getting into the air. In addition, ozone is destructive to many materials so you’d see similar effects to spraying a dilute hydrogen peroxide solution on everything—notably, using it a lot would cause bleaching in lots of fabrics after a while.
I’m betting that the product is a complete hoax.
While aqueous ozone is a good sanitizer and is quite safe since you won’t be inhaling it, I question why they claim it’s produced via electrolysis of tapwater… Unless the diamond electrode changes a lot, that’d just make normal oxygen and explosive hydrogen gas. I’ve seen aqueous ozone cleaners in industrial settings, and they all seem to require a canister of what I assume is pressurized ozone which is then dissolved into the water from the hose.
Fitting an ozone generator and infusion chamber in a handheld sprayer seems very far fetched…
When I worked at a brewery they had an ozone machine that would sanitize tanks with ozone. You could smell it from a ways away and if you stuck around too long it gave you a headache.
TLDR: It’s nonsense. If it worked, it would be quite toxic and corrosive.
I mean as is, it is probably “safe, earth friendly and chemical free” (as in little chemical reaction will happen if you spray just water at most surfaces)
If it worked as advertised, it would be toxic, environmentally hazardous and one of the more aggressive chemical reactants in existence.
Ozone can be used as a disinfectant. For specific applications, by people who know what they’re doing.
Giving them ALL the benefits of doubt for their basic principle, they could “electrify the water” to split off oxygen, further apply electricity to make ozone from that and then pipe it through the remaining water to dissolve it. Ozone is poorly soluble in water, that wouldn’t work well. And it decomposes rather quickly in air, and even more rapidly in water. So it would be anything but stable.
~~(I just noticed the process I just described involves putting an electrical arc to form ozone through freshly split oxygen and hydrogen. That would be terrifying.)~~ Checking the actual product they claim to use a diamond catalyst, which hypothetically would make this a one step process. Still a scam that popped up to take advantage of the pandemic.
It would be easier, relatively safer and more effective to make the ozone from air oxygen and pipe it directly onto the surface that’s to be sanitized.
Either way, still a not great idea in a living space. At best it stinks and gives you a headache. That’s a good indicator though if it does anything. Does the final product smell?
I doubt they do any of that to start with though. It’s snake oil. Well, not even that. Snake water.
When there are consumer grade hypochlorous acid machines right there for the buying, the commercial instances of which are used in hospitals, this “ozone” device seems an odd choice.
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