What is the documented official maximum time to use an ozone generator in an auto interior without causing degradation of the leather, vinyl or electrical wiring? I have done quite a bit of research online and found the recommended time for auto interiors is 1 - 3 hrs. Leather will start to degrade after 8 - 10 hours. EPA and Calif. Health and Welfare Agency state that ozone generators can cause significant damage to rubber, vinyl and electrical wiring. However i have not been able to find what the actual maximum exposure time for auto interior is. My new car was treated for 24 hours and I am very concerned that it might have caused significant damage to me interior and wiring. Thanks
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Continued from above - I have found others opinions, but not and reference to any official documented maximum treatment time.
I bet your interior treatment has turned your brand new car into a self distructing heap, I am sure it probably has 6 months to a year of life left at best. I hope you have a plot picked out already.
Would you please tell us why you use an ozone generator in the interior, I’ve been around the block about 71 years and this is the first I’ve heard of this!
First you will need to know how strong is the ozone, and I would guess it would also vary depending on the temperature and other factors. Too many to give you a really meaningful answer.
It does make sense that someone came up with a machine that repairs the ozone, with all the damage done from AC refridgerants it is good that science has come to the rescue.
I remember some years back where it was popular to have a machine that ionizes the air running in your house. I always thought it was my fathers way to say my mother was acting a bit witchy.
Is there some reason that you posted this again? (http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2266802.page)
If you can’t find a post that made in the past, use the link that ends up in your email box or use the search feature.
If you want to try to generate more discussion, find the post, reply to it and just type “bump.” If you have any additional info at that point, then just add that instead.
Old-school to answer your question ozone is a gas created by an electrical discharge created usually across a ceramic plate which along with oxygen from the ambient air forms o3. The electricity breaks apart the o2 molecules which are then picked up by o2
which creates o3. o3 is a gas much more powerful than chlorine as a disenfectant and kills much faster as well only it leaves no chemical residue behind. You might may have experienced ozone of you ever noticed after an electrical storm there is often a disenfectant smell in the air. The purpose of using an ozone generator inside a vehicle is most often to remove bad odors from smokers, mildew, mold or any other foul odor one needs removed. O3 will attach and destroy any organic material it comes in contact with and due to its high decay rate it quickly reverts back to o2. Ozone will pretty much destroy any odor except one which is cat urine. Cat urine when dried crystallizes and gas cannot penetrate the crystals to rid you of the odor but it’s amazing at anything else.
I have worked with ozone for 17 years, as I currently do, in the water industry and I have my own small business disenfecting and deodorizing cars and homes. Though it’s true that ozone will degrade any carbon based material, the percentage of ozone created by these smaller machines from ambient air typically doesn’t get up high enough to destroy your car wires or interior. If you had a machine and introduced a pure oxygen source to the Corona discharge and increased your concentration then there’s a chance of degradation but I wouldn’t worry much about the MG per hour machines making your car ready for an early grave. The machines used in water treatment produce 3000 pounds per day at a concentration of 12 percent. A machine you might find used in a vehicle may produce a half a pound to 3 pounds a day for example. This is enough tonl deal with odors and kill you should you breathe it too long but as far as damage to your interior I would say your fine. Now, If you constantly treated the vehicle every week for years or something of that nature you might expect to see the same damage as say the sun does to your dashboard. That being said I’m speculating at the exact results as I didn’t run the study but I can tell you after years of using ozone I’ve never seen it destroy wiring using these types of generators. I hope This was of some help.
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After 9 years Fred may not even have the vehicle in question anymore.
A bit late to the party, nonetheless I found the post to be interesting and did appreciate it.
Ed B.
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Certainly not if the ozone dissolved the interior. 
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That was an excellent post. Late or not. Seriously helpful. Thank you!!!
Yes, it is excellent for water disinfection!
I am fortunate to live in an area where the municipal water supply is disinfected with ozone, instead of the more-common chlorine. No nasty odor or taste… usually.
During periods of high “runoff” they do sometimes supplement the ozone treatment with chlorine, but we are notified via email of this brief occurrence so that we don’t become concerned about the odor/taste.
N_O_C_A_M_P:
Perhaps late, but I too found the post interesting. Thank you.
Are you able to explain why my vehicle has a pungent sweet smell so strong I cant stand to be in it after having ozone treatment on it for a dead mouse smell.
Dead mice can sometimes give off a sweet smell. Perhaps there are more dead mice in your car? (if you see one mouse, it’s almost guaranteed there are more). A lot of times what happens in cars is that the mice will build a nest somewhere, then go off to bring food back. If they then get trapped or in some other way die, the babies starve, and then they start to smell.
Another possibility is that the mice stored food somewhere in the car, and that is rotting and giving off the sweet smell.’
Hmmmm?
A 10 year old post.
I wonder if the OP still has the same car?
Tester
I didn’t notice the age of the post, but was replying to an 18-hour-old question. Some folks don’t know that forum standards are usually to create a new post to ask a new question. We’ll probably see that happen more often going forward since forums are often getting replaced with things like Discord rooms.
Personally I find forums to be the superior format for back and forth information exchange, but modern trends are moving more towards live chat systems.
Just look at the number of views.
16,3k
That thread has been around for a while.
Then hover your cursor over the activity number.
That displays the date of when the thread was started.
Tester