Hello everyone, I'm pretty sure everyone has seen a TV commercial about
the ozone air purifiers or already has one.
Anyways, I came across an interesting article in the recent issue of
Electronic Design magazine (09.29.05 issue, page 18)

The article goes like this: a VCR repair guy gets back a unit he serviced
a month before with the same problem: a rubber belt that has been replaced
had disintegrated into "little, hard chunks of rubber". Soon after that a
lady brings in another VCR, 6-months old, with "pinch roller looking 20
years old". Things click in the guy's head and he traces the problem down
to both persons having a "Living Alpine Fresh Air Purifier Model 3500HL",
aka "Health Living HL-2".

It does make a lot of sense 'cause ozone is a highly reactive gas (from my
chemistry lessons couple dozens years back) and there should be materials
out there that succumb to it easy. I just did not think rubber (rubber is
too generic these days, those were polymers they were talking about) is
the one that'd be hit most.

I was wondering if collective wisdom and huge pool of experience of this
group can confirm or confront those facts with other observations. My wife
is allergic to dust as well as our dog's shed fur, and we were thinking of
buying the device as a remedy. Although with this new evidence, if it
holds, I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen.

Real life feedback anyone?

Cheers!
D.
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(DA) wrote in
:

Hello everyone, I'm pretty sure everyone has seen a TV
commercial about the ozone air purifiers or already has one.
Anyways, I came across an interesting article in the recent
issue of Electronic Design magazine (09.29.05 issue, page 18)

The article goes like this: a VCR repair guy gets back a unit he
serviced a month before with the same problem: a rubber belt
that has been replaced had disintegrated into "little, hard
chunks of rubber". Soon after that a lady brings in another VCR,
6-months old, with "pinch roller looking 20 years old". Things
click in the guy's head and he traces the problem down to both
persons having a "Living Alpine Fresh Air Purifier Model
3500HL", aka "Health Living HL-2".

It does make a lot of sense 'cause ozone is a highly reactive
gas (from my chemistry lessons couple dozens years back) and
there should be materials out there that succumb to it easy. I
just did not think rubber (rubber is too generic these days,
those were polymers they were talking about) is the one that'd
be hit most.

I was wondering if collective wisdom and huge pool of experience
of this group can confirm or confront those facts with other
observations. My wife is allergic to dust as well as our dog's
shed fur, and we were thinking of buying the device as a remedy.
Although with this new evidence, if it holds, I'm pretty sure
it's not going to happen.

Real life feedback anyone?

Cheers!
D.
Are you sure they are 'ozone' air purifiers? Ozone is a no-no in
interior spaces and has been for years. Back in the mid 80s when
DEC brought out their original LN03 Laswer Printer I remember
getting a little package in the mail which was an 'ozone filter'
because the electrostatics in the printer mechanism were putting
out more ozone than was allowed.

If they are ozone, then yes, it happens quite readily. An example
I will always cherish came from about the same time frame at one of
the Big 3 parts supplier plants. They had one of those self-
contained office buildings inside the plant at the receiving docks
to house a couple of minicomputers that ran the receiving software.
Unfortately, they had had some custom programming done to link the
two computers that was not compatible with later versions of the
operating system needed to run newer models. The problem came in
in that the battery chargers for the fork lifts were about 20ft
away from this building, and the ozone they put out was enough to
make all of the insulation on the computer backplanes brittle. So
any time field service had to replace a board, they almost always
wound up replacing the wiring harness as well. Needless to say,
there was a lot of pressure to do something about the ozone.

tim wrote:


Are you sure they are 'ozone' air purifiers? Ozone is a no-no in
interior spaces and has been for years. Back in the mid 80s when
DEC brought out their original LN03 Laswer Printer I remember
getting a little package in the mail which was an 'ozone filter'
because the electrostatics in the printer mechanism were putting
out more ozone than was allowed.

If they are ozone, then yes, it happens quite readily. An example
I will always cherish came from about the same time frame at one of
the Big 3 parts supplier plants. They had one of those self-
contained office buildings inside the plant at the receiving docks
to house a couple of minicomputers that ran the receiving software.
Unfortately, they had had some custom programming done to link the
two computers that was not compatible with later versions of the
operating system needed to run newer models. The problem came in
in that the battery chargers for the fork lifts were about 20ft
away from this building, and the ozone they put out was enough to
make all of the insulation on the computer backplanes brittle. So
any time field service had to replace a board, they almost always
wound up replacing the wiring harness as well. Needless to say,
there was a lot of pressure to do something about the ozone.

Hi Tim,

Thank you for the insight. Well, sometimes they are advertised just like
that: "ozone air purifier". Sometimes they do not stress the word ozone,
but in any case, no matter what the label says, those no-moving-parts
purifiers are all designed around one principal. The air passes by
high-voltage charged metal plates, gets charged (and some of the oxygen
splits and combines again as ozone) and then flows towards another pair of
opposite charged plates that the dust and other particles flock to due to
the electrostatic charge. I cannot think of any other way to build an air
filter with no moving parts.

I thought of one other implication: they also sell a car purifier. As a
matter of fact it often goes as a "free" gift with the big one. It's
pretty maddening to think about what this thing can do the car's electric
wiring if it’s on all the time.


Cheers!
D.
-------------------------------------


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DA wrote:

snip

...My wife
is allergic to dust as well as our dog's shed fur, and we were thinking of
buying the device as a remedy. Although with this new evidence, if it
holds, I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen.

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html

....When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs (see - "Ozone and Your
Health" - www.epa.gov/airnow/brochure.html). Relatively low amounts
can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath, and, throat
irritation. Ozone may also worsen chronic respiratory diseases such as
asthma and compromise the ability of the body to fight respiratory
infections. People vary widely in their susceptibility to ozone.
Healthy people, as well as those with respiratory difficulty, can
experience breathing problems when exposed to ozone. Exercise during
exposure to ozone causes a greater amount of ozone to be inhaled, and
increases the risk of harmful respiratory effects. Recovery from the
harmful effects can occur following short-term exposure to low levels
of ozone, but health effects may become more damaging and recovery
less certain at higher levels or from longer exposures (US EPA, 1996a,
1996b).

Ozone is very destructive of just about everything.
Rubber and similar compounds really suffer.

DA wrote:
tim wrote:


Are you sure they are 'ozone' air purifiers? Ozone is a no-no in
interior spaces and has been for years. Back in the mid 80s when
DEC brought out their original LN03 Laswer Printer I remember
getting a little package in the mail which was an 'ozone filter'
because the electrostatics in the printer mechanism were putting
out more ozone than was allowed.

If they are ozone, then yes, it happens quite readily. An example
I will always cherish came from about the same time frame at one of
the Big 3 parts supplier plants. They had one of those self-
contained office buildings inside the plant at the receiving docks
to house a couple of minicomputers that ran the receiving software.
Unfortately, they had had some custom programming done to link the
two computers that was not compatible with later versions of the
operating system needed to run newer models. The problem came in
in that the battery chargers for the fork lifts were about 20ft
away from this building, and the ozone they put out was enough to
make all of the insulation on the computer backplanes brittle. So
any time field service had to replace a board, they almost always
wound up replacing the wiring harness as well. Needless to say,
there was a lot of pressure to do something about the ozone.

Hi Tim,

Thank you for the insight. Well, sometimes they are advertised just like
that: "ozone air purifier". Sometimes they do not stress the word ozone,
but in any case, no matter what the label says, those no-moving-parts
purifiers are all designed around one principal. The air passes by
high-voltage charged metal plates, gets charged (and some of the oxygen
splits and combines again as ozone) and then flows towards another pair of
opposite charged plates that the dust and other particles flock to due to
the electrostatic charge. I cannot think of any other way to build an air
filter with no moving parts.

I thought of one other implication: they also sell a car purifier. As a
matter of fact it often goes as a "free" gift with the big one. It's
pretty maddening to think about what this thing can do the car's electric
wiring if it's on all the time.


Cheers!
D.

Consumers Reports web site has a new article on-line this month (10/05)
updating a previous report they did on air purifiers a couple of years
ago. Now, I know some folks in this ng aren't big CR fans but when it
comes to quantitative testing of functional things like this, I figure
they know what they're doing.

No marketed air purifier should claim to produce ozone, as it is
hazardous in all the ways mentioned above; of those that work on the
ionizing principle that you describe, some do produce measurable ozone,
and some produce more than others. One famous catalog merchant's unit
came under particular criticism for very heavy ozone and general
ineffectiveness; the CR report details the enusing lawsuit, which was
apparently settled in CR's favour. The updated article is about equally
unimpressed with that merchant's updated machine. If you're considering
dropping a couple of hundred bucks on one of these, it's well worth it
to get the paid access to the CR site.

My gut feeling is that any that are dumb enough to *claim* to produce
ozone probably do nothing at all. CR had hard time finding ones to
recommend, even among the priciest; apart from producing ozone, most of
the units just didn't work worth a darn.

Chip C