Recommend me a mild odor neutralizer?

[iamtrout]

Suggestions? I live in a pretty small room and most of those plug-in style things are much too strong, even on low. I don't like sprays because they're not 24/7. Incense is too strong.

 

[Baked]

Small ionizer.

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: Baked
Small ionizer.

I've heard lots of reviews saying they don't work.

 

[Howard]

Well, they don't work well to filter dust, but they create ozone which IIRC breaks down organic molecules.

 

[MX2]

*looks at your username and wonders*

 

[svi]

Ozone does break down (/damage/alter/destroy, whatever you want to call it) most organic molecules, yes. Unfortunately, you and your lungs are made of organic molecules, which is why ozone is classified as poisonous. Also, ozone smells like ozone. All in all: bad idea.

How about a box of baking soda and a fan?

 

[Baked]

You don't have to buy the ionic breeze, that's just over priced. You can buy the ionizer unit and build your own for relatively.

 

[Goosemaster]

Showers are HAWT!

 

[eelw]

Ozone only has a halflife of 15 minutes. So if you are concerned about any potential health problems from too much exposure, only run it when you're not in the room.

 

[ribbon13]

pick up laundry, vacuum, empty garbage, clean your windows, launder your bed spread, and take a shower for the win?

On a more serious note, my grandma has a bottle of this stuff that's 10 years old and its still damn powerful. Were talking 3 sprays will neutralize the smell of twelve people hitting the six footer with some danky for an hour.

 

[svi]

Ozone only has a halflife of 15 minutes. So if you are concerned about any potential health problems from too much exposure, only run it when you're not in the room.

It's higher than that in air, actually, especially at relatively low concentrations (equilibrium point and all, and there's a little that will produce small amounts of ozone in the average computer room). And anyway, that seems like a lot of trouble to do something that can be done cheaper, less dangerously, and more effectively without a poisonous, reactive gas.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: svi
It's higher than that in air, actually, especially at relatively low concentrations (equilibrium point and all, and there's a little that will produce small amounts of ozone in the average computer room). And anyway, that seems like a lot of trouble to do something that can be done cheaper, less dangerously, and more effectively without a poisonous, reactive gas.

Dear god... have you ever gone outside after a thunderstorm? One lightning strike is more powerful than 500 ionic breezes running for a year.

 

[svi]

Dear god... have you ever gone outside after a thunderstorm? One lightning strike is more powerful than 500 ionic breezes running for a year.

According to Sharper Image, the Ionic Breeze is not an ozone generator. They are close enough to correct. I'm talking about items that are actually meant to generate ozone, sometimes sold / referred to as ionizers (in the same sense that voltage depression is called the memory effect; wrong, but too common). Actual ionizers, like the Ionic Breeze, are useless, pointless wastes of money (at least ozone generators make ozone, regardless of whether you want that around).

However, even if you were talking about ozone generators:

1. In terms of total ozone, yes. In terms of the amount of ozone that gets put in your lungs, absolutely not, because:
1a. The average lightning strike doesn't occur five feet from you.
1b. The average lightning strike doesn't occur in an enclosed space.
1c. The average lightning strike's ozone is dispersed over MUCH more volume than a small room has.

 

[eelw]

Originally posted by: svi
However, even if you were talking about ozone generators:

1. In terms of total ozone, yes. In terms of the amount of ozone that gets put in your lungs, absolutely not, because:
1a. The average lightning strike doesn't occur five feet from you.
1b. The average lightning strike doesn't occur in an enclosed space.
1c. The average lightning strike's ozone is dispersed over MUCH more volume than a small room has.

But ozone levels are many times higher outdoors during a storm than what the FDA regulates as acceptable. And all ionizers when operating correctly, are many times lower that this same figure. So yes, much greater volume, but also much greater ozone concentrations are encountered during a lightning storm than the worse case scenario indoors.

 

[cavemanmoron]

baking soda ftw/

 

[svi]

But ozone levels are many times higher outdoors during a storm than what the FDA regulates as acceptable. And all ionizers when operating correctly, are many times lower that this same figure. So yes, much greater volume, but also much greater ozone concentrations are encountered during a lightning storm than the worse case scenario indoors.

You are right about that ionizers are more than an order of magnitude better than "acceptable", but regarding thunderstorms, the government's regulations on what constitutes acceptable deal with 24/7 ozone inhalation. Twice the 24/7 limit for a few minutes is considered perfectly acceptable.

However, ionizers do three fifths of sod all. Ozone generators, sometimes _called_ ionizers, are the things that actually purify air (ionizers do absolutely nothing for odors, and they only do a little for dust). They typically cause indoor environments to exceed government-regulated 24/7 ozone levels by quite a lot. And, of course, your home will smell like ozone-- probably not exactly what you want if you want a "mild odor neutralizer".