Experiment time! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

KAdams4458 · #1 09-05-2007, 06:54 AM

My car stinks, thanks to 30 years of life, and at least one previous owner that didn't seem to know how to empty the ashtrays. (There was a mountain of smelly cigarette butts under the console and dash.)

With most of the interior components pulled and either scrubbed clean and set aside, or awaiting cleaning, the car still stinks. After days of hot weather and being aired out, the smell persists. I decided last week that it was time to make a little science.

As a teen, I had a friend that worked in a hotel that had an ozone machine for removing foul odours from rooms. It really did a great job neutralising the smells in his old truck. Last week, I decided to put some of that electronics knowledge in my head to use, and tonight I finally managed to cobble together an ozone generator.

So far, it's been running inside of the stripped car for two hours. I'm very interested to see how this experiment of mine turns out. Even with all of the doors and windows closed, you can smell the ozone seeping out of it from ten feet away.

I'll report back in the morning after giving the car a chance to air out for a while. I'm sure some of you will be interested to find out what happens.

daw_two · #2 09-05-2007, 07:50 AM

Oh, cool! I've taken out all of my floor mats and scrubbed them with glycerine soap and lots of water......even "steam" cleanned them. With all the mats out and the carpet cleaned, I still have "the smell". I currently have the console out awaiting window switches to be cleaned.

Can you share how you built the ozone generator?

Thanks,

TX76513 · #3 09-05-2007, 08:58 AM

Ozone generators work very well BUT your machine must put out in excess of 3000 mg/hr to be effective. Ionic breeze and other such machines do not have the power to do the job.

Chris W. · #4 09-05-2007, 12:50 PM

You might want to put the stuff you stripped out of the car back in while you are ozoning it - no doubt that stuff still stinks as well, although not as much.

Rgds,
Chris W.
has known a few stinky cars also

KAdams4458 · #5 09-05-2007, 02:31 PM

Well, I ran the beast for 8 hours straight, then aired it out for a while before closing it up for a couple of hours prior to the sniff test. The car now smells like almost nothing. It still has a slight scent of sorts, but it's not a dirty smell at all. It smells more like the neutral aroma of any clean car. Success!

I do believe I'll go ahead and run it again once the interior is installed just to kill off any stink in rest of the upholstery. Tonight, I think I'll use it in my Saturn, which has been sitting for months, and has developed a bit of a musty odour as well.

As for construction, it's basically pretty simple. Just a juice glass with a strip of aluminum window screen material on the inside, and wrapped in another strip of screen on the outside. Just about any piece of glass will work, even flat plates of glass. The leads from the power supply attach to each screen. The power supply itself puts out about 6,500 volts DC at 30 milliamperes. I rejuvenated the dead power supply from an old neon sign, since it was easier than building one from scratch, but one could just as easily go out and buy a cheap Chinese-built power supply as well.

I took a little video of the version I finally ended up tweaking and using in the car. I'll have to see if I can post it later.

dieseldan44 · #6 09-05-2007, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KAdams4458

Well, I ran the beast for 8 hours straight, then aired it out for a while before closing it up for a couple of hours prior to the sniff test. The car now smells like almost nothing. It still has a slight scent of sorts, but it's not a dirty smell at all. It smells more like the neutral aroma of any clean car. Success!

I do believe I'll go ahead and run it again once the interior is installed just to kill off any stink in rest of the upholstery. Tonight, I think I'll use it in my Saturn, which has been sitting for months, and has developed a bit of a musty odour as well.

As for construction, it's basically pretty simple. Just a juice glass with a strip of aluminum window screen material on the inside, and wrapped in another strip of screen on the outside. Just about any piece of glass will work, even flat plates of glass. The leads from the power supply attach to each screen. The power supply itself puts out about 6,500 volts DC at 30 milliamperes. I rejuvenated the dead power supply from an old neon sign, since it was easier than building one from scratch, but one could just as easily go out and buy a cheap Chinese-built power supply as well.

I took a little video of the version I finally ended up tweaking and using in the car. I'll have to see if I can post it later.

Awesome account. Pictures and a video would be awesome. I would love to rig this up!

Lycoming-8 · #7 09-05-2007, 03:36 PM

Just don't go overboard. The ozone in strong enough concentration to eradicate the smells will start to oxidize the plastic parts inside the car. This is no rumor, as some 45 years ago I worked for a company that used ozone as a chemical reactant. There was a leak one day, and not long after they were replacing the tires on several of the cars in the nearest parking lot.

Stevo · #8 09-05-2007, 03:47 PM

I dont spoz an ozonator will kill the

"burned out smell"? I bought a nice 240D that had a major electrical fire, the car will never get back on the road but I could use some of the interior things like seat cushions.

JackG · #9 09-05-2007, 03:53 PM

I would like to see this ozone generator myself

KAdams4458 · #10 09-05-2007, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lycoming-8

Just don't go overboard. The ozone in strong enough concentration to eradicate the smells will start to oxidize the plastic parts inside the car. This is no rumor, as some 45 years ago I worked for a company that used ozone as a chemical reactant. There was a leak one day, and not long after they were replacing the tires on several of the cars in the nearest parking lot.

Very true. Ozone goes to town on rubber, especially. I don't think mine has that much clout, though. Watch my headliner disintegrate now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevo

I dont spoz an ozonator will kill the

"burned out smell"? I bought a nice 240D that had a major electrical fire, the car will never get back on the road but I could use some of the interior things like seat cushions.

Actually, they use ozone to kill smoke odours when they perform fire restorations in homes. I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

And folks, I'm still working on the short video clip. Seems my phone network is acting up today. It'll send eventually, and I will provide a link.

Stevo · #11 09-05-2007, 04:26 PM

[
Actually, they use ozone to kill smoke odours when they perform fire restorations in homes. I see no reason why it wouldn't work.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I have an ozonator and will report back when I do the "destink" work on the "crispy critter"

TX76513 · #12 09-05-2007, 04:39 PM

Very true about ozone and rubber (not necessarily plastic). That's why it said to never store tires next to electrical motors which produce ozone.

Jim B. · #13 09-05-2007, 05:23 PM

I have had that problem, especially with a '79 Cadillac Coupe de Ville I got from someone who'd inherited it from the estate of a heavy smoker.

Repeated cleaning of a mixture of water and baking soda, and an old toothbrush, rinse out, let dry, then clean and lightly scrub with very soggy SOS pads, (to avoid scratches) rinse out and let dry, repeat several times, and finally it was clean.

Then lined all the ashtrays carefully with aluminum foil in case they were ever used again. In my case they weren't.

Further, many of the dash controls looked awfully yellowish - not right.

Repeated blasts into some tissues with "409" or "Simple Green" and careful cleaning finally brought them back to new.

Very satisfying result.

Heavy nicotine stains really get into everything. After cleaning that car, you had to wonder about the prior owner's lungs, what they were like.

Maybe he died of lung cancer, all that black crud in them from the inhalation of a million Lucky Strikes.

I don't like cars that were smoked in.

++++

Guy in a body shop told me that sometimes, an aluminum pie plate full of coffee grounds, left overnight on the floorboards, can soak up nasty smells.
Never tried it though.

KAdams4458 · #14 09-06-2007, 05:20 AM

Well, I got one of the testing videos that I made for my wife to upload. This, folks, is ozone production via corona discharge. Excuse my crazy narration. I was way to tired when I finally got it all working. A few previous attempts yielded more melted glass than anything else, so I was happy when I finally stopped destroying glassware around the house. Maybe a little too happy. Maybe I just breathed too much ozone.

85 DSEL · #15 09-06-2007, 06:31 AM

Thanks for the video but for those of us who might not understand altogether what we're spoz to be watching, can you help us know what it is that 'it' is doing?

You were saying something like "...YES! Look at it go.."

What was I to see happening?

Thanks for clarifying