After reading all the reviews, I splurged and bought one of these newer units with the "Always ON" feature for an old 1800 sq/ft house. It worked great removing the horrible stench of a dead squirrel in one of the walls that lingered for weeks even after removing the carcass. Bleach and deodorizers had very little affect especially with the high humidity.
For the first week, it worked great. I decided to use the "Always ON" feature while I stayed at a friend''s place for the weekend. When I came back a day later, I noticed it was not outputting any ozone. The plate inside the unit was not lighting up usual purple so I contacted Sylvan, and they advised me to clean off the Ozone Plate. So I opened it up, and noticed a fruit fly on the plate. I wiped it off with some rubbing alcohol and it revived the dead unit, but it was flickering on and off and parts of the plate were not lighting up. After contacting Sylvan, they agreed to send me replacement ozone plate which I told them I would replace myself.
I gave this product 3 stars, because when it works, it does a great job, but I believe the issues I had with this unit is due to lack of features. It needs a filter for the intake port to keep debris and insects from entering the intake port and shorting out the ozone plate. I believe it has a 400cfm fan, which will pull in a lot of air and particles through the unit.
If I can figure out it was in fact the fly that shorted the plate out and not the quality of the parts used inside, I may end up keeping it and customize it to suit me better like adding a filter and installing a different timer.
Also, Sylvan''s customer service is First Class!
**UPDATE 8/1/10***
The unit is completely dead besides the fan. I opened up the unit, opened the case for the power supply and I noticed a 22uF 400V capacitor had a nice hole in it. This is the reason why the Ozone Plate is not working and the reason why it was flickering before. The manufacturer of the capacitors are JakeC, which is a known low quality brand from China.
I will try to replace the bad capacitor and see how it goes.
**UPDATE 8/14/10**
After replacing the bad 22uF 400V capacitor and the other one (for safe measure), it was still dead. Since most of the PCB and components were covered in epoxy, the only thing I could test were the two 13005 transistors mounted on the heat sink (metal lower panel). Both transistors were shorted so I replaced them with high quality parts (part# ST13005) and now it''s back up and running. I ran it for a 24 hour cycle in our shed, and it''s been running fine without issues.
Also, the front grill is starting to oxidize from the ozone after (3) 24-hour cycles, and (10) 1-hour cycles). I assumed it was stainless steel but now it doesn''t appear so.
**UPDATE 8/17/10**
It has been running great and has been doing a good job even after running it for 48 hours straight. I contacted Sylvan about the repair I made, and they offered to compensate me for my time, which shows that they do care about their customers, but I gladly declined.
**UPDATE 10/30/10**
My unit is still working well. I haven''t had the need to use it as much, since it did a very good job initially by eliminating the odors that wouldn''t go away. I use it maybe once a month to freshen the house and it still outputs huge amounts of ozone. For anyone not very familiar with Ozone Generators, especially ones that output this much ozone, they can be hazardous to your health so I would recommend only using it when there are no people/pets in the house (use with caution). When I walk into the house while the Ozone generator is running, I have a very difficult time breathing. Let the room air out for an hour or two and/or open windows after it has shut off.
I also want to add that long term use of this machine is not wise. Our 3 month old leather furniture ($2,500) is beginning to crack in some areas (non-seating areas) from the initial "bombing". I also ran this in my car for an hour and when I went to grab the steering wheel (has a rubbery/plastic cover), it felt very sticky. I realized the ozone was starting to break down (oxidize) the steering wheel cover which shows how damaging this much ozone can be things.
**UPDATE 12/21/12**
I''ve used this maybe a total of 10 times since my original review and it''s still working well. Apparently, the repairs I made are still holding up. I recently quit smoking and used this in my car to get rid of the lingering smoke smell. Ran it for 30 minutes and now I cannot tell I ever smoked in there.
I read a couple of reviews on here and it appears that other people are having the same issues. If the manufacturer used better parts inside the power supply, I''m sure this product would have 5 star reviews across the board because this ozone generator is very effective when it works.
This is my very first review ever on anything, but the product warranted my input. Asthetically, it is not much to look at. However, it does what it says it does. I live in a row Townhouse condo complex and live next door to smokers. Unfortunately, they smoke in the basement, and the smell travels through the spaces left open by the common pipes that run through each unit, making my laundry room and rec room literally stink as if there were 10 people sitting in the laundry room smoking. After much confrontation, they have ceased smoking, however, the residue of the nicotine stuck on all my possessions in the storage area of my laundry room. I had tried vinegar, bleach, air purifier... anything I could think of to remove/reduce the smell. Our restoration company told us about the industrial ozone generators they use to eradicate smoke smell after a fire. After reviewing many models on-line, I finally broke down and purchased this generator. Got it yesterday and ran it for 1/2 hour (it is two 8x10 rooms) in the evening. It did exactly what it said it would do. The "oxygen" smell is akin to a downpour of rain during a hot summer day... pungent, yet clean. I went down this morning, and the whole laundry room and the rec room smell clean and fresh and no nasty tobacco smell. It was amazing, and a relief to have that nasty smell out of my home. Next, I will try it in my vehicles, and also the bathroom to help control any bacteria. I am very pleased with this item well worth the money highly recommend it.
Buy Sylvan Ozone Generator 3500mg/hr Ozone Output Now
I suppose if Russian military would set out to design an ionizer it would look like this an unassuming looking black metal box with a couple of switches and virtually no labeling, very basic looking. Performance, however is truly mind-blowing a 1000 sq. ft. area with 9 ft ceilings was completely clear of mold in two one hour treatments. Read and follow the enclosed instructions this is not an ionizer you''d run continuously, it''s way too powerful for that. I would recommend this product to anyone, it''s not cheap but you get what you pay for.
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This unit does exactly what it says it should. After use I think it could be improved by adding more time selections (only variable time to one hour or always on) and variable output....but for the price it seems like a good deal
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Purchased the machine a little over a year ago and it worked great initially. After about 50 hours of use, the output decreased considerably. While the fan runs fine, it no longer generates ozone. Sent an email to the company about 3 weeks ago and have not heard back.
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I''ve used this stuff for years (before you could get it on Amazon) on both furniture and antique sewing machine heads. Yes, you heard me right; antique sewing machine heads. It cleans up the finish that sometimes gets filmy. Just be sure to ALWAYS use it according to the directions and ALWAYS in an unseen spot first. I knew of a woman once who was so excited to use it that she put it over a bunch of wood trim in her house, got side-tracked and left it for 24 hours, then blamed the elixer when it ruined the trim. DON''T DO THAT! It is only supposed to stay on for 15-45 minutes.
