Corona Discharge Ozone Generator Maintenance

Click here for Glass and Ceramic Dielectric compared to Mica

Cleaning, Maintenance & Element Designs

A good selling point of our corona elements is that they can be easily and effectively cleaned. There are some that advertise no maintenance or cleaning required, just replace. The problem with this is that ambient air ozone generators do not use super dry air (in the single digits or less), or pure oxygen as the supply gas meaning that periodic cleaning will be necessary. If you cannot clean the elements, the production of ozone will continually decrease, and they will need to be replaced sooner and more often.

The cost of our corona elements are inexpensive! The part needed when an element wears out costs about $15.00 to replace, including shipping (smaller units only about $10.00)! Best of all, this part is not expected to wear out for years of continuous use, and usually only 1 or 2 of these dielectric sheets need to be replaced at a time on even the larger models. Click here for PARTS and ACCESSORIES.

Beware of the shortcomings of element designs that are enclosed:

Element designs that are enclosed or encased are not effectively serviceable or cleanable. The reason for using this design is most often to reduce the noise of the corona process. If the unit and electrode materials are properly designed, there will be extremely close tolerances (almost none or less than 1mm) between electrode elements, thereby reducing noise, improving corona efficiency, and saving electricity. All of our units utilize close tolerance electrode element design making them as quiet as possible, and efficient. One of our largest units, the PRO 10,000 V, uses only 160 watts, which is less than the average television.

The dielectric material used in most competing corona discharge units is either glass, or ceramic.

Glass and ceramic plate dielectric must be thicker than mica dielectric in order to be usable. The greater thickness and properties of glass or ceramic results in four main negative factors:

1) In-efficiency. Ceramic and glass dielectric material will require larger transformers and more energy to create the corona discharge process.

2) Very Fragile. Ceramic and glass dielectric material is very fragile, is sometimes damaged in shipping, and cannot be dropped. Just cleaning, or inserting these materials into their holders can often break them.

3) Heat generation. Ceramic and glass dielectric material requires more electricity for the corona process to operate. This creates more heat in the element system which wears the element and mounting materials more quickly than our close tolerance mica systems. Excessive Heat also plays a part in possible excessive nitrogen oxide production - especially in humid environments.

4) Ability to clean. In addition, Ceramic element material has a high failure rate, mostly because of the inability to thoroughly clean oily residue (built-up during the corona process) from the porous material.

(Don't believe the one seller out there that states mica is old technology - theirs uses glass sandwiched in plastic - using the same corona discharge plate technology they claim is old. Mica has been around much less time than glass, is more expensive, and is the best choice.)

Contrary to the one seller making the false claim, Glass is in fact the older and cheaper "less-tech" material used, and is not as well suited for portable ambient air corona discharge ozone generators as MICA.

More about MICA.

Why are UV ozone generators a better choice than corona discharge ozone generators?

(For all air or surface sterilization Shock treatment applications such as MOLD, Smoke, Fire odors, musty smells, flood odor, protein decomposition odor, germ and virus remediation, etc.)

The Biggest difference between corona discharge and UV ozone generation methods is that UV ozone generators have stable ozone output levels throughout humidity ranges, while the output of corona discharge ozone generators is significantly reduced by just moderate humidity levels such as 40–70% (ozone output is reduced by approx. 40-70% with 40-70% humidity). In addition, with UV ozone generators, the cleaning requirement is almost eliminated compared to corona discharge ozone generators. Also, the ozone produced from a UV ozone generator is cleaner (no nitric acids) and smells better than ozone produced from corona discharge machines, and is just as powerful and often more powerful as ozone produced by corona discharge ozone generators.
UV models include UV PRO 550, UV PRO 550AT, UV PRO 1100AT, UV PRO 2800, UV PRO 4000, and UV PRO 6800

If you need an ozone generator with adjustable ozone output, two new models, the UV PRO 550AT or UV PRO 1100AT are ideal. The "AT" stands for Adjustable with 48 hour Timer. These models produce the cleanest and sweetest ozone ever possible - adjustable down to very low levels or high levels for shock treatments and are much more dependable than corona models on the market! Please call 866-225-3858 for information or to purchase.