The Disturbing Truth About Commercial Laundry Systems Using Ozone

LET’S DO THE CALCULATIONS…

I took out my calculator and started to check how much ozone was in the laundry machine. Because I needed to show and explain my calculations to the customer, I had done them in detail.

1) one cubic meter = 1 million grams (g) of water. 1 (g) ozone dissolved in 1 (m³) creates an ozone concentration of 1 part per million (ppm). One gram of ozone dissolved in a 0.4  (m³) (400 liters) will create a concentration of 2.5 ppm.

2) The recommended by most experts in the field concentration of ozone for commercial laundry systems is 4-5 ppm. As the customer had the 2 (g/h) ozone generator, everything looked good on the surface. However, when I looked deeper I discovered an entirely different picture.

3) The laundry machine needs only 3-4 minutes to fill up. Therefore, the actual amount of ozone produced during this time was only 0.13 g.

4) The maximum concentration that this type of generator is capable of handling is 1% w/w. At a concentration of 1%, it is practically impossible to dissolve more than 10% of the ozone in water. Therefore, the actual amount of ozone dissolved was 0.013 (g)

5) Inside the laundry machine the dissolved ozone concentration would be 0.3 ppm.

0.013 (g)/0.4 (m³) = ~0.3 ppm.

That is assuming that the ozone generator was producing 2 (g/h). Nevertheless, after a few months of use, air-feed ozone generators produce only half of what they claim. It would be safe to say that the actual concentration of ozone inside the laundry machine was about 0.1-0.2ppm.

6) An American and Canadian requirement for disinfection of filtered and generally clean bottling water is 0.2-0.4 ppm. However, such a low ozone concentration would not be enough to disinfect a few hundred pounds of industrial linen. In fact, for commercial laundry systems, the industry suggests 10 to 20 times more.

When ozonated water came into contact with a load of soiled linen, the ozone rapidly reacted with the impurities. Since there was so little of it, all the available Ozone immediately react, leaving nothing for the customer to measure. That simply explained the customer’s problem.

It was very clear that at such low concentrations, the ozone was not doing much for the disinfection of linen. What disturbed me, was a question:

WHY SO MANY LAUNDRIES ARE BUYING OZONE GENERATORS, PAYING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, AND GETTING ALMOST NOTHING IN RETURN?

I had contacted several dozens of customers. Most of them virtually had the same type of horribly undersized ozone commercial laundry systems and I discovered an interesting answer:

When the laundries installed the ozone generator, they stopped using hot water for the disinfection of linen. This turned the laundry room from terribly hot and humid hell-like working conditions into a cool and comfortable working environment.

Laundry employees would not complain about ozone, as it made their life better.

As only 10% of ozone was dissolving in water 90% of it was escaping, therefore even with a good air exhaust system, there is always a smell of ozone present.

Any health inspector would be happy to see and smell that ozone is there and there is no need to use hot water.

Modern laundry detergents contain enough bleaching agents to kill most germs. Furthermore, you will notice that linen does not deteriorate as much when washed in cold water, which, as many customers point out, increases the life of linen and towels by about 30%.

Partially recycle the used water, saving money on water costs while saving the environment

Ingenious, now commercial laundries could finely do what we have done for decades at home, use cold water, and take advantage of achievements of the modern chemical industry, which produced such great laundry detergents.

That is amazing, however, there is just one question: why not buy a little, made in China $150 so-called “Mickey Mouse” ozone generator, which will generate plenty of ozone smell for everyone’s satisfaction, instead of wasting thousands of dollars on the ozone generator system which is basically equally ineffective and hardly does anything?

Strangely enough, after talking to people in the laundry industry, we are finding more and more customers who want to have real ozone disinfection, which will assure that they could save as much as 20-40% on detergents, that no germs will survive in the linen, that the lined will be whiter and cleaner than usual.

WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE AN ABSOLUTE OZONE® SYSTEM?

As surprising as it may seem, a good quality system does not necessarily cost more money, as long as it is installed by people who manufacture and install quality ozone generators, who are not embarrassed to publish on their website not only how much ozone their generator produces, but at what concentration and how little feed gas is needed for production. People who would help you to achieve 4-5ppm ozone concentrations inside the laundry machine will guarantee that you will achieve it.

When a customer buys a car all specifications like, horsepower, torque, mileage, top speed, and other features are available, so the customer could make an intelligent choice according to his requirements, needs, and desires. It is therefore surprising that when a customer buys an ozone generator system, he is treated like a person incapable of making an intelligent choice. As a result, he could be persuaded to purchase a system that does not meet his needs and requirements. (Check this article Sizing of Ozone Equipment)