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Ionizers

Q

Quigs

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I'm not sure if this would be the right spot to post this but I'll give it a shot. Anyone have any useful info on room ionizers? Good, bad or indifferent.

I'm curious if adding an ionizer to my rodent room would help cut down the smell any?

Let me know if you have any experience with this.

Thanks,
Q
 
"Air Source"

I've been using an ionizer called Air Source ever since I started keeping all of the snakes and mice/rats in one room. I can't for the life of me remember how much it cost, but I want to guess it was around $400. I haven't had to replace any parts on it, and it's totally silent. The main problem I run into is having to dust/clean it rather regularly because of the static and the dust in the air from the aspen (recently switched to newspaper - this should help a LOT). It works so well that it actually leaves that weird static smell in the air (you know, like an older tv). If I have it turned off, the odor from the bedding and rodents is MUCH stronger. It really helps to remove that 'stale' smell from the air, which is a major bonus, because my snakeroom is actually concrete on all 6 sides. It's kind of like a bomb shelter under the front porch. There's still a little odor in the room, even when it's on, but you can't smell anything at all from outside the room. Definitly worth having though.
Paul
 
Ionizers work by knocking positively charged suspended particles out of the air by canceling their charge--indoor air pollution almost always has a positive charge. They do their work very well--however, you do have to calculate a bit based on how large the room is, because if you leave a big ionizer going in a small room, you're going to wind up with negatively charged suspended particles in the air, and that's no better than the other way around. They also naturally create a thick, sort of sticky dust that collects around the emitters--the stuff that fell out of the air. This is what you wanted, but it can be messy to clean up, and you have to stay on top of it.
Me, I'd like to have an "Ionic Breeze" air purifier. Pricey, but should last practically forever, easy to clean, and extremely effective. There are some lower-cost knock-offs now, too.
If you want to get really serious about more than odors, you'll probably want an air sanitizer--a UV air sanitizer is designed to kill bacteria, mold spores, viruses, and other baddies...
You can get all-in-ones that combine ionization, a HEPA filter, and UV sterilization, too.
Something like that could make a big difference, particularly in a larger breeding facility. Fewer mold spores also means less chance of eggs molding in the incubators.
 
I believe all ionizers give off ozone. Even if they don't, I know the ones that do vary greatly in how much they produce and are thought to be POSSIBLE health hazzards. There is a lot of misinformation about these health hazzards on the net so it's hard to get a good opinion. Both the companies that sell these products and the alarmist groups who think they're bad have agendas. Hard to wade through it all.

I would not use one in my reptile room until some of this gets worked out. UV and HEPA filters, on the other hand, should be fine.
 
Chris, thanks for the heads up regarding potential health concerns associated with using an ionizer. Honestly I was under the opinion that they were much safer and effective than using fan-powered purifiers with replaceable media. Here's a link (I think I'm supposed to actually paste the article here, but since it's from a publication, I'm pretty sure that's copyright infringement)
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html
= good info from the EPA regarding in-home air quality and the use of ionizers and other aircleaning devices.

First thing tomorrow the mice are moving to the garage, and the ionizer's going in the closet indefinitely. (it's a good thing I only have a half dozen cages of rodents, but sad that they smell worse than 90 or so reptiles...)
 
I use an ionizer (and will be getting a second for the living room) as well as HEPA filters and it works well. It does seem from the literature that underlying health problems like asthma may be exacerbated by ozone, by I have no respiratory problems and have never had a problem with the low levels my ionizer is set on.
 
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