Risks of odor removal with ozone?

[WP0ZZZ]

Since ozone is a powerful oxidizer, I'm wondering if the use of ozone inside a car to remove smells could cause premature degradation of organic materials such as fabrics, plastics, rubber, etc.

Should I be concerned?

[timmy2]

Only if you leave it in there for too long.
An hour or less will kill the odors and the mold etc.
Just don’t do it too often. 20 minutes works.

[Marine Blue]

Out of curiosity, what odor are you trying to eliminate?

[Showdown]

Look into hydroxyl generators too. I use them to remove odors from paintings where ozone wouldn’t be a safe choice.

[WP0ZZZ]

Originally Posted by Showdown

Look into hydroxyl generators too. I use them to remove odors from paintings where ozone wouldn’t be a safe choice.

Interesting, I had never heard about them. The thing is, I already own an ozone generator and I'm not sure how safe it is to use it on a valuable classic car. To make my question more specific: I'm wondering if there are known cases of premature degradation of car interiors due to ozone use.

Originally Posted by Marine Blue

Out of curiosity, what odor are you trying to eliminate?

Cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes...

[EC900]

These ozone generators should not have any affect on interior components. Old, absorbent surfaces will be difficult to rid of odor, short of a complete stripping out - period.
Artificially reproduced ozone is hardly as damaging to oneself than naturally atmospheric produced. There are health concerns about being confined in an enclosed space that has an artificially elevated ozone level. The marketing science is that ozone “smells” fresh as the morning rain. It will smell nice for while but old scents if not corrected always return. Many rely on these for moldy mildew but as soon as the odor is gone, it returns because the source is just inactive.
I too have that burnt oil and leather aroma that’s permeated into the carpet, headliner and seats. I leave my windows open, removed the old original carpets, cleaned exposed hard surfaces, but that “vintage” still lingers.
I used baking soda and Fresh Wave in an older BMW for years and it never was able to get back a neutral, new car smell…albeit new plastic and other synthetic aromas. Short term these approaches work.

[shoooo32]

I "researched" (read: googled) this when my new Bronco stunk so bad of plastic VOCs that I couldn't drive it without getting nauseous. I borrowed an ozone generator from a buddy, locked it in the car for an hour, then opened all the doors and windows and ran a barn through it for a day. Smell was 200% better.

From what I gather (google), too much exposure to ozone can degrade rubber seals, but an hour max won't hurt anything. wipe all the surfaces down after treatment and repeat as necessary.