The O3Zone Generator: Science Fiction?

Beginning in the early 1800s with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the science fiction genre has played a hugely important role in shaping the way we look at future technology. In his body of work and personal illustrations, Jules Verne had a distinctly prophetic view of the future, famously predicting technologies from the electric submarine to the in-home newscast to the helicopter. Ray Bradbury envisioned shiny metal rocket ships and environmentalism in the 1950s. Movies like Blade Runner and Back to the Future gave us images of home automation, wearable computers, digital billboards and…Pepsi® in a cool bottle.

Today, we’re living in a world of instantaneous virtual reality. We have electric trucks that are straight out of Tron. We have personal computers in our pockets that can have burgers delivered to our homes or tell us exactly where the nearest shoe store is that sells our favorite brand of knockoff flip flops.

The parallels between modern-day and the sci-fi of the past are everywhere. Everything is science fiction now and every industry is infusing new and exciting technologies into their products, even in the world of home water treatment. Take the WaterCare O3Zone Generator for instance. While its plastic shell may look inconspicuous, this box full of lightning turns ordinary, boring oxygen into ozone. When equipped on an air filtration unit, the generator uses its newly created ozone to clean the unit of nuisance, slime-producing bacteria (picture something out of your favorite science-fiction b-movie). Here’s how it all works.

Turning Air into Ozone

Let’s start at the top.

WaterCare Ion Pro air filtration units have a dome or pocket of air at the top of the tank. When water containing impurities like dissolved iron or sulfur gas passes through this chamber of air, these contaminants that you couldn’t see or feel oxidize and become precipitated into tangible particles, making them easy to filter out using the media in the tank below the air chamber. The media in the tank captures the precipitated particles as the water passes through. The water that leaves the tank and enters your home is free of the damaging, nuisance particles formerly present. When the media in the tank becomes too full of particles to capture any more, the filter goes into regeneration which shakes up, rinses, and washes away the captured particles down the drain, preparing the media to capture impurities again.

If we learned anything from The Swamp Thing, any place that there is water, life can grow and thrive. Your whole-home filtration system is no different. Nuisance bacteria can build up inside the tank, leaving behind a slimy residue that can reduce the effectiveness of the filtration process and cause foul taste and odors. This is where the power of the O3Zone generator comes into play.

On an Ion Pro air filter with an O3Zone generator installed, when the unit sucks in air to refill the top air chamber, it first passes through the generator before being introduced into the tank. The generator is equipped with a cell that produces an electrical field. As the oxygen being drawn into the tank passes through this electrical field, it charges the air, turning it into ozone. There’s no science-fiction here; just pure science. Much like a lightning strike, our ozone generator will create ozone through the air it passes through.  Ozone’s natural sterilization properties then prevent nuisance bacteria from growing in the media tank, reducing unwanted slime buildup.

Any ozone that is not used harmlessly dissipates out of the tank. This automatic cleaning process requires no chemicals and very little maintenance, resulting in an eco-friendly and easy way to maintain your air filtration unit.

It’s as easy as that. The O3Zone generator works behind the scenes, zapping oxygen into ozone on every regeneration.

How to Learn More

While it sounds like it should be a Star Trek prop instead of being used in water treatment, the O3Zone generator is an available option on all WaterCare Ion Pro units. In order to determine if ozone generation would be beneficial or necessary for the water conditions in your home, its best to talk to your WaterCare professionals first. Whether you have an existing filtration unit installed or are looking to finally tackle that iron or sulfur problem with some real technology, your local WaterCare dealer will test your home’s water and see which treatment solution is right for you. Give us a call or send us a hologram with your question today!