Operating your sauna
Do I need an ozone destructor for my ozone sauna, or is ventilation enough?
Normal room ventilation is sufficient. From nearly twenty years of operating these saunas, our position is that an open door and window, or an extractor fan in a small treatment room, deal with what escapes, and that an ozone destructor costing thousands of dollars is not justified.
The reasoning
- Ozone is unstable and decays back to oxygen. Its half-life — the time for half a given quantity to break down — is roughly 10 to 20 minutes inside the hot, wet sauna, and the generator stops producing five minutes before the session ends.
- Moisture in the sauna converts part of the ozone into hydrogen peroxide, so not a great deal of ozone escapes into the room when the doors open.
- An open door and window create enough draft to clear what does escape.
- The oxygen concentrator draws ambient air, so the room needs fresh air anyway for it to work properly.
An ozone destructor breaks residual ozone back down to oxygen, usually over a catalyst, before air is released. In a steam sauna room we do not think one earns its cost. If you do fit one, it must be a wet airstream destructor, because this is a steam environment.
The middle option
What ventilation deals with is off-gassing: ozone and moisture leaving the sauna and its wet surfaces once the doors open. An extractor fan is the sensible upgrade for a small treatment room running back-to-back sessions.
Open flames and candles
Candles in the same room do not pose a fire risk, but open flames must not be brought close to oxygen sources. Oxygen makes anything already burning burn far more fiercely. Keep candles well away from the concentrator, its air intake and the oxygen tubing.
Who the ventilation is really for
The client in the sauna has their head outside it and is breathing room air. The operator has the larger exposure: a client has one session, the operator is in the room for every session on the timetable. Ventilate for the person working there all day.
Nobody should lean into the cabinet, put their face into it, or open the doors to look inside while ozone is running.
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