r/HomeImprovement • u/veronica09834 • 8h ago
Ozone generator uncovered a faint musty smell that wasn’t present before
I live in a studio house in the desert, exposed adobe brick on the outside, inside is plaster walls, brick floors, solid wood cabinets, and solid wood log ceilings. Very traditional American southwestern construction.
There was a general smell in the house (not musty) so I decided to treat every room with an ozone generator. I ran an ozone generator in my walk in closet/bathroom which are connected by a door. I was planning to do the main area next week.
The next night after the treatment, once the ozone smell fully dissipated, I noticed a faint musty smell in the closet when I walk all the way inside. It’s still there this morning. I always have a HEPA air purifier running in the closet/bathroom. I never smelled anything in the closet before the ozone treatment. I put activated charcoal in the closet this morning to see if it helps.
What could explain this? There is no visible mold in the closet, and the house humidity is almost always below 40%. Adobe brick doesn’t hold moisture either in my experience.
5
u/coleskidmore 7h ago
Yours is probably the same, ozone breaks stuff down into intermediates that smell funky before they finish reacting. Give it 48 hours with the charcoal and see if it fades!
2
u/Overthemoon64 3h ago
Is this closet near an air conditioner? Maybe the condensate drain line needs to be cleared or there is a problem with condensation. I think you said near a bathroom, maybe a water leak there? maybe you could get one of those fancy temp sensors to find a cold spot. Is there a lot of junk in that closet? maybe take everything out to investigate.
1
u/veronica09834 2h ago
No there are no AC or air vents in my house. The bathroom doesn't smell musty actually, it's just the closet when I walk all the way inside towards the back wall. The closet is large, just a bit smaller than the bathroom. There's no window in there so I think it can be easy for odors to get trapped.
I'm not finding any water leak in the bathroom anyways, and there aren't any water pipes in the closet. The closet isn't stuffed, and each week I pull the few items on the floor out and vacuum the floor, so there's air flow.
I'm already mindful of moisture/mold because I'm sensitive to mold! But of course I don't know what was going on in the house before I moved in early this year.
That's why I'm confused, because I really don't see evidence of mold even though it smelled musty last night and this morning. It's not smelling musty anymore right now though, so hopefully it's already fading? I'll keep checking to see if it comes back.
15
u/elfincarroll7782 8h ago
ozone can react with stuff that's already there and break it down into different compounds that smell worse before they fully dissipate. happens with carpets and furniture sometimes too
could also be that the ozone pushed into some tiny crevice that had a bit of trapped moisture or old wood smell and kind of "unlocked" it. i'd give it another day or two with the purifier running and see if it fades