Hi Clive, about four months ago I bought one for our lounge and found it very effective against airborne allergens since we had a new carpet fitted, but also we suffer from pollen. It's been very good, though it's switched off when we go to sleep, really only for safety reasons. I didn't want to keep buying expensive HEPA filters, except I give the device an occasional clean once the ionizer is switched off. My partner "Hedge" who is retired from Special Forces says it's a very good purchase though we are aware the Puremate is really an ozone generator, we've not experienced any strange niffs (except evil dog farts). Your teardown analysis was very good listening and I thank you so much for all your time and effort. Very best wishes to you ~Wendi 🌻
I think the "low voltage" LED might be an indicator that there is a version of this that is intended to be battery powered. So while it will still run when the battery gets down to a certain voltage, it also indicates that the battery shall be replaced or recharged. Possibly 3 Li-Ion batteries in series, putting out about 12.6V when full, but when they're below 9.6V, they still kind of work, as in they're not overly discharged, but empty enough for the device to tell the user it will need to be recharged asap.
@@plainedgedsaw1694 Could it be that when the voltage gets too low the HV generator will stop "ringing" which may cause it's transistor to overheat (just ohmic resistance instead of high-frequency inductance) and either it or the transformer gets destroyed? Just a guess mind, but would explain why they may warn the user about low voltage.
I have one similar that came with a mains adapter plus a car adapter. I think the low-voltage LED is for when it’s plugged into the car to warn that it’s not getting enough power i.e. low battery, but I think you would know that anyway. It was marketed for home and car use.
This is what I was thinking as well, although if your car battery is dropping below 9.6v you may have other things to worry about than your ozone generator not running heh.
Thank you Clive, I have one of these for years, I do occasionally get a sore throat and hoarse voice now and then, I will turn it off and see how I feel!
I bought the exact same thing but it’s the 1000 not 100. It’s amazing, it takes all the nasty smells away but it does stink of ozone. Thanks for doing this video, you’re an absolute genius Clive.
Seems like a good thing to have in the air return for a central heating/aircon system to give a nice puff of ozone to the whole house AND help keep stuff from growing in the heating/cooling system.
@@bigclivedotcom You just said ionizer, which is it? Is it an ionizer or an ozone generator, or are they the same thing? Don't ion generators also produce ozone?
@@AureliusR It's both. This unit is primarily an ozone generator that uses ionisation to create the corona discharge. A traditional carbon fibre or needle ioniser produces levels of ozone lower than natural ambient levels.
I suggest that given the age ofthe design, perhaps it originally relied on an AC DC converter that didn't have feedback? (Just a transformer and a bridge rectifier.) So it might be subject to verying voltage as mains voltage swings up and down.
I have the the big brother for that one.. And they sell it as an ozone creator/bad smell remover. Now and again you need to clean out the dust due to static charge.
I've got the same one. Not explicitly called an ozone generator, but I guess that might scare some people off. They do market it specifically for removing odors though, and warn a bit about ozone, so not terribly misleading except for calling it an ionizer. The dust collector plates come out, so it's fairly easy to clean. I wonder a bit about the
I have one of these - simply because all your ioniser videos made me feel like I was missing out! FYI they're sold with a 12v adapter to place on your car parcel shelf hooked upto a cigarette lighter socket. Its sold for "small Areas Such as Cars, Powder Room and Office Space" on the box. But now I know it's just ozone and I'm not sure if I want it on! Although I only run it on a timer for 4hours in the AM
I have one of these. The low voltage LED is because of the fact you can switch between hi and low as you showed with the switch connected to the two diodes. There is a low voltage mode so you can reduce the power consumption and ion/ozone output. So they added an indicator LED to remind you.
The low voltage thing is likely meant for mobile use. I would imagine that it would have some sort of car adapter. I can also imagine having some sort of battery pack which would work well enough. The low power LED most likely has to do with that mode of operation.
I have the exact same one, had it a few years. The reason for all the voltage regulation, low voltage indication etc is that it was marketed as being portable, comes with a cigarette-lighter plug. I think it's aimed at caravans with liesure batteries.
@@donnahill214 It definitely pulls the dirt out of the air. You will notice that you have to clean surfaces near it more often and clean the tips once a month or so (make sure it's switched off, I find cotton buds with rubbing alcohol cleans them well). I can't say how it will improve your situation but I can vouch that it works.
Regarding the rings around the holes in the aluminium plate, I think that area has experienced more intense and deeper oxydisation from all the free oxygen radicals produced there.
@@snakezdewiggle6084 I'm not sure what you think is strange about it. What other reason would there be to have a low V LED? It is set to come on close to the 12V lead acid minimum voltage (9V+0.7+0.7=10.4V).
Is there a way you can test all the output of ozone from all the still working units you have? Maybe put them in that box with the meter like you did on the hvac overtime stream then time them?
The tiny capacitor is obviously to suppress coupled noise from the HV module. Diagnostic LEDs help identify the failed board. The LED resistor for the "regulator OK" LED is on the regulator board either to save PCB space on the front panel board or a leftover from planning to use different resistors for high and low voltage setting, but the values ended up being within tolerance of each other. The regulator circuit is a textbook "emitter follower" circuit. Entire device seems designed for hand building in an amateur setting, then commercialized as is.
🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁 First comment I found that ... in my view has got it.... I don't know why ... but for the last 30 years ... people with RVs, Lorries and some boats buy Ionisers in seemingly large quantities. I
Yeah, my grandmother had like 3 of these things scattered around the house. They were from the 90’s iirc. She might still have them kicking around in the basement bedroom.
@@WhenDoesTheVideoActuallyStart adding features isn't stupid... letting marketing departments design products may be bad practice, but also not necessarily stupid. Both at once, while not having a check and balance on them... i would say is stupid. Not the actions per se, but the sheer amount of ways that can go wrong is definitely not smart to leave alone.
In the late 90's I purchased a Pollonex branded 12vdc car air cleaner Ionizer unit and immediately took it apart to see if it truly had a purple discharge, indeed it did on 6 pins aimed through metal holes and a odd looking small fan to push it through.
My mother and grandmother both had 110VAC Pollenex ionizers they bought from Home Shopping Network around that time period. Worked pretty well, in fact; both of them were parrot owners and the ionizers certainly kept the bird dander as close to the ionizer as possible. They used them until long after the filters were discontinued. I think Mom finally donated hers to Goodwill a few months ago, still worked, the fan bearings sounded a little dry though.
I have one of these in my boat. It was sold as an ozon generator, and is working well for what it is. It has very low energy consumption and I'll leave it on for a week or so in the spring to reduce the usual boat smell, when I'm not there.
I found a professional ozone generator at my buddies industrial recycling yard last year. I couldn’t figure out what it was it first but turns out it’s for crime scene cleanup. It was about a $1500 unit, it’s still in storage somewhere. The damn sensor board on it cost more than most ozone generators I’ve ever seen. The little ozone sensors and circuit board sells for about 500 bucks. I almost popped it out and sold that part on eBay but decide to stick the whole thing in storage. It’s all stainless and nice and portable. It could either run on rechargeable lithium battery packs, or it could be plugged into either 110V or 12V car. Probably got a lot of use in crime scene cleanup. But it looked really clean and in really good shape. I think it was only about five years old.
It looks like it wants to be a cablemodem. Also ... the 10 volt input voltage warning makes sense if you consider this in an automotive application - where someone might leave it on long enough to drain the battery.
My HF-100 has the same two outer sharp points, but the centre two had pins soldered to them rather than the larger points in the model illustrated here.
looks like the aluminum is excessively corroding around the ozone generator points, turning to aluminum powder. Or, maybe the aluminum was anodized, and the coating is leaving around the points allowing the aluminum to corrode.
It looks like the LED board is close to the front plate, but not so close to the negative rail. Since the front plate is connected to the DC ground, there shouldn't be much risk of the HV interacting with the circuitry on the LED board.
I have two of these in the house. They work well, only downside is it's a bit difficult to clean the spikes. I didn't realize what the packet of vanilla scented balls was for, until I found the little compartment underneath!
I have been testing many dry room negative ionizers for the past 6 months. I will be testing this model soon. With the grounding, it gets interesting. In Japan, they don’t use ground often, so how is it they make the best Ionizers then? So I mixed and matched adaptors in Ionizers (don’t do this) and got interesting results. Ion emission/density changes. And the quality of those ions too. Not all negative ions are of the same “species”. Anyway I will measure ozone emission, ion density, Voc reduction, no2 or byproduct creation. I haven’t posted much videos in my channel yet due to reading extensively. But if anyone has any questions on ionizers, let me know. Also, thank you so much for your ionizer videos. I certainly learned a lot.
I’ve also tested bipolar ionizers, and hvac ionizers. Ionizers can have the exact same ion density but yield completely different results in the air and for health. Now I understand most are ion inhalation as a quackery science understandably. I wasn’t a big believer until ionizers completely got rid of my allergies (unlike hepa filters)
Now if you really want a headache.. when I earth myself (attach wrist strap to metal frame) while inside a car/using an ionizer plugged in.. why does my ionizer work better? What does my bodies charge have to do with ions emitted? Charged particles and the bodies voltage and what we do and don’t inhale, such an in depth science
I noticed you had a video suggesting that an ioniser increases VOCs. From my own tests I think the VOC sensors are susceptible to electrostatic build up in the vicinity of ionisers and that may result in rogue readings.
@@bigclivedotcom I’ve been studying Voc sensors like a mad man for the past 6 months, I don’t trust any of them. But the correlations are reliable. the vocs uptick is temporary in that video. The intermediate voc produced are also amendable to ionization. And the byproducts from those intermediates, also amendable to ionization. The issue is gas isn’t concentrated in an closed environment in a room. It’s difficult to ionize vocs in open space. One study showed roughly 50% of Voc removal is in the hvac, and 10% can be added by a portable purifier (such as an ionizer). I should update the text in that video down since it’s misleading/or I have come to new conclusions.
I bought one similar from Tchibo about 15 years ago, The outer shell moulding was the same but inside mine there were about 10 needles and a steel plate with 3 tiers, approx. 6" x 1" each, which plugged into a socket, On my unit you could open a hatch and remove the steel plates for cleaning, they attracted a lot of dust and it looked black like soot, They had a significantly larger surface area than Clive's unit though, around 4 times the area in total, it did not have a container for scent though (thank god!) It worked well and put out quite a breeze, I used it with a timer plug so I could do 1 hour on, 2 off, It also ran on 12V, so it was handy in the greenhouse as well, running from a 12V 12Ah battery and 12V timer, it helped with stopping mould at critical times
The rings are almost certainly caused by the discharge, especially since the outer two short spikes correspond to discoloration on the inner surface and the inner longer spikes correspond to discoloration on the outer surface. The shorter spikes arc to the inside surface and the longer ones to the outer edge.
Not so much arcing as the very vigorous and ozone rich ion draught from negative to positive. There's a lot of awesome science going on in these things.
I have a massive "ionic filter" that has removable plates that accumulate dust... Surprisingly low ozone output, can barely smell it at all if I put my nose up to the unit. It does pull a lot of dust out of the air.
The ozone cloud really messes up any touch switch technology. If you have touch switch mains light dimmers, the charge cloud can make the lights dim switch on to full brightness and flash at random, simulating the poltergeist experience. One interesting effect is that the charged cloud persists for a considerable time, and can be wafted past the light switch by a light breeze. As has been my mentioned many times on this channel, coincident with reviews of ionizers, operation of such devices in a domestic environment will, overtime, coat the room walls in a layer of grim and dust, with the notable exception of the room corners, which are protected by the reverse effect of point discharge. It might be worth connecting up one of these ionisers to a paint spray can, and experiment with electrostatic painting. Might be handy in providing a quality paint finish on die-cast metal hobby boxes. The marks on the aluminium sheet may well by aluminium oxide, the result of the ozone gas decomposing. The circuit seems unnecessarily complicated, it seem like very poor design to turn off the under voltage LED by shorting it out.
The first transistor in the lv circuit is for sensing, the second is to invert the signal i believe. Either used in case you use the wrong supply, or battery pack operation is my guess. I don't suppose shorting the needles to the plate would load the circuit enough
I think there is something not mentioned in the video. Can you please check if instead of using the multimeter on DC you use it on AC if it shows voltage in front of the ionizer (ozoner). I suspect the high voltage is as well high frequency.
Uncle Clive can you tell us the story of what happened to the previous models Azone Bzone Czone etc and when can we expect the upgraded Pzone generator?
Hey Clive! I know why they have a low voltage LED! If you run that thing off of your car battery, say to remove smells and whatnot, you would want an indicator to show that the car battery is low so you don't run it flat. I would bet that it was originally designed to be run in your car while you're not in it.
I have two of the 'tower' type ionizers approx 2 and half feet tall, these were made to clear out smoke and whatever else they can clear out lol. Both of mine have ozone guards which do work to stop the smell of ozone permeating the air. They are also cleanable by lifting up and out the workings and washing the metal plates with soap and warm water. Each unit is a 4 Watt unit so little energy is used to power them but they do put out quite a breeze while of course being silent, no moving parts. This one you are dissecting is a strange little unit and if it pulls air in it's going to get filty sooner or later and it doesn't look like something you'd want to clean with those spikes lol.
Can we combine this with a 4-port Ethernet router? The case looks like it would be quite stylish for a router. Ohhh, and let’s put in one of those ultrasonic pest repellers - we don’t want rats chewing on our Ethernet cables!
There is a defect in the design of the voltage selection. If the switch is open circuit on transition, the output will go to 12V minus the light saturation voltage of the transistor. They should have left the 10.45V zener connected to the transistor base. When the circuit is on low, the 10.45V zener would do nothing. As soon as contact is broken, it would switch to high, instead of an unregulated state in between the two zeners.
I wonder if the low voltage thing is for running off... battery power??? Weird. What do the designers expect a consumer to do when that light comes on?
That would make sense otherwise, but if I was powering something like this from a battery, I would very much like it to automatically cut out power in case of gross undervoltage instead of keeping on doing its thing and lighting a red LED. The LED does seem really pointless.
Yep, they come with a car cigarette lighter adapter. I guess the LED is just to tell you it's succesfully knackered your battery though, as it comes on at such low voltage. Should maybe be relabeled as a "get the jumper cables" indicator? It'd probably take a long long time to drain a starter battery with this thing though, and if you did, the rubber in the cabin might have seen better days.
I have a heaven fresh one at work in a production environment. It supposedly removed dust from the air, but I wasn’t too confident and unplugged it. Never noticed having a hoarse throat, though.
The low voltage light is for when it’s used in a car to warn you of an impending flat battery although a cutout would be better, I have 1 and checking with a multi meter in front and got a high reading.
Dunno if it’s been said, but this unit can be used in a car with a cigarette lighter plug, hence the low volts warning light. I got sucked into buying one of these and it made me sick, head aches, sore throats and dizziness.
A quick ebay look and it says these are for cars, so I guess hence the low voltage indicator, there also seems to be a slightly newer model, more compact, without said indicator
the "low v" might be a warning that you have plugged it into the wrong wall-wart . . . i have several with the same jack but different voltages . . . lack of standards!
The “low voltage” indicator somehow makes me think that the manufacturer is concerned about unreliable power supply… perhaps in a vehicle? Or in parts of the world where it’s common to draw power from a on-site generator? Perhaps they also market an identical device to be powered off USB power supplies?
Hi Clive, Interesting Video. I purchased the PM200 yesterday which is a bigger versiion with a few additions. The basket for the crystals has gone and everything is enclosed. Now, on the strength of the Ozone that these things generate I had a look around at how Ozone effects us and its not good reading. I assume that this thing limits the amount of Ozone output, cant say that I have suffered any ill effects but it does 100 percent clear the air of smells. Exactly how much ozone these things give out is guess work. Any ideas?
I'm curious though why the 2 outside pointy v's are a bit further back, but the inner ones aren't. The outer ones would make a reasonable airflow but the inside ones seem weird to me, they even protrude a bit through the hole I think.
Get a base reading on output (ozone) with all stock parts in place, then replace the Al plate with the same characteristics as the original plate, haver has been made from SS, then take another reading. Was there an increase or decrease in output? Let us know!
Even given that they wanted a low voltage indication, why have one transistor turning on a second transistor to short out the LED, rather than just one transistor? I agree about the silliness of having nowhere for the ionic current to go except straight to the Al plate.
It's like in a Darlington arrangement. Small change on the input makes a big difference on the output. In this case the indicator will be more "decisive" (goes faster from on to off rather than dimming while the input voltage drops).
@@superdau That's plausible, but the zener would give a fairly sharp transition anyway, and it wouldn't hurt for the LED to start glowing a bit when thesupply voltage is getting marginal.
Consider the unit can also be used in a car or caravan, maybe then it is nice to know when the battery gets low. Did you check how low when the LED glows ? And car use, could that be the reason why grounds are connected ?
I would be interested to see what it would be like if you modded it with carbon fibre tips. as for the pcb close to the high voltage, they could have used the side pcb with leds, and used light guides to the front of the unit.
I bought one of these for my mum to help with her allergies... Now i know why she said it didnt work. I felt stupid but now i just feel cheated... You seem to like your ionisers Clive, could you (or someone else) reccomend a genuine one?
I remember when I bought mine there was some mention of using it in car or camping, and I think that's what the "Low V" is for, when you're using it powered by the cigarette lighter socket. Question: is it possible to hack the power output by changing the zener diodes next to the switch?
I had a much smaller version of one of these designed for car use. It even had the cigarette lighter plug fitted. It was about half the size of your unit and had the same finish on the case. I didn't keep it for the reason you gave, it always left me with a really dry throat and dry cough. One question though, could this be converted into a proper ioniser by removing the plate with the holes and grounding positive side of the voltage multiplier and leaving the spikes connected to the negative side of the voltage multiplier?
The car one puts out way too much ozone for the space. OK for freshening it up while nobody is in it, but not OK for long drives unless there's fresh air being brought in. I'll be featuring one in a video soon.
Thanks for the reply Clive. I cotacted Pure Mate today with the Ozone question and here is the reply that I received back from them in record time. Good afternoon, Thank you for your email. The PM200 produces between 0.015 and 0.05 ppm (parts per million) of ozone as part of the ionization process and generates 1 million negative ions per cubic centimetre (CC). This small amount of ozone (O₃) is well within the safety standards set by the EPA, WHO, FDA, and OSHA, which allow levels of 0.05 to 1.0 ppm. For comparison, ozone levels in forest air range from 0.01 to 0.02 ppm, and no studies suggest that forest air poses any health risks. Kind regards, Mmm, food for thought I guess...
I like that you say it is a whole-house ozone generator, it is described as a vehicle or small room air purifier in the literature. Heaven Fresh also do a much larger unit with several needles, a friend bought one and it creates a ozone-stinky stiff draught, let alone an ionic breeze.
They're just a bit too fierce. I tried one of these units in my bedroom for two nights and woke up with a sore throat each time. Noble idea, but just a bit overzealous for a single room.
Dunno if you will see this Clive but there is a industrial air ionizer Brand IWAVE Manufacturer Part Number 4900-40 Meant to be used in up to a 6 ton air handler... eeesh
The iWave units were heavily pushed during the pandemic. The carbon fibre wiping system is neat. I think that might be the brand currently involved in litigation with "scientists" about their claims.
I suppose the low voltage light is to warn you it might not be generating the Ozone correctly, if you had it in a setting where you wanted the ozone for germicidal purposes then it'd be nice to know if it was working or not? I mean the chance the power supply dies in such a way that it shunts enough to light the LEDs but not enough to function properly? It's a low chance I suppose but still.
I had something similar to this but it was for a car. Even the circuitry and design looks similar but the unit was way smaller. It didn't have that thing on the bottom for the scented beads though. I think it must have been from around the early 2000's. It was really good but I think I overused it and consequently it stopped working - I still have it somewhere, most likely disassembled heh.
I got one of these thinking it was an ioniser. I placed on a sheet of paper and it did create a dust zone, that's why I'm surprised of the outcome. I also declined to use the smellies. Would like to see your modification to make it a real true'r ioniser, pretty please.
It does produce a small ionisation charge. But the main effect is ozone. You can see the plasma on the tips of the points in the dark. I'm fine with low level ozone used to reinstate the active components of indoor air, but it should be used in moderation.
If you mean the floating pool ionisers, they have a small solar panel, a non dissolving electrode made of stainless steel and an electrolytically dissolving electrode made of copper and silver. The copper ions control plant growth and the silver ions control bacteria.
Fun fact: if you somehow manage to put the Low/High switch in its middle position so that neither of the Zeners are connected, it'll apply full voltage to the HV booster and make it all much more spectacular!
That is a valid point you give there. The 10,5V zener should just be connected to the base, and 8V should be switched parallel to it. As it is now, a dirty switch could trash the high voltage unit.
Hi Clive, about four months ago I bought one for our lounge and found it very effective against airborne allergens since we had a new carpet fitted, but also we suffer from pollen. It's been very good, though it's switched off when we go to sleep, really only for safety reasons. I didn't want to keep buying expensive HEPA filters, except I give the device an occasional clean once the ionizer is switched off. My partner "Hedge" who is retired from Special Forces says it's a very good purchase though we are aware the Puremate is really an ozone generator, we've not experienced any strange niffs (except evil dog farts).
Your teardown analysis was very good listening and I thank you so much for all your time and effort. Very best wishes to you ~Wendi 🌻
I was surprised you didn't show it running with the cover off. I wanted to see the blue glow at the pointed tips.
I think the "low voltage" LED might be an indicator that there is a version of this that is intended to be battery powered. So while it will still run when the battery gets down to a certain voltage, it also indicates that the battery shall be replaced or recharged. Possibly 3 Li-Ion batteries in series, putting out about 12.6V when full, but when they're below 9.6V, they still kind of work, as in they're not overly discharged, but empty enough for the device to tell the user it will need to be recharged asap.
Or because it has general purpose power socket so it may get plugged into wrong adapter or 12v socket which is likely to be battery powered.
@@plainedgedsaw1694 Could it be that when the voltage gets too low the HV generator will stop "ringing" which may cause it's transistor to overheat (just ohmic resistance instead of high-frequency inductance) and either it or the transformer gets destroyed? Just a guess mind, but would explain why they may warn the user about low voltage.
@@blg53 that's also possible but still, finding something not foolproof these days is quite hard.
My Heaven Fresh 100 came with an additional automotive cable. The Low-V LED was claimed to show if your car battery was drained too much!
I'm wondering if the low voltage is for if it is used in a mobile home, car or any 12v battery powered supply!
I have one similar that came with a mains adapter plus a car adapter. I think the low-voltage LED is for when it’s plugged into the car to warn that it’s not getting enough power i.e. low battery, but I think you would know that anyway. It was marketed for home and car use.
Yep.
This is what I was thinking as well, although if your car battery is dropping below 9.6v you may have other things to worry about than your ozone generator not running heh.
@@Lizlodude also appeals to preppers living in their bug out caravan or persons living in their car
That's what I was thinking with it having a 12v dc input instead of a mains input.
@@fumthings or the zombie apocalypse! (Odour to mask the smell of the living🤣)
best part of this ionizer is its case. Very unique plastic.
They also do a wood finish version which looks remarkably stylish.
Thank you Clive, I have one of these for years, I do occasionally get a sore throat and hoarse voice now and then, I will turn it off and see how I feel!
These units are OK. But not used continuously in a small room.
Isn't a true clive week without him tearing down an ionizer
I am slightly obsessed with them at the moment.
@@meh6722 Me too....Ion Man 👉💎👈
that aluminum plate appears to be water jet cut. you can see the start stop spot at the bottom of the large circles.
I bought the exact same thing but it’s the 1000 not 100. It’s amazing, it takes all the nasty smells away but it does stink of ozone. Thanks for doing this video, you’re an absolute genius Clive.
Seems like a good thing to have in the air return for a central heating/aircon system to give a nice puff of ozone to the whole house AND help keep stuff from growing in the heating/cooling system.
They do sell carbon fibre emitter based positive/negative ionisers that effectively do that.
@@bigclivedotcom You just said ionizer, which is it? Is it an ionizer or an ozone generator, or are they the same thing? Don't ion generators also produce ozone?
@@AureliusR It's both. This unit is primarily an ozone generator that uses ionisation to create the corona discharge. A traditional carbon fibre or needle ioniser produces levels of ozone lower than natural ambient levels.
I suggest that given the age ofthe design, perhaps it originally relied on an AC DC converter that didn't have feedback? (Just a transformer and a bridge rectifier.) So it might be subject to verying voltage as mains voltage swings up and down.
also when the supply is unregulated, a short of the spikes might turn that LED on
I love the 90s looking speckled finish it makes it look a lot more professional
Professional ozone-stinker
Thanks, Clive, interesting construction.
to get rid of the Vanilla smell put it in the dishwasher on the hottest setting (if any) that the plastic will allow.
Unplug it first though.
@@jimsvideos7201 That doesn't make for a good video.
Learn something new every time I watch you. Thanks again for a wonderful video
I have the the big brother for that one.. And they sell it as an ozone creator/bad smell remover. Now and again you need to clean out the dust due to static charge.
@Schwalbe262 This; ioniser , air purifier www.kjell.com/se/produkter/hem-fritid/kropp-halsa/luftrenare/rubicson-jonisator-for-rum-upp-till-25-m-p40441
I've got the same one.
Not explicitly called an ozone generator, but I guess that might scare some people off.
They do market it specifically for removing odors though, and warn a bit about ozone, so not terribly misleading except for calling it an ionizer. The dust collector plates come out, so it's fairly easy to clean.
I wonder a bit about the
I have one of these - simply because all your ioniser videos made me feel like I was missing out! FYI they're sold with a 12v adapter to place on your car parcel shelf hooked upto a cigarette lighter socket. Its sold for "small Areas Such as Cars, Powder Room and Office Space" on the box. But now I know it's just ozone and I'm not sure if I want it on! Although I only run it on a timer for 4hours in the AM
I have one of these. The low voltage LED is because of the fact you can switch between hi and low as you showed with the switch connected to the two diodes.
There is a low voltage mode so you can reduce the power consumption and ion/ozone output. So they added an indicator LED to remind you.
Low voltage warning could be there for use in your car. Or campersince they get musty when stored.
also appeals to preppers living in their bug out caravan or persons living in their car
The low voltage thing is likely meant for mobile use. I would imagine that it would have some sort of car adapter. I can also imagine having some sort of battery pack which would work well enough. The low power LED most likely has to do with that mode of operation.
I have the exact same one, had it a few years. The reason for all the voltage regulation, low voltage indication etc is that it was marketed as being portable, comes with a cigarette-lighter plug. I think it's aimed at caravans with liesure batteries.
Does it actually make a difference brought because got asthma
@@donnahill214 It definitely pulls the dirt out of the air. You will notice that you have to clean surfaces near it more often and clean the tips once a month or so (make sure it's switched off, I find cotton buds with rubbing alcohol cleans them well). I can't say how it will improve your situation but I can vouch that it works.
Regarding the rings around the holes in the aluminium plate, I think that area has experienced more intense and deeper oxydisation from all the free oxygen radicals produced there.
The color may also be due to the original owners use of the vanilla crystals
It's obviously designed to also run off of a battery pack. That's why it has a low V LED.
also appeals to preppers living in their bug out caravan or persons living in their car
Very strange logic. I think your conclusion is flawed.
@@snakezdewiggle6084 I'm not sure what you think is strange about it. What other reason would there be to have a low V LED? It is set to come on close to the 12V lead acid minimum voltage (9V+0.7+0.7=10.4V).
@@stargazer7644 do you really need an explanation ?
@@snakezdewiggle6084 Well if you're going to claim someone's logic and conclusion is flawed, you probably better be able to back it up.
Is there a way you can test all the output of ozone from all the still working units you have? Maybe put them in that box with the meter like you did on the hvac overtime stream then time them?
If it smells like magic blue smoke, it's working.
I second the motion.
that frosted look on the aluminium looks a bit like the effect you get when tig welding aluminium from the cleaning cycle
I contacted heaven fresh directly years ago and they reassured me no ozone was present, even though I could smell it!!
🤥 - 😠
WHY IS EVERYONE GETTING THEIR KNICKERS IN A TWIST ABOUT OZONE? OZONE IS NETHER BAD NOR GOOD. ITS THE LEVEL THAT IS KEY. JUST LIKE PARACETAMOL.
I bought 4 and they were overheating and started giving out smoke. DANGEROUS. RETURNED .
@A true meme master its DOSE dependent. why cant you understand that?
is it difficult. why?
@@esecallum I am not, but with all capital letters, you certainly seem to be.
The tiny capacitor is obviously to suppress coupled noise from the HV module. Diagnostic LEDs help identify the failed board. The LED resistor for the "regulator OK" LED is on the regulator board either to save PCB space on the front panel board or a leftover from planning to use different resistors for high and low voltage setting, but the values ended up being within tolerance of each other. The regulator circuit is a textbook "emitter follower" circuit. Entire device seems designed for hand building in an amateur setting, then commercialized as is.
Maybe it was built to be used in cars / RV - thus the 12v supply and odd voltage regulator/ low detector?
Feels like it.
🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁
First comment I found that ... in my view has got it....
I don't know why ... but for the last 30 years ... people with RVs, Lorries and some boats buy Ionisers in seemingly large quantities.
I
I had one that looked just like that maybe a decade ago (maybe more)
Yeah, they seem to go back a long way.
Yeah, my grandmother had like 3 of these things scattered around the house. They were from the 90’s iirc. She might still have them kicking around in the basement bedroom.
Those extra LEDs are what happens when the product is designed by the marketing department and nobody goes through a cost-cutting phase.
The same, I think, applies to the aroma. "People associate clean air with nice smells - let's add a function to perfume the air as it comes out."
@@zh84 But that's not necessarily stupid, people do associate "quality" and "functionality" with things they can sense.
@@WhenDoesTheVideoActuallyStart adding features isn't stupid... letting marketing departments design products may be bad practice, but also not necessarily stupid. Both at once, while not having a check and balance on them... i would say is stupid. Not the actions per se, but the sheer amount of ways that can go wrong is definitely not smart to leave alone.
The LEDs are to tell you if it's on High or Low !!! I have this Ionizer and it's Excellent !!!
In the late 90's I purchased a Pollonex branded 12vdc car air cleaner Ionizer unit and immediately took it apart to see if it truly had a purple discharge, indeed it did on 6 pins aimed through metal holes and a odd looking small fan to push it through.
My mother and grandmother both had 110VAC Pollenex ionizers they bought from Home Shopping Network around that time period. Worked pretty well, in fact; both of them were parrot owners and the ionizers certainly kept the bird dander as close to the ionizer as possible. They used them until long after the filters were discontinued. I think Mom finally donated hers to Goodwill a few months ago, still worked, the fan bearings sounded a little dry though.
I have one of these in my boat. It was sold as an ozon generator, and is working well for what it is. It has very low energy consumption and I'll leave it on for a week or so in the spring to reduce the usual boat smell, when I'm not there.
that's what it's for? Suppressing smells?
I found a professional ozone generator at my buddies industrial recycling yard last year. I couldn’t figure out what it was it first but turns out it’s for crime scene cleanup. It was about a $1500 unit, it’s still in storage somewhere.
The damn sensor board on it cost more than most ozone generators I’ve ever seen. The little ozone sensors and circuit board sells for about 500 bucks. I almost popped it out and sold that part on eBay but decide to stick the whole thing in storage. It’s all stainless and nice and portable. It could either run on rechargeable lithium battery packs, or it could be plugged into either 110V or 12V car. Probably got a lot of use in crime scene cleanup. But it looked really clean and in really good shape. I think it was only about five years old.
They call it an ioniser even though it makes ozone because calling it a "radicaliser" sounds a little problematic
STEP RIGHT UP AND GET YOUR ANTI-ANTIOXIDANTS TODAY!
It looks like it wants to be a cablemodem. Also ... the 10 volt input voltage warning makes sense if you consider this in an automotive application - where someone might leave it on long enough to drain the battery.
My HF-100 has the same two outer sharp points, but the centre two had pins soldered to them rather than the larger points in the model illustrated here.
The puremate has that version too. The pins are actually pushed into punched indents in the strip and appear to be changeable.
looks like the aluminum is excessively corroding around the ozone generator points, turning to aluminum powder. Or, maybe the aluminum was anodized, and the coating is leaving around the points allowing the aluminum to corrode.
Aluminium is considered a good choice for ozone use as it creates a very strongly protective oxide layer.
Hi Clive the marking on the Ally plate could be the result of water jet cutting 🤔
It looks like the LED board is close to the front plate, but not so close to the negative rail. Since the front plate is connected to the DC ground, there shouldn't be much risk of the HV interacting with the circuitry on the LED board.
I have two of these in the house. They work well, only downside is it's a bit difficult to clean the spikes. I didn't realize what the packet of vanilla scented balls was for, until I found the little compartment underneath!
I have been testing many dry room negative ionizers for the past 6 months. I will be testing this model soon. With the grounding, it gets interesting. In Japan, they don’t use ground often, so how is it they make the best Ionizers then? So I mixed and matched adaptors in Ionizers (don’t do this) and got interesting results. Ion emission/density changes. And the quality of those ions too. Not all negative ions are of the same “species”. Anyway I will measure ozone emission, ion density, Voc reduction, no2 or byproduct creation. I haven’t posted much videos in my channel yet due to reading extensively. But if anyone has any questions on ionizers, let me know.
Also, thank you so much for your ionizer videos. I certainly learned a lot.
I’ve also tested bipolar ionizers, and hvac ionizers. Ionizers can have the exact same ion density but yield completely different results in the air and for health. Now I understand most are ion inhalation as a quackery science understandably. I wasn’t a big believer until ionizers completely got rid of my allergies (unlike hepa filters)
Now if you really want a headache.. when I earth myself (attach wrist strap to metal frame) while inside a car/using an ionizer plugged in.. why does my ionizer work better? What does my bodies charge have to do with ions emitted? Charged particles and the bodies voltage and what we do and don’t inhale, such an in depth science
I noticed you had a video suggesting that an ioniser increases VOCs. From my own tests I think the VOC sensors are susceptible to electrostatic build up in the vicinity of ionisers and that may result in rogue readings.
If you are holding a simple ion meter then grounding yourself will result in a significant reading increase.
@@bigclivedotcom I’ve been studying Voc sensors like a mad man for the past 6 months, I don’t trust any of them. But the correlations are reliable. the vocs uptick is temporary in that video. The intermediate voc produced are also amendable to ionization. And the byproducts from those intermediates, also amendable to ionization. The issue is gas isn’t concentrated in an closed environment in a room. It’s difficult to ionize vocs in open space. One study showed roughly 50% of Voc removal is in the hvac, and 10% can be added by a portable purifier (such as an ionizer). I should update the text in that video down since it’s misleading/or I have come to new conclusions.
I bought one similar from Tchibo about 15 years ago,
The outer shell moulding was the same but inside mine there were about 10 needles and a steel plate with 3 tiers, approx. 6" x 1" each, which plugged into a socket,
On my unit you could open a hatch and remove the steel plates for cleaning, they attracted a lot of dust and it looked black like soot,
They had a significantly larger surface area than Clive's unit though, around 4 times the area in total, it did not have a container for scent though (thank god!)
It worked well and put out quite a breeze, I used it with a timer plug so I could do 1 hour on, 2 off,
It also ran on 12V, so it was handy in the greenhouse as well, running from a 12V 12Ah battery and 12V timer, it helped with stopping mould at critical times
I bought this exact unit (with a different name) back in 2004! Wow! They still make these?
The rings are almost certainly caused by the discharge, especially since the outer two short spikes correspond to discoloration on the inner surface and the inner longer spikes correspond to discoloration on the outer surface. The shorter spikes arc to the inside surface and the longer ones to the outer edge.
Not so much arcing as the very vigorous and ozone rich ion draught from negative to positive. There's a lot of awesome science going on in these things.
I have a massive "ionic filter" that has removable plates that accumulate dust... Surprisingly low ozone output, can barely smell it at all if I put my nose up to the unit. It does pull a lot of dust out of the air.
Which one is it?
@@thebrowns5337 ionic pro electrostatic air cleaner
I have that Ionizer !!! it has 2 levels, High or Low !!! That 's the Switch on the Right. It has been Very Good and I've had it for Years !!!
The ozone cloud really messes up any touch switch technology. If you have touch switch mains light dimmers, the charge cloud can make the lights dim switch on to full brightness and flash at random, simulating the poltergeist experience. One interesting effect is that the charged cloud persists for a considerable time, and can be wafted past the light switch by a light breeze.
As has been my mentioned many times on this channel, coincident with reviews of ionizers, operation of such devices in a domestic environment will, overtime, coat the room walls in a layer of grim and dust, with the notable exception of the room corners, which are protected by the reverse effect of point discharge.
It might be worth connecting up one of these ionisers to a paint spray can, and experiment with electrostatic painting. Might be handy in providing a quality paint finish on die-cast metal hobby boxes.
The marks on the aluminium sheet may well by aluminium oxide, the result of the ozone gas decomposing. The circuit seems unnecessarily complicated, it seem like very poor design to turn off the under voltage LED by shorting it out.
The first transistor in the lv circuit is for sensing, the second is to invert the signal i believe.
Either used in case you use the wrong supply, or battery pack operation is my guess.
I don't suppose shorting the needles to the plate would load the circuit enough
I think there is something not mentioned in the video. Can you please check if instead of using the multimeter on DC you use it on AC if it shows voltage in front of the ionizer (ozoner). I suspect the high voltage is as well high frequency.
I think this unit it may be emmmting ions on AC, what means it will only show up on the AC mode on the multimeter.
Uncle Clive can you tell us the story of what happened to the previous models Azone Bzone Czone etc and when can we expect the upgraded Pzone generator?
Hey Clive! I know why they have a low voltage LED! If you run that thing off of your car battery, say to remove smells and whatnot, you would want an indicator to show that the car battery is low so you don't run it flat. I would bet that it was originally designed to be run in your car while you're not in it.
I have two of the 'tower' type ionizers approx 2 and half feet tall, these were made to clear out smoke and whatever else they can clear out lol. Both of mine have ozone guards which do work to stop the smell of ozone permeating the air. They are also cleanable by lifting up and out the workings and washing the metal plates with soap and warm water. Each unit is a 4 Watt unit so little energy is used to power them but they do put out quite a breeze while of course being silent, no moving parts. This one you are dissecting is a strange little unit and if it pulls air in it's going to get filty sooner or later and it doesn't look like something you'd want to clean with those spikes lol.
I clean mine with earbuds
Can we combine this with a 4-port Ethernet router? The case looks like it would be quite stylish for a router. Ohhh, and let’s put in one of those ultrasonic pest repellers - we don’t want rats chewing on our Ethernet cables!
There is a defect in the design of the voltage selection. If the switch is open circuit on transition, the output will go to 12V minus the light saturation voltage of the transistor. They should have left the 10.45V zener connected to the transistor base. When the circuit is on low, the 10.45V zener would do nothing. As soon as contact is broken, it would switch to high, instead of an unregulated state in between the two zeners.
They're probably expecting you to only use the switch when the unit's turned off, so that wouldn't be a problem.
It seems to be a make before break switch.
Weird circuitry but nicely made :D
Clive, do you own an EHT probe for your meter? It might be interesting to see what the HVDC comes out to be.
Can you notice ozone in the air? What is the benefit?
Only as a freshness. If you can smell it then there's too much.
I have this exact same unit. :) the front ally plate gets seriously corroded I leave mine on all the time.
You need to dangle a bit of yarn, tissue vape vapours to show air movement.
I think it's for a camper van or something like this with a cigarette adaptor. So you get warned, when your car battery gets low.
I wonder if the low voltage thing is for running off... battery power???
Weird. What do the designers expect a consumer to do when that light comes on?
Stop using the 6V PSU they just found from the attic and go buy a proper one instead? :-)
That would make sense otherwise, but if I was powering something like this from a battery, I would very much like it to automatically cut out power in case of gross undervoltage instead of keeping on doing its thing and lighting a red LED. The LED does seem really pointless.
All the best products have a light which comes on when the power fails!
Yep, they come with a car cigarette lighter adapter.
I guess the LED is just to tell you it's succesfully knackered your battery though, as it comes on at such low voltage. Should maybe be relabeled as a "get the jumper cables" indicator?
It'd probably take a long long time to drain a starter battery with this thing though, and if you did, the rubber in the cabin might have seen better days.
Hi Clive, maybe do a poll someday about the ability to smell ozone ? Appently some ppl cannot smell it
I have a heaven fresh one at work in a production environment. It supposedly removed dust from the air, but I wasn’t too confident and unplugged it. Never noticed having a hoarse throat, though.
it is not removing much visible dust, it is not it's purpose.
Ozone Whoosher 3000 sounds like something that comes in a plain brown box from a questionable naughty website.
Or what Derek of VGG would call something that makes sparks...(aside from his usual "sparkalator" or "lightning whirler")
The low voltage light is for when it’s used in a car to warn you of an impending flat battery although a cutout would be better, I have 1 and checking with a multi meter in front and got a high reading.
I agree that's what it is for, but if your car battery is at 10.4V, it is already flat.
@@stargazer7644 true it the surface reading is 10.4 it is but it’s designed by a prat otherwise it would have a cutout set much higher.
Dunno if it’s been said, but this unit can be used in a car with a cigarette lighter plug, hence the low volts warning light.
I got sucked into buying one of these and it made me sick, head aches, sore throats and dizziness.
These units seem to put out a little too much ozone in confined spaces. Ideal for large spaces or intermittent use (maybe a plug in timer?)
A quick ebay look and it says these are for cars, so I guess hence the low voltage indicator, there also seems to be a slightly newer model, more compact, without said indicator
They do a smaller version for cars, have one in mine, this would be too powerful imo.
I wonder if there is a reason for the shorter spikes ending inside and the middle spikes ending outside the device… create circular flow?
the "low v" might be a warning that you have plugged it into the wrong wall-wart . . . i have several with the same jack but different voltages . . . lack of standards!
Why are the needles set that way?
A lot of trial and error went into perfecting the size of the holes and distances?
The “low voltage” indicator somehow makes me think that the manufacturer is concerned about unreliable power supply… perhaps in a vehicle? Or in parts of the world where it’s common to draw power from a on-site generator? Perhaps they also market an identical device to be powered off USB power supplies?
Yes I own one and it came with a 12v power cable for fitting it in a vehicle. So I presume it would be looking at sub 12v for low power light.
Hi Clive, Interesting Video. I purchased the PM200 yesterday which is a bigger versiion with a few additions. The basket for the crystals has gone and everything is enclosed. Now, on the strength of the Ozone that these things generate I had a look around at how Ozone effects us and its not good reading. I assume that this thing limits the amount of Ozone output, cant say that I have suffered any ill effects but it does 100 percent clear the air of smells. Exactly how much ozone these things give out is guess work. Any ideas?
It depends on the air volume of the room it's used in. If you walk into the room and can smell ozone then there's too much.
I'm curious though why the 2 outside pointy v's are a bit further back, but the inner ones aren't. The outer ones would make a reasonable airflow but the inside ones seem weird to me, they even protrude a bit through the hole I think.
I think the longer ones are an attempt to project out more ions. But the plate in the vicinity defeats that.
Get a base reading on output (ozone) with all stock parts in place, then replace the Al plate with the same characteristics as the original plate, haver has been made from SS, then take another reading. Was there an increase or decrease in output? Let us know!
Even given that they wanted a low voltage indication, why have one transistor turning on a second transistor to short out the LED, rather than just one transistor?
I agree about the silliness of having nowhere for the ionic current to go except straight to the Al plate.
It's like in a Darlington arrangement. Small change on the input makes a big difference on the output. In this case the indicator will be more "decisive" (goes faster from on to off rather than dimming while the input voltage drops).
@@superdau That's plausible, but the zener would give a fairly sharp transition anyway, and it wouldn't hurt for the LED to start glowing a bit when thesupply voltage is getting marginal.
Ozone Whoosher 3000. The perfect gift for that friend who just doesn't get it.
Consider the unit can also be used in a car or caravan, maybe then it is nice to know when the battery gets low. Did you check how low when the LED glows ?
And car use, could that be the reason why grounds are connected ?
I'd have hoped that if it was for monitoring lead acid battery voltage it might have cut off at the lower end.
I would be interested to see what it would be like if you modded it with carbon fibre tips.
as for the pcb close to the high voltage, they could have used the side pcb with leds, and used light guides to the front of the unit.
I'm tempted to try that with one of them.
I have a pure mate "ionizer " in my motorhome/ house it really help to get rid of smells...
What is the purpose of an ozone generator?
Ozone is bleach in gas form. It's effective at killing fungus and bacteria, as well as many scent molecules.
Have you seen the unit for HOT TUBS , they say you use 80% less chlorine by using Ozone ? Seen on the M-SPA website!
Ozone is often used for water treatment.
HA! I had one just like that years ago that was larger. It was branded "Road Master". Had 120v/12v adapters. I liked it lol
I'm guessing the the low V LED is meant to turn on if you connect it to a non-factory power supply that's
I bought one of these for my mum to help with her allergies...
Now i know why she said it didnt work.
I felt stupid but now i just feel cheated...
You seem to like your ionisers Clive, could you (or someone else) reccomend a genuine one?
Wonder if those rings on the ground plate there are deposits of the Vanilla....
They're probably a layer of aluminium oxide.
@@bigclivedotcom Yeah, that's much more likely considering the Ozone. Terribly inefficient way to anodize aluminum.
I remember when I bought mine there was some mention of using it in car or camping, and I think that's what the "Low V" is for, when you're using it powered by the cigarette lighter socket.
Question: is it possible to hack the power output by changing the zener diodes next to the switch?
Yes. Lower voltage diodes would reduce the power.
Have you ever tried modifying one to use a solar panel or lithium cells?
would be interesting imo, if its possible.
The car version would work well with a solar panel.
07:10 - LMG, it's a low battery signal for use of a such ozone generator in cars?
I had a much smaller version of one of these designed for car use. It even had the cigarette lighter plug fitted. It was about half the size of your unit and had the same finish on the case. I didn't keep it for the reason you gave, it always left me with a really dry throat and dry cough.
One question though, could this be converted into a proper ioniser by removing the plate with the holes and grounding positive side of the voltage multiplier and leaving the spikes connected to the negative side of the voltage multiplier?
The car one puts out way too much ozone for the space. OK for freshening it up while nobody is in it, but not OK for long drives unless there's fresh air being brought in. I'll be featuring one in a video soon.
Thanks for the reply Clive. I cotacted Pure Mate today with the Ozone question and here is the reply that I received back from them in record time.
Good afternoon,
Thank you for your email. The PM200 produces between 0.015 and 0.05 ppm (parts per million) of ozone as part of the ionization process and generates 1 million negative ions per cubic centimetre (CC). This small amount of ozone (O₃) is well within the safety standards set by the EPA, WHO, FDA, and OSHA, which allow levels of 0.05 to 1.0 ppm. For comparison, ozone levels in forest air range from 0.01 to 0.02 ppm, and no studies suggest that forest air poses any health risks.
Kind regards,
Mmm, food for thought I guess...
It will depend on the volume of the room, but their output is relatively low.
I like that you say it is a whole-house ozone generator, it is described as a vehicle or small room air purifier in the literature. Heaven Fresh also do a much larger unit with several needles, a friend bought one and it creates a ozone-stinky stiff draught, let alone an ionic breeze.
They're just a bit too fierce. I tried one of these units in my bedroom for two nights and woke up with a sore throat each time. Noble idea, but just a bit overzealous for a single room.
Dunno if you will see this Clive but there is a industrial air ionizer
Brand
IWAVE
Manufacturer Part Number
4900-40
Meant to be used in up to a 6 ton air handler... eeesh
The iWave units were heavily pushed during the pandemic. The carbon fibre wiping system is neat. I think that might be the brand currently involved in litigation with "scientists" about their claims.
I suppose the low voltage light is to warn you it might not be generating the Ozone correctly, if you had it in a setting where you wanted the ozone for germicidal purposes then it'd be nice to know if it was working or not?
I mean the chance the power supply dies in such a way that it shunts enough to light the LEDs but not enough to function properly? It's a low chance I suppose but still.
We were taught that the input transistor configuration is called an emitter follower.
I was always of the understanding that ozone is a carcinogen. Is that correct Clive?
I had something similar to this but it was for a car. Even the circuitry and design looks similar but the unit was way smaller. It didn't have that thing on the bottom for the scented beads though. I think it must have been from around the early 2000's. It was really good but I think I overused it and consequently it stopped working - I still have it somewhere, most likely disassembled heh.
PCB-3 is like a Comparator circuit where things are switched high and low
I got one of these thinking it was an ioniser. I placed on a sheet of paper and it did create a dust zone, that's why I'm surprised of the outcome. I also declined to use the smellies. Would like to see your modification to make it a real true'r ioniser, pretty please.
It does produce a small ionisation charge. But the main effect is ozone. You can see the plasma on the tips of the points in the dark.
I'm fine with low level ozone used to reinstate the active components of indoor air, but it should be used in moderation.
Nice video Clive.
Could you test a ionizer on solar for a swimming pool?
If you mean the floating pool ionisers, they have a small solar panel, a non dissolving electrode made of stainless steel and an electrolytically dissolving electrode made of copper and silver. The copper ions control plant growth and the silver ions control bacteria.
@@bigclivedotcom Thanks, we have a small inflatable pool on our campsite. Going to order one
Fun fact: if you somehow manage to put the Low/High switch in its middle position so that neither of the Zeners are connected, it'll apply full voltage to the HV booster and make it all much more spectacular!
nice trick
Brian Eno did the same with synthesizers. The "in-between" settings are where much magic resides.
I tried. I think it's a make before break switch.
That is a valid point you give there. The 10,5V zener should just be connected to the base, and 8V should be switched parallel to it. As it is now, a dirty switch could trash the high voltage unit.