How to get rid of mildew smell in shoes
You’ve tried fresh air, white vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, rubbing with alcohol, brushing but nothing worked? You can smell the mould and mildew are still hidden inside your shoes? We have the solution for you: the ozone generator, sometimes called an ozonator.
Dear reader,
You’ve tried fresh air, white vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, rubbing with alcohol, brushing but nothing worked?
You can smell the mould and mildew are still hidden inside your shoes?
We have the solution for you: the ozone generator, sometimes called an ozonator.
It sounds complicated, but it’s quite an affordable machine, the size of a shoe box, which turns oxygen (technically dioxygen or 02) into ozone (technically trioxygen or 03 ).
Ozone is an unstable and poisonous gas with a half-life of twenty minutes. After that, it breaks down into 02 + a free oxygen atom which quickly latches onto the first available organic compound — therefore “oxidising” that compound [source]. This is why ozone is said to be a powerful oxidant.
Ozone’s strong oxidising property means it will damage mucous and respiratory tissues in humans, animals, and plants — eventually killing them. This includes fungi, like mildew and mould.
Ozone is extremely effective at neutralising all smells (like phenol gas particles from tobacco smoke). Ozone smells like chlorine, but the chlorine smell disappears as ozone breaks up in contact with air. Ozone kills all other smells as it breaks down (mildew, tobacco, fresh paint, etc.). Instead of covering other smells like many so-called deodorants, ozone neutralises them — it is a true deodorant.
Ozone can deodorise a shoe that hasn’t dried properly, a vintage coat, smelly bed sheets, a mouldy container… and even an entire smoker’s car, or an old house. It inactivates all smelly particles.
Provided you pump enough ozone inside your shoes, for a long enough time (say 40 minutes), it will kill all mildew, mould, and other fungi, one by one, and neutralise each smelly particle.
Ozone works in air, as well as in water. So it can clean your pool, or hot tub too.
How to kill the mildew inside your shoes with ozone
Before ozonating your mouldy shoes, brush this inside (especially if you can spot the mildew patches), and vacuum the inside thoroughly.
While you’re at it, make you scrape the dust inside the toe cap.
This will help greatly to expose the active mildew.
Then put the tube which will pump out ozone inside the shoe for 30 minutes, and then let the shoes air out outside for 30 minutes.
Be careful
Do not use an ozone generator while people are in the room. Be extra careful if you have children around.
Ideally, no-one should be in the house if you’re ozonating a whole room.
Anyway, if you’re around, keep the doors shut.
After using the ozone generator, make sure you ventilate the room for 30 minutes, or until you cannot smell the chlorine-like smell of ozone.
Don’t stick around. Don’t breathe ozone, especially if you’re prone to asthma.
Breathing ozone will damage your lung cells, and it will take a few days for them to recover.
Buying tip
Our tip for buying an ozone generator is to choose one that blows ozone through a set of tubes:
- One tube for pumping out ozone into air;
- Another tube for pumping out ozone into water.
This way you put the tube directly inside the shoe, so that the ozone can effectively reach the critical spots.
You’ll realise when buying an ozone generator, that it’s not only about sanitising your mouldy shoes. You’ll find many use case scenarios for it. This matters because nobody likes gadgets which gather dust.
Regards,
Edward