The Generation of On-site Generation:

In the past 10 years, there has been a veritable wave of manufacturers offering devices of various sizes that can take plain water and a touch of table salt and generate electrolytic hypochlorous acid for disinfection onsite. Depending on the power of electric consumption, and the percentage of salt added to the water solution, their claims offer some positive and some negative aspects and value.

What is Good about These Devices:

First off, let me state that those units that are most affordable and practical for homes, daycares, schools, clinics and other businesses must be so small that they can only deliver a percentage of active HOCl to create a sanitizer. However, what they are positively providing to the market is a focus upon the “oxidizing” class of disinfectant and moving these same type of facilities away from using off-the-shelf, RTU bottles of liquid poison – quaternaries. This drive down the need for and supply of the 99% water solutions being stocked, stored and shipped as was described in another post.

What is Not-so-Good about These Devices:

As mentioned, these devices electrically convert water and salt into an oxidizing solution. But by necessity, they must also generate another byproduct in the same bottle that robs from the potential of the HOCl, holding it back and continually inviting it to revert to water and salt. In short, the sanitizing power is very short-lived, not easily verifiable, and too often – users are cleaning with just water.