Clearing a smell out of a car
A spray reaches what you can wipe. A smell that has settled into the headliner, the vents and the seat foam is in the air and in everything porous, which is why the method here is a gas rather than a liquid: the two parts of a kit go in an open bowl and the car’s own fan moves what comes off it through the whole cabin.
The method
| Drops | 40–60 of each |
|---|---|
| How | Start the engine and the fan, set the air to recirculate so the outside vent is closed. Put Part A in a small bowl on the floor in the center, add the same count of Part B, and step out. |
| Leave it | Until the smell has gone, then air it out |
Part A goes in first and Part B second, because the reaction starts the moment they meet. Have Part B measured out before you begin, and do not sit in the car while it works.
The same idea, other spaces
| Space | Drops of each part | How | Leave it |
|---|---|---|---|
| A boat | 40 of each per 30 cubic feet | Open the heads and the cabinets and lift the mattresses. Space small containers through the space, Part A in all of them first, then Part B into each — starting with the one furthest from the way out. | At least four hours |
| A house, through the ducts | 60–100 of each | Activate in a bowl and set it in the air return behind the filter. Run the air with the house closed up, then air it out and throw the spent solution away. | A couple of hours |
| One room | 40 of each per corner | Bowls in each corner of the room. | Until the smell has gone |
| A closet or a small room | 100 of each | One bowl, for musty smells and to discourage mould and mildew. | Until the smell has gone |
For the day after
The gentlest published mix is 1–2 of each drops in 16 oz of water in a fine mist bottle — about 2 ppm. In a fine mist bottle. No scent and no chlorine smell at this strength. It is what you reach for between treatments rather than instead of one.
What a kit is
Two bottles — sodium chlorite and an activator acid — that make chlorine dioxide when combined. One kit holds about 2,400 drops of each part, which is a great many cars. See the kits →
Methods published by KVLab (Keavys Corner LLC), who manufacture these kits, and described by them as methods that work in their hands, with results that vary. KVLab products are not registered by the EPA. They are offered as components to prepare chlorine dioxide for cleaning and general use, and no claim is made as to efficacy against any disease or pathogen.