Tersano lotus LBU100 Sanitizing System

I first learned of the Tersano Sanitizer in the January 2008 issue of "Fine Cooking", in a review of this and other ozone-based cleaners by the respected scientist and author Robert Wolke. Since I eat a lot of raw fruit and salads I was interested because of all the news stories about contaminated produce (and in our industrialized food chain, a contaminated batch from one farm infects a huge amount of food). So intrigued but not in a rush to spend $150, I read thru all the posted reviews (and comments to reviews, since a company spokesman leaves comments - especially on negative reviews). So why am I adding another to the pile? There are a few things nobody else has mentioned that I think are worth knowing before buying this unit.The most important thing, of course, is does it work? I'm not a biologist so I can't offer a professional opinion as to germ killing, but it clearly to me seems to be doing something plain water doesn't. For example, after a dinner with wine if the glasses dry out there is a red film left that water and even soap don't easily remove. But a spray of the Tersano-treated water and it dissolves away. It also seems to kill mold and dissolves grease splattered on the stove.But you've read about cleaning elsewhere. Here are the new observations. First, if you're planning on using this, figure its going to take some extra time. For example, you come home with some fruit, some lettuce and salad fixings. The Tersano comes with a large bowl for cleaning food, but it might hold 6 or 7 apples. So wash those, then repeat with the next fruit, then the lettuce stuff. Each cycle takes 2-3 minutes to prepare the bowl water and then its supposed to sit for 2 more minutes, then drain/dry and put the items away. Each cycle takes me 5-6 minutes, so I can spend 15 minutes just getting stuff cleaned and put away. Granted its now clean and wasn't before so that's valuable, but you should ask yourself if you're going to commit this time each time you bring home groceries. To me it's worth it.Also while cleaning food its easy to end up with a bunch of bowls on your counter. The Tersano unit will tell you if the water isn't clean at the end of the cycle, so you really need to rinse lettuce, parsley, etc. well before using the unit. Its an eye-opener to find out how much dirt is in stuff that looks clean and that you've just run under the tap (which is how I used to clean greens before); I find I need to dunk it in a bowl of water and swirl, often 2 bowls worth, before the food is really clean. And you'll probably want a salad spinner out too so you can dry the lettuce before putting it away, otherwise it'll get moldy. So that's another bowl on the counter in addition to the Tersano unit. Bottom line is the unit really does sanitize food and you're putting it away clean, but its taking some time and effort.As for cleaning, I really LIKE that I can spray it around my kitchen and not worry about splattering any knives or things in the drying rack, or on the sink in my bathroom without having to first move toothbrushes and so on. Read the label on cleaners and you'll understand why splatter isn't a good idea with chemical spray cleaners. But again, there's a catch. The bottle of 409 isn't that big and is right there under the sink. With the Tersano the ozone water only keeps for 15 minutes, so you need a fresh bottle each time you're going to use it. It only takes the unit about a minute to prepare the spray bottle, which is faster than the food bowl. But the Tersano isn't small, so be sure your kitchen has room letting you put it somewhere where you can get to it quickly. If you have to unstack and move a bunch of things, you may be less willing to pull it out when you should be using it.One bonus not mentioned in the literature is that the water seems to be purified by the machine so it doesn't leave spots when it dries. I was spraying my sink and was quickly getting tired of drying the chrome faucet, so I decided to just let it go. To my surprise when the mist dried the chrome didn't have spots. I'm just using ordinary tap water that usually leaves spots, so I'm curious to hear if other people are getting spot-free drying also.While the literature says it can replace harsher cleaners, I tried it and it doesn't always work. On some dirt spots the treated water didn't really allow them to come that clean even with some scrubbing, but when I hit it with 409 the spots dissolved right away. This has only been in a few places, most others the Tersano water does a great job, but I wouldn't throw away all your other cleaners until you've found out whats going to work for you.Lastly, if you look at the pictures on the amazon site they show it with a mesh holding the fruit under the water. You need it because apples and other fruit tend to float, lettuce bobs above the surface, etc. That mesh is NOT included with the unit you buy. Since I read thru the reviews, I knew the company would send me one free if I called and they were really nice and did just that.To sum up, I'm glad I got this. I use it a lot. I'm happy to be using it when I can instead of harsher chemicals.

This is my second Tersano Lotus LBU 100 Sanitizing System. The first was a gift and it died after over 4 years of considerable use. Before I spent my own $$$ for another one, I came here to amazon to read the customer reviews. I was very surprised to learn that most people have their systems for only 1 year or so, but like them so much they buy another (like I was about to). Four years vs. one year? What's going on, I wondered? So when I got my new system, I read the user's guide very thoroughly. I wanted to know what I had at first remembered about its use and then obviously forgotten, that would cause the unit to both last as long as it did for me, and then, die, which is quite likely what others were doing to keep their units from lasting as long as my first one originally did.What I found when I read the user's guide with "refreshed" eyes was exactly what I had done to hasten the death of my first unit which I am now convinced would have lasted many more years than the four years it did last for me. So I'm writing this review to let people know ahead of time, what I did that is wrong. If you don't do any of these things, it is likely your unit will last a VERY long time and you will love it as much as I did (and do).First, the instructions very clearly say to wet the items first, put them in the bowl, and then fill the bowl with water. I stopped doing both of those ... I stopped always wetting the items first, and sometimes I would fill the bowl first with water and then put the items in. So don't do what I ultimately started to do, do what the instructions say.Second, the instructions very clearly say to make sure you fill the bowl to the water fill line exactly each time. I stopped paying attention to that instruction, too; sometimes I would under-fill.Third, the instructions very clearly say to never empty the water out of the base unit unless you're going to store it; and if you're going to store it, to use the plug provided for that purpose. You've got the theme of this review now so you already have figured out that shortly before the unit finally died completely for me, after four years of use, I was in a "water-clean-up" frenzy in my house ... I saw the water in the base of the bowl holder and suddenly found myself picking up the base unit, turning it upside down, and emptying it into my sink. Don't do that.Fourthly, the instructions very clearly say that if for some reason a cycle doesn't complete and you get an error code, to clear out that water, refill the bowl with fresh water, and run the cycle again. In other words, don't do what I ultimately started to do, which was, just press start again with the same water in the unit.On an added note, I did ask here on amazon and then also called Tersano to find out about how to wash lettuce in the unit. The instructions clearly say to NOT put "cut" fruits or veggies in and I was wondering, how do you do lettuce because if you do an entire head, how would the water get into it the leaves to clean, and if you pull the leaves apart, then, have you "cut" them? NO one here on amazon offered an answer. After several calls and almost two weeks, I finally got an answer back from Tersano whose very friendly rep said they have no official position on that but the people in the office put the entire head in. That doesn't work for many of the large heads of lettuce I buy, so what I ended up doing was cutting the leaves off very close to the core, wetting the leaves and putting them into the bowl, and then re-trimming the ends after the clean cycle was compete.What do I use it for? I clean everything that fits into the bowl including fruits, veggies, and even kitchen sponges and brushes (not at the same time as foods). I've also found that you can use the bottle attachment, let it go through it's ozonating process, and then pour that water into multiple smaller containers for several minutes to "treat" separate fruits like berries, etc., at the same time without having to mix the berries up in the bowl. The bottle attachment water after processing cleans so many things it's amazing. Along with the microfiber cloth that comes with the unit, the ozonated water from the bottle was able to remove a rug stain that virtually no other cleaning approach had removed.And no chemicals, no unpleasant smells, nothing toxic, and everything's clean. Gotta love it!

I have mine for, I think, over 10 years now, same unit. It still work, and is a bit prone to weather now. On a rainy day, it takes longer to reach 100%, sometimes won't. However, It's probably because I use the same cartridge, and never replace it. I read somewhere the cartridge is mainly used to reduce humidity of the intake air. Where I live is usually dry, so I don't replace it often. One trick I learned after a few uses is that it works better if you shoot water into the base first (with the spray bottle), make sure water fills up the base, and spill some. This ensures you have a good conductivity between the base and the bottle or bowl. This is very important. If you got bobble there, it does not work well. I bough this unit initially to clean infant stuff, like toys, cups, water bottles, and everything my kid put into his mouth. It worked well. My kid rarely missed school. Now I use it to clean vegetables for salad, it works well still. What a bargain.