RICE (AP) — Jay and Liz Kellner have two cats and a dog in their home, but you wouldn’t know it at first sniff.

That’s because the Kellners have made it their business to keep just about any space smelling clean. Using industrial machines that convert oxygen to ozone, they’re carving a niche in Central Minnesota business circles with Odor Eliminators.

They differentiate themselves from other area companies that use ozone in reclamation projects after disasters such as fires or floods. In less than two years since they went full-time, the Kellners have built their business solely on the sense of smell. If it stinks, they say they can get it out.

“I’ve always had a little of the entrepreneur bug,” said Jay Kellner, 49, who served in the Marine Corps before moving to Central Minnesota more than 20 years ago. “When I was in the Marines, it was always hurry up and wait. So we had a lot of idle time to look at different ventures. I was going to invest in a pool-cleaning business in California, but I let it pass. I kind of regret that now, because I like to be in the sun, wearing flip-flops instead of shoes,” he said. Instead, on a recent day he braved subzero temperatures as he headed off to a project after piling some equipment into a white van. A cartoon bacterium is incorporated into the Odor Eliminators logo on the side, underscored with the words “We get the stink out!”

Kellner previously worked for Vision-Ease Lens, Nahan Printing and Schwan’s before a former co-worker convinced him there were possibilities in using ozone to clean up mold spores, dander and other elements that can produce an unpleasant smell or make it difficult for some people to breathe.

After a couple of years of doing odd jobs, Kellner felt confident enough to make it his sole occupation. Coincidentally, his wife also was looking for a new challenge after she’d been laid off from a human resources job.

“I was looking and not finding anything, and a friend of ours said, ‘Why don’t you just focus on your own business?’ “ said Liz Kellner, 60, who has a sociology degree and worked 18 years in the banking industry. “So I actually got into it full-time before Jay and laid the groundwork with networking and marketing and using social media to get the word out that we were here.”

In the 18 months since Jay made Odor Eliminators his sole occupation, he’s collected dozens of stories of how clients wound up calling the couple’s business. Some are humorous, others not so much.

Eric Hanson, a Thrivent Financial representative in Waite Park, said he started noticing a stench whenever he got in his car.

“I’d switched vehicles with my wife when she was going off to some resort for a girls weekend,” Hanson said. “I got the minivan so I could chauffeur the kids around. The next week, after I got the car back, I thought, ‘Boy, something stinks in here.’ I looked all over and under the seats, and I couldn’t find anything. When I finally asked her about it, she turned white and went running out to the garage. It turned out she’d put the garbage from their cabin in the trunk and forgot about it. So now I’ve got this smell of rotting food in there. I was concerned that any time I put luggage or something in my trunk, it was going to smell like that. So I got (Odor Eliminators) to treat it, and I never had any problems.”

For Odor Eliminators, calls to combat cat urine odor have been most common.

But other typical jobs result from smoking, houses that have been uninhabited for a long time and cooking odors.

The way they combat them is to set up one of four commercial-grade machines designed to “shock” the space. A typical house takes six hours to treat. People, pets and plants can’t be present during the application because, within minutes, the ozone level can get high enough to make you feel nauseous, Jay Kellner said. Eventually, the ozone dissipates back to oxygen. He checks progress and uses fans to air out the space while wearing a respirator.

“This is different from the ozone machines you can buy that are supposed to purify the air,” Jay Kellner said. “Those you can use and be around and breathe normally. What we do shocks the environment. You’re making a change where you’re actually rupturing the spores and other odor-causing agents you’re trying to get rid of.”

The Kellners, who are charter members of the National Ozone Association, started the business with an initial investment of about $10,000. That has since grown as they bought more equipment and a bigger van.

Most of their business is in Central Minnesota, but they’ve done jobs from Minot, N.D., to Tomah, Wis., adding mileage to their standard costs.

While every project is different, they bring in about $399 for treating an average house, $175 for a two-bedroom apartment, $150 for a one-bedroom apartment and $100 for an automobile.

They say that’s a fraction of the cost to re-carpet or re-paint. As a result, they’ve worked with real estate agents to help make properties more appealing to potential buyers by eliminating odors.

“If you’re a prospective buyer who doesn’t smoke, it can be a real turn-off,” Liz Kellner said. “Some of our Realtor friends have told us it can cost a reduction of $10,000 to $15,000 off a typical home if you have that smell of tobacco.”

As director of resident services at The Legends at Heritage Place in Sartell, Charles Huyink has routinely engaged Odor Eliminators to clean assisted-living apartments, townhomes and studio rooms in the facility’s memory care unit.

“People were allowed to smoke in the townhomes, and we were faced with recarpeting and repainting to try to get that out of there,” said Huyink, who oversees more than 90 units. “In some apartments, perhaps if you had a tenant that was incontinent, there were other odors to address. (Odor Eliminators) came in, and we were pleased with the results. I don’t understand how those machines work, but they do.”

The Kellners recently treated a car for a man who found a family of dead mice in his glove compartment. They got a call from a church pastor who had a wedding coming up, only to discover the inside of one of the walls had a dead squirrel. Then there was the rental RV in which someone had left fish in a refrigerator.

“You’re not going to get those smells out with one of the small box machines from a big-box store,” said Jay Kellner, who with his wife has completed certified training with their equipment. They recently attended an annual conference in St. Louis and look forward to more industry shows, including one coming up soon in Chicago.

“The thing that surprised me is how emotional it can be for some of our clients to get rid of these odors,” Liz Kellner said. “In some cases, it’s embarrassing for them. Whether it’s real estate sales or rental properties, car sales or senior living situations, we feel like we’ve found a niche.”