Аннотация:The difference in the cooling rate of the ions of a single chemical element is studied, with the chemical elements O, Si, and Fe used as examples. This difference does not exceed 0.5 on the logarithmic scale within the temperature range where the stationary ion concentration is not too small (not less than 0.001). This indicates stability of the total cooling function in relation to large (by a factor of tens) errors in the determination of the ionization state. The exceptions are H- and H-like ions, whose cooling functions can differ from those of other isoelectron sequences (from (Li) to (C)) by several orders of magnitude.