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Shame on Tyent USA

rob — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:08:45 +0000

My wife just informed me that one of her sales to a cancer patient fell through. That is unusual because cancer patients are almost alwasy very grateful for her help.

When I asked her what happened, she told me that the cancer patient called Tyent USA to see if the sale was legitimate. The person at Tyent USA told the cancer patient that the reason that my wife was selling her machines for such a low price was that her machines were knock-offs, had imitation parts, and the machines don’t have a warrranty.

Tyent USA knows that the machines that my wife’s company carries are legitimate because the machines came from Tyent USA.

I was shocked when Chanson and IonWays contacted my wife to ask her to stop offering their products to cancer patients for half price. It boggles my mind that a company would prioritize protecting their profit margins over helping cancer patients. On the flip side, I can understand how Chanson and IonWays want to protect their dealer pricing so at least they have a legitimate arguement (not one that I believe in, but at least an arguement).

What Tyent has done is reprehensible. I can’t even begin to fathom how a company could behave so disgracefully. Leave it to Tyent to search for a new “bottom” in ethical behavior.

Shame on Tyent USA.

The Best Water Is Affordable Now

rob — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:00:01 +0000

What is the perfect drinking water?

Researchers claim that the unspoiled mineral rich “glacial milk” that seeps out from under the tremendous weight of a glacier produces water that is “the best of the best”. Perhaps it is, but I just don’t see myself up rooting my life to move to Pakistan to live in the Hunza Valley. I’m also not prepared to spend Madonna-like money to have water shipped half way around the world.

What I can do is continue to search for the best water money can buy…but not too much money. I’m prepared to do what it takes within reason to drink great water because I understand how important great water is to my health.

What has become clear during my search for the best drinking water is that it must be clean and healthy.

Clean is easy to understand because it simply means the water is free or almost free of contaminants. The most cost effective and efficient way to get clean water is to use a Reverse Osmosis “RO” system. The RO membrane removes almost every dissolved solid from the water. The problem is that the membranes are too effective as they remove healthy minerals and leave the water acidic.

Healthy water refers to water that provides energy for your body. The energy from water is derived from hydrogen atoms that become disassociated from water molecules when alkali metals are present in water. The “free” hydrogen is almost pure energy, and is used by the mitochondria found in every cell of your body. The hydrogen also acts as the best antioxidant in the world because the free hydrogen combines with the free radicals (unattached oxygen atoms) in your body.

The cleanest water has never been healthy. Healthy water has never been very clean because the water ionizer industry has never put any effort into removing contaminants other than chlorine.

How To Create Perfect Drinking Water

This should be simple. Make clean water healthy! All you have to do is find a way to make RO water alkaline.

Unfortunately, a simple solution has elluded the water industry for years.

The primary roadblock to finding a solution to great drinking water has been the attitude of the owners and sellers of RO systems. They have maintained for 30 years that the most healthy water in the world is produced by their RO systems. They also preach that the human body doesn’t absorb alkali metals from water because the calcium and magnesium are inorganic (molecules that don’t contain carbon). The RO industry has been wrong on both arguments and is only prepared to acknowledge the truth because of overwhelming evidence.

The secondary roadblock to finding a solution to great drinking water was overcome when it became known that you can effectively ionize water naturally without the need of an electric water ionizer.

Current Solutions Are Flawed

The simple solution would be to combine a RO system with a water ionizer. Good concept, but it doesn’t work. The RO systems take the alkali minerals out of the water which render the electric water ionizers almost useless. The reason for this is that electric water ionizers can’t ionize pure water. When I was selling electric water ionizers a few years ago, which was long before I understood natural ionization, I would include a Calcite (calcium based) or a Corosex (magnesium based) remineralization filters with the water ionizer for customers who had soft water. The remineralization filters were installed “in-line” before the water ionizer. The results were great because the water ionizers were able to ionize the alkali metals that leached into the water before the ionization process. So why not just apply the same remineralization filters to a RO system?

Unfortunately, when it comes to RO systems, the aggressive nature of the acid water produced by the systems works too well with Calcite and Corosex filters. The acidic water chews through the calcium or magnesium filters in a hurry and leaches too much of the media into the water. As a result, the filters typically deplete very quickly. The cost of replacing the filters is annoying but that is not the real problem. The real issue is that the abundance of calcium or magnesium that enters the water supply can surpass the filtration capabilities of the kidneys. It is a case of “too much of a good thing”. When kidneys can’t handle a surplus of calcium or magnesium, a number of things begin to happen. One of the results can be the formation of kidney stones. I have never had kidney stones but I have talked to enough people that have passed kidney stones to know that you want to avoid them at almost any cost.

A New Solution That Works

I’m sure you have heard about time release capsules that are used by drug companies. The time release process is achieved by the capsule releasing portions of a drug bit by bit as the acid in the stomache dissolves the capsule. The slow release allows just the right amount of drug to enter your system over time. The solution to great drinking water lies in the ability to use a RO system that doesn’t release too many alkali metals into the water.

I visited a company that manufactures non-electric water ionizers in America last fall. The company has a reputation as the best manufacturer of filters and components in America. My objective for the visit was to see if their high standards of quality control could be adapted to water ionizers in a cost effective way. Water ionizers have been the domain of Asian countries since they were invented. Anybody in the industry will tell you that dealing with Asia is not easy. It turns out that high quality products can be made in America at competitive prices.

While I was at the factory, I watched a demonstration of a Reverse Osmosis machine that used bioceramics to remineralize the water. When I saw and the results, I couldn’t believe my eyes….clean water with amazing ionization capabilities that didn’t cause health issues by releasing too many alkali metals into the water. The water flow rate during the test was 5 liters per minute, which blows away any electric water ionizer. When I asked the technician how long the filter had been in use, he replied 13 months. I asked him how long the bioceramic remineralization filter lasted and he replied “two years or more depending upon usage”. I was stunned…… Bingo….the solution! What made it even better for me was that the company has been using the solution for 8 years and it has been certified by the WQA (the Water Quality Association who uses NSF standard testing).

I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t heard of this amazing product because the results were far better than anything I have ever seen in terms of “clean and healthy” water. Then I found out why. The product was being sold through a small number of water dealers for more than $3,400. No wonder nobody knows about it.

I talked to the owner about the possibility of dropping the price by a substantial amount so that people could afford it. He didn’t think that made sense as there wouldn’t be enough profit in the product for dealers to make money. I continued to work on him during numerous phone calls over the last few months. I ended up making him a promise that I would promote his product on my blog if he would drop his price. I also told him that I would find a network of ethical water dealers who would buy his product and promote it on their website. He was slowly coming around but the math still didn’t make sense.

I ended up getting my way, but it took a lot of convincing. I would like to tell you it was my charm that made the difference, but the real turning point was when I got him to strip off all the pretty packaging and remove the bells and whistles. The “guts” of the machine that creates the finished product is the same. Who cares if the unit is not “pretty” when its sits under your kitchen sink.

The next step was to find a company to represent the product who would put their desire to help others above maximizing profits. That may sound easy to do, but it wasn’t. Despite what you might hear or read about companies and dealers wanting to help people with the water, I have found that profits come first baby!…and second…and third!

I have been bursting to talk about this product for months because it combines the best of clean water and the best of ionization that I have ever seen. If you follow my blog at all, you know the importance that I place on drinking water being affordable. This new system has it all. I think it (and others that are sure to follow) are the future of drinking water. The people who have undertaken this project tell me that they are almost ready to go. I hope they don’t take too long because I feel like a child on Christmas morning. As soon as they are up and going, I will let you know.

IonWays: Road To Irrelevance

rob — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:41:42 +0000

IonWays has been on the path of self destruction for years. If you follow my blog, this is not news.

IonWays continues to move towards irrelevance so I rarely think of the company. However, my wife’s company received a call today from IonWays asking her to remove her Patient Pricing for cancer patients. IonWays must feel the need to protect its high pricing structure to support its MLM system If a little dealer that is trying to help cancer patients needs to be crushed…so be it! That decision puts IonWays in the same catagory as Chanson, who made the same request to stop helping cancer patients.

IonWays also told my wife that she can’t advertise other products. Now that is funny because they knew full well when she bought the Jupiter Venus machines that she carried a number of other brands. I guess that IonWays feels that they can change the rules when it suits their needs.

IonWays also requested that the Retail Price be raised from $1,195 to $1,225. Their request was based upon the fact that the price in Canada should be higher because of the Canadian dollar trades below the US dollar….except it doesn’t. The Canadian dollar actually trades at a premium to the US dollar. When that was brought to their attention, their answer was: “Oh”.

Doesn’t it seem ridiculous for IonWays to be harassing a little dealer in Canada who is simply trying to help cancer patients? Don’t they have better things to do…like create better products and repair their battered image?

As I listened to my wife relate the conversation, I was going to suggest that she remove the Cancer Patient Pricing of the Jupiter Venus from her website. But then I found out that IonWays told my wife’s company that they didn’t want to have to get their legal council involved….nice threat. That is what got my attention and brought this article to life.

IonWays has consistently made bad business decisions for years which have taken them from being virtually the only player in the industry to a company that is rapidly becoming irrelevent. At this point in the article, I made a long list of all the dumb decisions IonWays has made over the years but the expression “kicking a dead horse” came to mind.

My wife has a handful of Jupiter Venus machines left in her inventory. Once she has sold off the Venus machines (at the cancer patient pricing which she can’t advertise), she will be done with IonWays. With so many good machines on the market, why would anyone choose to deal with a company that continually makes bad decisions from both a business and ethical stand point.

Enagic Drops Low Cost Sunus

rob — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 01:13:45 +0000

Enagic has finally announced that it is killing off its entry level SUNUS electric water ionizer. Here is the announcement:

Effective 1 May 2012, Enagic will cease production of the SUNUS line of water ionizers. The SUNUS, an affordable Kangen Water® machine, is not included in the LeveLuk line of water ionizers and does not produce the Sanitary and Strong Kangen Waters. We will of course honor all warranties outstanding and continue to service the SUNUS line long into the future.

Enagic is telling the world that they are dropping their affordable Sunus because it is unable to produce a wide spectrum of pH levels that Enagic customers should expect. They are right about that, as their 120 Watt three plate machine is an inferior product to its other machines and many competing products. Let me shed some light on what I think also played into the decision.

What Enagic Isn’t Telling You

The first and most obvious thing is that the Sunus, at $1,280 can’t begin to compare to the performance of other products that are available in a similar price range. For example, the EOS Genesis Platinum, which retails for $1,695 but can be purchased for about $1,000 is a far superior 7 plate 300 Watt machine.

Another factor is that Enagic dealers do such a great job of promoting the SD501 as the “only” water ionizer worth owning that potential customers don’t want to purchase an entry level machine.

Another factor that is never discussed is that the SD501, which retails for $3,980 can easily be purchased on eBay for $2,000 or even for $1,500 if you are not in a hurry. If a potential customer is convinced that they need to get a “SD501 or nothing”, but can’t justify the $4,000 price tag, he or she can pick up a SD501 test unit for almost the same money as the introductory level Sunus.

All of the above reasons would be ample justification for dropping the Sunus. In fact, one has to wonder why Enagic would even bother to produce the Sunus in the first place. But there is more. Read on!

Many of the people that are attracted to the Enagic “business opportunity” simply can’t afford to spend $4,000 plus tax to buy an SD501. Others simply don’t feel comfortable with an investment of $4,000 in their current financial situation. However, they believe in their hearts that people should be drinking “Kangen” water. They also believe that becoming an Enagic dealer is a “can’t miss” opportunity. But the $4,000 price tag problem doesn’t go away.

Enagic created the affordable Sunus so that dealers could afford to “get in”

If nobody wants to buy a Sunus, why would Enagic introduce the Sunus in the first place? The folks at Enagic are smart….real smart. The affordable Sunus machine allowed potential dealers to “get in” without having to fork over $4,000. I have talked with a number of Enagic dealers that have started out by buying a Sunus. Of course Enagic could have simply charged a “sign up” fee, but that didn’t fit in with the Kangen vision of having every dealer be a customer.

So Why Would Enagic Kill Off the Sunus?

Since the key to success of any MLM company is to recruit “recruiters”, wouldn’t it hurt Enagic’s chances of bringing on new dealers? Of course it would. So…why kill off the Sunus?

A significant percentage of Enagic’s sales are to new dealers. If you owned Enagic, wouldn’t you rather sell thousands of $4,000 machines instead of thousands of $1,280 machines. Of course! But how do you pull that off?

Enagic’s next solution for recruiting dealers….free financing

Once again, Enagic came up with a solution. Actually, the solution came out of Enagic’s strategy to make the purchase of the SD501 more affordable for customers. The solution was a small down payment and free financing.

Instead of selling the Sunus for $1,280 to dealers that didn’t really want them in the first place, Enagic simply lets dealers put down a few hundred dollars (which covers the cost of the machine btw) and then spreads out the massive profit and payout on the balance owing over 36 months.

As a result of the financing progream, dealers can invest even less money up front than they would have to spend on a Sunus and they end up with the machine that they believe in and wanted in the first place. After that, dealers simply have to make managable payments over 36 months which they believe will be easy with the “can’t miss business opportunity”. How good is that? Enagic keeps the recruiting system going and makes a lot more money along the way. Smart.

Kudos To Chanson’s Nedalee Ruiz

rob — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:30:31 +0000

I have recently been having an online spat with Nedalee Ruiz, one the owners of Chanson water ionizers.

I didn’t agree with Chanson’s policy in regards to prohibiting price discounting to help cancer patients, and the threats made by Chanson to invalidate the warrranty on any Chanson machines sold by my wife’s non-profit company.

I wrote an unflattering article towards Chanson a few days ago about the issues. Mrs. Ruiz, feeling hurt by my article, responded by writing a nasty article exposing the “horrible blogger” to the world. I responded by writing another article with a pic of Darth Vadar in reference to comparing Chanson to the Evil Empire.

Everything beyond my original expression of displeasure with Chanson’s policies has been a childish and ego driven exercise on the part of both Mrs. Ruiz and myself…yup…it’s true…grrrr.

Here is where it gets good. Mrs. Ruiz sent me an email yesterday offering her sincere and heart felt apology to me for writing her nasty article and to rescind her threat to invalidate the warranty on Chanson water ionizers. She also withdrew the article from the Chanson Library.

Geez…what’s a middle aged retired guy with a thorn in his butt going to do with a sincere and heart felt apology? Damn women!

It’s ironic that it takes a woman to be the first “real man” in the water ionizer industry.

I emailed Mrs. Ruiz and thanked her for her apology. I also applauded her for her ability to set egos aside and to get us both back to doing what we do best…her selling Chanson water ionizers and me to researching and writing about the benefits of ionized water.

Kudos to Nedalee Ruiz.

The “Chanson” Empire Strikes Back

rob — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:24:56 +0000

I recently wrote an article about how Chanson tried to force my wife to stop selling Chanson water ionizers at a big discount to cancer patients who could’t afford expensive electric water ionizers. I also reported that Chanson threatened to void the warranty on the Chanson machines that my wife sold despite the fact that my wife’s company had paid Chanson for the warranty when the machines were bought. Needless to say, I wasn’t supportive of Chanson on the issue.

It didn’t take long for Mrs. Ruiz, one of the owners of Chanson to strike back at the “evil” Rob Thomas.

Chanson is one of a number of electric water ionizer companies that is not too fond of me. It’s interesting how none of the water ionizer companies complain about the thousands of hours I spend researching and writing about the benefits of ionized water to support their industry. However, as soon as I question one their dubious business practices, I suddenly become a bad guy. I have tried to refrain from exposing the unsavory behavior of many of the the electric water ionizers companies for a long time as they can ill afford any more bad press. Unfortunately every once in awhile, someone like Chanson pokes the bear.

Mrs. Ruiz’s Article

Mrs. Ruiz has recently written a “holier than thou” contribution to the collection of self-serving, non-stop sales pitch fluff pieces that the owners produce for their “Chanson Library”. The latest article focuses on Mrs. Ruiz’s belief that everyone else in the water ionizer industry is scum while Chanson works for “God’s Team”. Mrs. Ruiz tells us in her article about competitors who:

* give themselves awards (referring to Tyent and its stable of brands)
* create false review sites (referring to Tyent, Life Ionizers, IonWays)
* have no intention of sticking around to honor their warranties (I don’t know who she is referring to but it could be any of the companies that offer “lifetime” warranties….how ridiculous is a lifetime warranty on a machine???)
* write about electric water ionizers that have killed people (referring to Aqualiv)
* “spreads a false 28 page report against us saying that a prominent cancer researcher is our “Hired Gun” (refering to a comprehensive report put together by Enagic/Kangen about the ethics of Chanson including a discussion of the “interesting” relationship that Chanson has with Dr. Robert Young).

I could but I won’t provide details of the “shotgun wedding” relationship between Chanson and Dr. Young out of my respect for the fine work being done by Dr. Young in the field of educating and helping people with alkaline diets. I will say that it makes me sick to my stomache to see Dr. Young getting “used” by Chanson in their advertising. Chanson has built their company on Dr. Young’s good name and I can only imagine how disgusted Dr. Young must feel under the circumstances.

All of the above “shots” that Mrs. Ruiz took at her competitors was merely a preamble to the real focus of Mrs. Ruiz’s article, which was to discredit the diabolical Rob Thomas. The highly spiritual Mrs. Ruiz goes to great lengths enlighten the world about what a dirty rotten person I am.

Mrs. Ruiz’s finishes her article with the the statement:

I can’t speak for the owners other companies and I am not their judge, but I know at the end of my life, I will stand before my creator and have to give account for my actions and it is my hope to have clean hands and a pure heart. Please do let us know if any of us here at Chanson can serve you in any way.

The above statement is consistent with Chanson’s “to honor God in all of our activities” that they use as the opening line of their Mission Statement. I guess Chanson doesn’t feel it is good for business to include the death threat that the author’s husband sent to me by email or the fact that her husband told me in an email that he likes to hurt people.

I certainly hope that I’m not alone in my belief that Chanson is the epitomy of everything that is wrong in the water ionizer industry.

It was at this precise point in the article that you are reading that I originally reprinted Mrs. Ruiz’s long and vicious attack on me based upon a number of communications that I had with her husband in 2009. The communications took place long before I retired in February 2010. The years that have gone by since I retired from the industry don’t seem to matter to Chanson as they continue their belief that “you are either with us or against us”.

I wrote detailed responses after each point of Mrs. Ruiz’s attack to provide the real facts. As I was writing my responses, all I could think about was “Who Cares?” If anyone actually wants to question me about the accusations in Mrs. Ruiz’s article, feel free to contact me as I will be happy to discuss it.

By the way, Chanson’s water ionizers work well, just like every other brand of water ionizer. This story is about ethics, not hardware.

Here is what I believe is relevant when it comes to water ionizers:

* they all (electric and non-electric) work well at producing free hydrogen which is the point of ionizing water
* they are all very beneficial to your health
* they provide only basic filtration when it comes to removing contaminants found in your source water
* ignore the Gobbledygook that you read on water ionizer websites about why “we are the best” because it isn’t true
* the price of electric water ionizers is way too high for this late stage in the business cycle of an electronic product
* electric water ionizers will gradually become obsolete as the public becomes aware of the fact that the same health benefits can be obtained from much less expensive non-electric machines, or for free from eating a healthy alkaline diet

Chanson Message: “Don’t Help Cancer Patients”

Chanson Message: “Don’t Help Cancer Patients”

rob — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:11:04 +0000

My wife operates an online website which sells water ionizers. Her company sells machines at suggested retail prices just like everyone else. However, over 90% of her sales are to cancer patients at deeply discounted prices which makes her operation a non-profit business. Her primary goal is to help people that need the benefits of ionized water the most but can’t afford the high cost of electric water ionizers.

One would think that nobody would object to my wife’s efforts to help cancer patients. How could anyone have a problem with it? I guess there is one in every crowd. Let me introduce you to the owners of the company that distributes Chanson water ionizers!

I received an email from Chanson yesterday. The owner of Chanson continues to insist that I run my wife’s company despite the fact that I have been retired for more than two years. The email indicated that they believed it was inappropriate for www.waterhealthcare.ca to offer the Chanson Miracle machines for $925 to cancer patients as you can see from the following quote:

If you are selling units at this price then they are not covered under the Chanson lifetime warranty. If one of your customers calls us we will be forced to tell them they have no warranty for their product. Furthermore, we will list that you are not an authorized dealer of Chanson products on our dealer page

Chanson has always been good at making threasts. The best threat was when the owner threatened to kill me when wrote something on my blog that he didn’t like.

It certainly appears that Chanson is more interested in protecting its profit margins than allowing someone to help cancer patients. What I find really interesting is that when my when my wife originally purchased a shipment of Chanson machines, she had to pay for the warranty for the machines up front. Now I’m not a lawyer, but I have to seriously question whether a company can void a warranty once the warranty has been paid, for just because they feel like it. So, the real question seems to be whether Chanson is trying to break its legal obligation to provide a warranty, or are they just ethically bankrupt? I think the answer is yes to both, but obviously I have a very jaded opinion of the owner of Chanson.

I wonder how the Water Healthcare customers that have bought Chanson machines feel about the fact that Chanson has threatened to arbitrarily void the warranty on their machines. How would you feel if your “Lifetime Warranty” suddenly got replaced with “Sorry, we don’t like that company so your warranty is null and void”?

I find it ironic that Chanson states “To honor God in all of our activities” as the first line in their mission statement and then they threaten my wife with voiding the warranty on any machines that she sells because she is offering a discount to cancer patients who can’t afford to pay.

In a follow up letter, Chanson stated:

Furthermore, no where on your page did it say that the pricing was for cancer patients, however the pricing is still a violation of the contract as your contract does not allow for making health claims. Chanson would never be comfortable implying that ionized water would cure cancer by itself.

If you are confused about the quasi illiterate statement from Chanson, you are not alone.

The people at Chanson must not have bothered to visit my wife’s website because it is stated very clearly on the site that the discounted prices are only for “Cancer Patients”. Nobody could possibly miss it. The only alternative is that the Chanson people did see the “Cancer Patient” pricing, but they don’t care.

I can see Chanson’s point of view about pricing. If consumers see a dealer selling for half price, it might make them wary about how much profit is really built into a Chanson water ionizer. But threatening to void a warranty for helping out cancer patients….come on!

My wife told me that she will have the special pricing for cancer patients for Chanson machines removed from her website as per the request from Chanson. I suspect that there will be great deals on the few Chanson machines that she has left for anyone that calls because my wife has made it very clear that she wants nothing to do with Chanson. As my Australian mates say “good on her”.

Confused By Ionizer Websites?

rob — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 01:46:33 +0000

I receive lots of emails from people looking for advice on which water ionizer they should buy. It seems that the more research people do on the internet on the subject, the more confused and frustrated they become. I always respond to the inquiries by asking questions about what the person wants to use the machine for, what their budget is, and about their source water. The answers to the questions usually make the right choice of water ionizer easy.

Cutting through the BS in the water ionizer websites

In order to help sort out the confusion created by the conflicting information provided by the multitude of water ionizer websites, I have put together a quick summary of which websites are actually promoting which products. Some of the sites go to great lengths to disguise their true intentions, but if you do your homework, you will learn the truth. The summary is designed to save you time and frustration rather than condemning anyone.

I have left out most of the corporate sites because their messages are straight forward: “Buy Our Machine”. I’m ok with those sites because there is no attempt at deception. However, a couple of warnings: ignore comparison charts (www.chansonalkalinewater.com for example) that show mostly meaningless statistics intended to make the viewer think that their product is superior to others…and ignore fake industry awards such as the “Editor’s Choice” awards which Tyent USA granted to itself on an “independent” site that Tyent pays for

The following summary appears in alphabetical order to save me from any rating system:

www.alkalinewaterionizers.com is a 100% biased website that is bought and paid for by Life Ionizers

www.alkalinewaterplus.com is a site that offers independent advice and lots of test videos…. however, the company is totally focused on selling IonWays machines…no surprise that the owner is the biggest selling IonWays dealer in the country

www.healingwatermachines.com advertises “water ionizer reviews” for various leading brands, complete with a comparison table….it is a Chanson sales site

www.ionizerscompared.com which is focused on selling IonWays machines

www.ionizerresearch.com is a 100% biased review site that is bought and paid for by Tyent USA. The site promotes Tyent, KYK, and Evontis (a MLM company) that are all owned by Tyent

www.truthfulionizerreview.com which is a 100% biased website promoting Enagic products

www.waterionizerauthority.com is a site that claims it’s a water ionizer resource center but the company is totally focused upon selling products from Tyent USA, which includes Tyent, KYK, and Evontis

I could list more companies, but the ones above either pay the most money for “cost per click” advertising, or have spent the most time and money on Search Engine Optimization.

Final Advice

All of the leading brands work. Choose a machine that best suits your needs, your source water, and your budget.

Shop around. Reading websites is only the beginning if you want to save money. Call several companies that sell the machine that you are interested in. Many owners of individual websites can and will offer much better prices on the telephone than you will see on their websites. The owners are prohibited from advertising lower prices, but what happens behind closed doors is nobody else’s business. The owners typically don’t carry inventory which means you might be pleasantly surprised how close to the dealer cost that some companies will drop their prices rather than seeing the business walk away.

Water Ionizer Filter Survey

rob — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:46:12 +0000

Filters are by far the most important factor in determining the performance of a water ionizer. With that in mind, I have been been spending a lot of time studying filters.

What I have learned is that most of the manufacturers put minimal or no effort into improving the contents of their filters. If the companies would focus on making their filters better, the filters would perform better and last longer….but that would be bad for business.

When I started cutting open filters, I discovered that the actual contents of the filters don’t necessarily correspond well with the schematic drawings that you see on websites. It reminds me of commercials on tv where you see a mouth watering hamburger from a fast food chain which looks nothing like what you actually receive.

Would anyone like the same or better filters for less?

When I studied the contents of the filters for several of the leading water ionizer companie, it is easy to see that there is room to lower prices. The water ionizer are making a killing on filters.

The filters of most of the leading brands are made in Korea. After doing some checking, I found that you could get filters made with the same or better quality from Korea and sell them for 20% less than the same filters offered by the manufacturers. You could also get the same filters made in America with superior American manufacturing and media contents and still sell them for 15% less.

Would people buy superior quality filters made in America for less money? Of course they would.

Complications

If it is so easy to have new filters made that would sell for less, why don’t we already see it happening. There are a number of reasons:

1) While providing comparable or superior media in filters is easy, it is expensive to create new molds for the filters. That means you need a lot of people to buy the after-market filters to make the investment worthwhile.
2) People may not bother to switch to save $15 to $20 per set of filters. People tend to stick with something if it works, even if it costs more. I checked statistics on internet searchs for filters and found the numbers to be surprisingly low. Last month, there were only 320 searches for “Tyent filters”, and 480 searches for “Kangen filters”, and 880 searches for “Jupiter filters”. Those seem like incredibly low numbers considering that there must be a quarter million water ionizers in the USA alone. To be fair, some people used other keywords, but even then numbers were low. I found it interesting that there were virtually no searches for Enagic filters (which means that Enagic has done a good job of branding the “Kangen” name), and no searches for IonWays filters (which means that IonWays has failed miserably at branding the IonWays name).
3) Would customers be scared off by threats made by the manufacturers to void the warranty on their machine if they didn’t use OEM (original equipment manufacturer) filters? When I started asking questions, one of the manufacturers said they would immediately void the warranty on any machine that didn’t use OEM filters. I think that a quick call to the Federal Trade Commission (who are responsible for fair trade practices) would put an end to such a silly tactic, but the water ionizer industry guys are well known for their dirty tricks.

Survey

I hope that you will take 30 seconds to answer a quick survey in the link below. If the response is good, I think that I could find investors who would spend money on the molds. That would mean cheaper filters for all of us, and perhaps creates some American jobs. The questions in the survey are listed below:

[contact-form]

Filters Determine The Performance Of Water Ionizers

rob — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:01:20 +0000

It seems that every water ionizer company claims to be the best. That’s impossible of course. No wonder potential consumers end up confused and frustrated. Fortunately we have independent review sites that can sets things straight….oops….they are bought and paid for which makes them a scam imo. I have tested most of the leading brands extensively and they all work in terms of doing what they are supposed to be doing. So, how do you choose the best machine for you?

Factors that determine ionizing performance

In most cases, the key to performance has nothing to do with power and plates. There is some minor variation between the machines, but they all have plenty of power. All the machines have enough plates and the composition of the plates is essentially irrelevant. Transformers and SMPS (switch mode power supplies) both work. Most of the machines have great warranty policies. As you can see, none of the advertised advantages make any significant difference. So how do you choose?

The key to ionizing performance?

The key to performance of a water ionizer is the ability to adapt to the source water conditions. Hmmmm….you never see anything about this on any of the ionizer websites. There are only two ways to adapt to different source water conditions. The first and by far the most important factor is to use the right filters. The second factor is to apply more power to make up for a lack of the naturally occuring cations and anions in the source water. Since all the companies now have WAYYY more power than they could every need, the only REAL factor is the choice of filters.

What? I must be kidding….right? Nope! All the nonsense that you read on the water ionizer websites about why you should choose a specific machine is crap. Imo, by far the best and most honest website in the industry can be found at:
www.alkastream.us

It’s unfortunate that none of the water ionizer companies talk about filters when it comes to performance. The companies all seem to want a “one size fits all” product, but the reality is that different source water conditions require different filters. The only company that addresses the issue at all is Life Ionizers, but I wouldn’t touch that company with a ten foot pole for many reasons that I won’t get into here.

In soft water, which can occur naturally or when water is run through a reverse osmosis system, the best performers have bio ceramics that contain alkali metals such as magnesium and calcium. The reason that they perform the best is that they introduce alkali metals into the water which are necessary for proper ionization. As such, the non-electric water ionizers are far superior to electric water ionizers is soft water conditions.

In moderately hard water, all the machines work really well.

In really hard water, the electric machines start out working well but the ionization chambers quickly scale up and destroy the ablility of the ionizer to work. Really hard water is murder on electric water ionizers. The non-electric water ionizers aso have their challenges in really hard water unless they include a water softening agent in their media because the the hard water tends to react with the alkali metals.

Performance is about more than pH and ORP

The water ionizer companies all brag about power and the ability to create a wide spectrum of pH levels. The reality is that the health benefits from drinking ionized water are derived from fairly strong alkaline water (9.5 pH) for initial detoxing, to mildly alkaline water (8.0 to 8.5 pH) for ongoing health maintenance. All the machines can easily produce those results.

The best drinking water is both clean and healthy which are not the same thing. The water ionizer companies fail to inform consumers about the importance of removing contaminants from the water because they are only concerned with selling you their machines.

The cleanest water is created by distillation. Reverse osmosis systems cleans almost as well as distillation. Unfortunately, neither distillation or reverse osmosis systems produce healthy water. The water from both systems is acidic and they are devoid of the healthy minerals that your body would normally absorb from drinking water.

How do water ionizers perform when it comes to cleaning contaminants out of the water?

All of the water ionizers perform well when it comes to removing chlorine, taste, and odor (CTO). Companies use granulated activated carbon (GAC) or carbon block filter to remove CTO. The media is effective and the cost of producing the media is inexpensive. Imagine that…something that is effective and inexpensive!

When it comes to removing other contaminants from your source water, I don’t trust any of the filters for any of the water ionizer companies. I see all kinds of claims being made, but the reality is that none of the companies have had proper testing performed that will allow them to receive the industry standard NSA certification. Unless a company provides a copy of its NSA certified test results, it is best to assume that you are only removing CTO. In other words, the filters in water ionizers are not much better than a Brita filter when it comes to removing contaminants.

The Best Solution For Clean and Healthy Water

Once again, the source water plays a role. If you get your water from a well or from any source that has not had chlorine or fluoride added, your water could be great already. All you have to do is have the water tested to make sure that there are not any nasties that might make you sick. If your water is already clean, you can ionize away without concern.

If your water has chlorine in it, all the water ionizers will remove it.

If your water has fluoride or chloramines in it, you can purchase prefilters to remove either or both, but you shouldn’t rely upon them to remove any specific percentage. However, the best solution is a reverse osmosis system with a proper remineralization filter. More on that in another future article.