I drink alkaline water because it makes my life better.  The water fixed my arthritis, my acid reflux, and my life long allergy to ragweed.  I know hundreds of other people that drink the water because the water makes their lives better as well.

While I’m a huge supporter of water ionizers, I can’t tell you that they don’t have their problems.  Like every other machine, they have to be set up, and operated, and maintained properly.

When I was involved in the business end of the water ionizer industry, I was responsible for trouble-shooting and repairing faulty machines.  What is interesting in hindsight is that very few of the problems that people called in about had anything to do with the actual machines themselves. 

The most prevalent problem was operator error.  If people read their operating manual or watched the video that comes with many of the machines, they would discover that their machine work just fine.  I understand why people don’t read their manuals, because I’m guilty of the same thing.  This is definitely a case of “do as I say, not as I do”.  However, water ionizers are expensive and they are really important to your health, so read the bloody manual people!

The other major problems with water ionizers are both related to the source water.  Again, the machine has nothing to do with the problems, but the result is always ends  up with a call to the person that sold the unit, or to the manufacturer.

SOFT WATER ISSUES

The chart at the bottom of the article, “soft” water is defined as water that has less than 60 parts per million of calcium carbonate or about 3.5 grains per gallon by American measurement, or about 4.2 grains per imperial gallon.   I think that anything below 80 parts per million should be considered soft water.  Soft water is found predominantly on the east and west coasts of America and Canada.

Soft water can often be a problem for water ionizers.  Soft water by definition has very few minerals such as calcium or magnesium in the water.  The problem with soft water is that water ionizers need minerals or salts in the water to ionize effectively. 

Many manufacturers of water ionizers add calcium or magnesium to their filters.  When you first start using a new water ionizer, or replacement filters, the results will be excellent because of an abundance of calcium.  In fact, the water produced by new filters may be too strong because of the filters alone, without the aid of the ionization process.   If you are drinking alkaline water for the first time, I recommend running water through the new filters for half an hour to make sure the excess calcium that has been packed into the filters has a chance to get packed down.  As an alternative, you can dilute the alkaline water with pure water for a couple of days.  

The problems start to show up after about 6 weeks of use when the user finds that the pH test drops stop producing the dark blue or light purple colour when the machine is set at a level to produce a pH of 9.5.   As time passes you may find that your your test pH drops turn green, which means that your machine is not producing drinking water that has the healthy benefits you were hoping for.  The problem is not the machine, it is the source water.   The filters usually compensate for the lack of minerals for the first six weeks, but after that, your results will depend upon how many minerals are actually in the source water.

THE SOLUTION FOR SOFT WATER

The good news is that there is a simple and reasonably inexpensive solution for soft water when it comes to helping a water ionizer work at it peak performance.   Placing an in-line or an under-sink pre-filter containing calcium or magnesium, or both, will help your water ionizer perform.   The filters should be replaced every six months and they typically cost about $40.

HARD WATER ISSUES

The chart below considers calcium carbonate levels above 60 parts per million and 120 parts per million as moderately hard.  Once again, I think that using the term “moderately” hard is a bit of a stretch because water with calcium carbonate levels between 80 and 120 parts per million are neither hard or soft.  When it comes to water ionizers, water that has calcium carbonate levels in the 80-120 ppm range is excellent because it has enough minerals to allow the machines to perform well, but the water is probably not hard enough to cause scaling problems for a long time, if ever. 

Hard water won’t hurt you, which is why there are no safety regulations in regards to drinking water.  However, hard water can wreck havoc on electrical appliances, and water ionizers in particular.

Hard water is a big problem for water ionizers.  The reason for this is that the ionization process that takes place in the ionization chamber inside a water ionizer causes the calcium from the source water to precipitate out of the water and form scale on the plates.  When the plates get scaled up, they don’t work.  The same thing happens when hard water gets heated up in your hot water tank as the calcium precipitates out of the water when the water is heated up.  

If you have hard water, you should test your machine often with the pH test drops to make sure that it is working.  You can test if the machine is working by applying a couple of drops of the pH reagents drops that come with all new machines to a small sample of alkaline water produced from your machine.  If your water ionizer stops producing higher pH levels, you will know their is a problem if the test drops no longer turn the test sample blue or purple.   If this happens, people usually call their dealer or the company that distributes the machine and complain that the machine is not working.  In most cases, the machine is working fine, but the scale that has built up on the plate diminishes the effectiveness of the machine. 

There is an easy way to determine if your ionization plates are scaled up.  If the pH drops are only producing a sample with a “green” colour when you use the pH drops on alkaline water, you can run the machine on acid water for about a minute.  Once the acid water has been running for awhile, take a sample of the waste water (the line that drains into the sink).  If the sample turns “blue” or “purple” when the pH drops are applied to the sample, then you know your machine is still working, but your ionization  plates are scaled up.

If your machine is scaled up, you can run vinegar or preferably a citric acid solution through your machine to break up the scale on the plates.  If your attempt to remove the scale is unsuccessful, call the company that you bought the machine from and tell them your situation.  They will probably have you ship the unit back to them so that they can clean the chamber.  Don’t expect the de-scaling service to be free, as scaling is not covered by warranty for any machines that I know of. 

THE SOLUTIONS FOR HARD WATER

Dealing with hard water is more complex than dealing with soft water.  The reason for this is that the solution for soft water is always the same….add minerals to the water with a remineralization filters.  Hard water, on the other hand has many different concentrations of hardness.  That means that different solutions may be required.

For water that is the middle range of 80 ppm to 120 ppm of calcium carbonate, a magnet applied to the water supply line  just before it enters the machine is a good idea as a precautionary measure.  You may never need the magnet, but the cost of a magnet will be much less than the cost of returning your machine for a cleaning.  The magnet has limited de-scaling ability, but it can be an effective deterrent to scaling for source water that is in that “middle” range.  According to Ronnie Ruiz, the president of Chanson in the USA, a magnet temporarily alters the properties of the calcium in the water, so that it doesn’t form a hard scale.  If the calcium does form a “soft’ scale, it can be rinsed off with the cleaning cycle of the machine.  Mr. Ruiz claims that a good magnet will also improve the ORP level by about 15 points, but I must admit I have never tested his claim.  The magnets typically sell for under $100. 

When source water contains more than 120 parts per million, an in-line or canister phosphate/carbon pre-filter is recommended.  The phosphate in the filter is a more effective way of temporarily altering the properties of the calcium so that it doesn’t form a “hard” scale during ionization.  Most if not all coffee shops use a phosphate/carbon pre-filter to prevent scaling and eliminate any taste or odour from the source water.  A phosphate/carbon pre-filter typically sells for about $40 and it needs to be replaced every six months.

Once the concentration of calcium carbonate starts to exceed more than about 200 parts per million, most people start to use a “whole house” water softening system to protect their pipes and appliances.  The old technology for removing calcium from source water on a large scale was to use salt or sodium chloride water softeners.  A salt based water softener is based upon an ion resin exchange which is effective at removing calcium, but it replaces the salt residue left in the water is not healthy for humans.  The new technology for removing calcium from hard water is salt free.

My preference when it comes to softening hard water is to use a salt free water softener.  The unit that we had installed in our house is effective and actually pays for itself in a couple of years.  A salt free water softener never requires purchasing/hauling/installing salt, and there is no sodium residue.  The best thing about salt free water softeners when it comes to water ionizers is that the calcium remains in the water, so the water ionizers work very well, without getting scaled up.

A salt based water softener on the other hand typically requires an under sink reverse osmosis machine to take the sodium out of the drinking water before it goes into a water ionizer.  As soon as you introduce a reverse osmosis system to eliminate the sodium in the water, you have also removed all the minerals from the water which are required to make the water ionizer work efficiently.  Therefore, you need to reintroduce minerals into the water, which means installing a remineralization filter as discussed in the section above discussing soft water solutions.  If someone already has a salt water softener for the whole house and a reverse osmosis system for their drinking water, the most cost effective solution is to simply add a remineralization pre-fitler before the water enters the water ionizer.  I still prefer a salt-free water softener to a salt based water softener because I don’t like the idea of having mass amounts of sodium soaking into my skin while I’m taking a bath or shower. 

This has been a long article, but I think it covers the key points about soft and hard water and what to do about it.  

I found the following map at: http://water.usgs.gov/owq/hardness-alkalinity.html

Hard Water Map of the US

General guidelines for classification of waters are:

• 0 to 60 mg/L (calcium carbonate) is classified as soft
• 61 to 120 mg/L as moderately hard
• 21 to 180 mg/L as hard
• 180 mg/L and above as very hard

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Hard water is not considered harmful to your health, but it can cause ugly stains from scale build up in sinks, tubs, and elsewhere if left unchecked.  People notice the stains, but they are generally unaware of the significant hidden costs of the scale build until it is too late. 

Scale is formed when minerals (usually calcium) are precipitated out of water.  The scaling process accelerates dramatically when the temperature of the water increases or when water travels across the electrically charged plates in a water ionizer.

The hidden costs of hard water scaling:

While hard water scale strains are annoying, the more significant problem is the cost associated with scale buildup.  Hot water tanks create scale at a rapid rate as the heat facilitates the precipitation of calcium out of the water.  The scale forms on the two heating elements in the tank.  As the scale builds up, more and more energy is required to heat up the water in the tank.  Nobody thinks about the additional cost of heating their hot water because it is out of sight and out of mind.  However, the energy wasted can amount to several hundred dollars per year.  Additional costs from scaling show up in the form of shortened lifespans of heat producing appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, kettles, and water ionizers.  Additional costs show up in the form or replacing taps and sinks.  The greatest cost of all, can come in the form of having to replace water lines if excessive scaling is not kept in check.

What is hard water and how is it measured?

Hard water is water with a high mineral content.  The primary components of water hardness are the cations (Ca 2+) and Magnesium (Mg 2+), with calcium playing the major role.  Calcium usually enters the water as either calcium carbonate (CaCO_3,) in the form of limestone and chalk, or calcium sulfate (CaSO₄).  The predominant source of magnesium is dolomite (CaMg(CO₃)₂).  Less significant contributors to water hardness are other dissolved compounds such as the anions of bicarbonates ( HCO₃⁻) and sulfates (SO2−4). 

Water hardness is measured in parts per million (ppm) or grains per gallon (gpg).  In the USA, 1 gpg = 17.1 ppm.  In Canada, 1 gpg = 14.2 pmp.  I prefer parts per million as the measure is consistent in both countries.  There is no absolute definition of levels of water hardness.  However, it is generally accepted that the following categories of water hardness exist:

• Soft: Below 17 ppm [or 0-1 American gpg] 
• Medium: 17.1 – 60 ppm [or 1 - American 3 gpg] 
• Medium Hard: 61 – 120 ppm [or 3 - 7 American gpg] 
• Hard: 121 – 200 ppm [or 7 – 11 American gpg] 
• Very Hard: Over 200 ppm [or over 11 American gpg

It is recommended that anyone that has hard or very hard water take measures to reduce the level of hardness, particularly from the hot water lines.  My focus is on water ionizers, and they definitely require some form of assistance to remove calcium from hard water.  The plates of a water ionizer will quickly get covered with scale in hard water which will render the ionization process useless.

Reducing hard water for an entire house:

The traditional method of reducing water hardness was to use a salt based water softener.  The keep the discussion really short and simple, the system captures calcium and magnesium with beads, and then washes out the beads with salt each day.  The state of California has banned the sale of salt based water softeners.  I expect that we will see the ban extended to other jurisdictions over time, because the high sodium content of softened water is absorbed by your skin during showers or baths.  When people use water softeners, it is recommended that the soft water not be used for drinking water, as the level of sodium typically exceeds maximum acceptable levels and definitely exceeds recommending intake levels of sodium by a wide margin.  We are now seeing growth in salt free water softeners, which are much healthier for your skin.

You can also eliminate water hardness with a distillation system or a reverse osmosis machine.  However the process is very slow and wastes a great deal of water.  As such, a reverse osmosis or distillation system is typically reserved for purifying drinking water.  I don’t care for either system if any other alternative is possible because the systems strip all of the minerals required by your body out of the water.

Reducing hardness in your drinking water:

As I stated earlier, hard water won’t hurt you.  However, it wrecks havoc with you drinking water line and tap, as scale builds up.  Homes that use salt based water softeners should always have a bypass before the water softener so that you never drink water that has passed through the softener.  If you use a salt-free water softener, you don’t need a bypass because the water is safe to drink and it will not scale up your water line or taps.  If you are thinking about installing a water softener, make sure it is a salt-free system.  The salt-free systems typically pay for themselves in about two years, so they are an excellent investment. 

If you already use use a salt based water softener and you don’t have a a bypass system under your kitchen sink, you will need a RO system to eliminate the sodium from your drinking water supply.  If you are stuck with a RO system under your sink, you will need to replenish the minerals in your drinking water with mineral drops, or by installing an in-line remineralizing filter in order to provide your body with the minerals it requires.  

What to do about hard water if you want to purchase a water ionizer?

Scaling from hard water has disastrous results for water ionizers.  Therefore, you have to deal with hard water, or don’t bother purchasing a water ionizer at all.  Since water ionizers are so import to your health, find a solution that works the best for you.

If you don’t have a water softener and you need one, make sure you purchase a salt-free system.  The system will prevent scaling and it will allow your water ionizer to work efficiently.

If you already have a salt based water softener and you want to purchase a water ionizer, you have a number of options:

A)  Bypass the water softener and install an inline magnet just before the water ionizer – one time cost of about $95

B)  Bypass the water softener and install an inline phosphate filter before the water ionizer – cost $40 every six months for a phosphate filter

C)  Install a RO system under your sink and add an inline remineralization filter – cost about $400 + $40 per remineralization filter

D)  Replace your salt based water softener with a salt-free water softener – cost about $1,000

You can also combine A) and B)  or you can add A) and B) to D).  It all depends upon the level of hardness.  These options all add to your costs, but nothing is more important to your health.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author based upon his research and experiences working with hard water conditions across the country.

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Slowly but surely, people are discovering the benefits of drinking alkaline ionized water.   Most of us take our health for granted until something goes wrong, so most inquiries about the water come from people who are trying to “fix” something.  I suspect it will remain that way for years to come, but my hope is that eventually people will learn to take care of their health before they have problems.  Proper maintenance is always a superior solution to repair.

If you are investigating water ionizers on the internet, there is a good chance you are getting confused.  The confusion is understandable.  While every website tells you that the machines are great, they also try to influence your buying decision by focusing on the attributes of their particular machine.

Here is a list of things I think you should know about water ionizers before you consider buying a machine:

1)      All water ionizers work.  They use a simple process called electrolysis to separate tap or bottled water into two separate streams of water.  One stream is rich in OH- (hydroxyl ions)  which is for drinking, and the other is rich in H+ (Hydrogen ions) which is for external use on the skin or for disinfecting germs in its strongest form

2)      There is no such thing as the “best” water ionizer.  Different machines perform differently in different water conditions.  Before buying, you should focus on your source water conditions, what you want to use the water for (as they do more than simply improve your health), and your budget

3)      The high priced Multi Level Marketing machines are not superior, and in many cases are inferior to many lower priced brands

4)      Your source water conditions, the speed of the flow of the water through the machine, and the amount of power run through the machine are the primary factors affecting the performance of the machine.  Don’t be mislead by the “bells and whistles” offered by various brands attempting to entice you.

5)      Water ionizers are designed to ionize water.  They are not designed to work as filtration systems other than for removing chlorine.  While the filters of some brands offer somewhat better filtration, it is important to learn what is in your water supply and install a pre-filtration system.  It makes no sense to spend thousands of dollars on a water ionizer and not spend a couple of hundred dollars to remove harmful contaminants from your water.

6)      The “independent” review sites are not independent at all.  They are sophisticated marketing tools designed to lead you towards purchasing a specific brand of water ionizer.

7)      According to the engineers that I met in Korea, no machine for residential use needs to have more than 300 Watts of power.  In fact, adding more power is likely detrimental as it will act to corrode the platinum coating on the titanium plates.  More is not better.

8)      The engineers confirmed our findings that 7 plates provide up to 20% better results than 5 plates, but only under hard source water conditions.  In soft and medium water, there is very little difference.  However, 9 plates offer absolutely nothing more in terms of performance over 7 plate machines and can be viewed as a gimmick.  More is not better.

9)      In regards to pH levels, there is somewhat of a consensus among the scientists and engineers that I have spoken to.  It is recommended to start drinking alkaline water for about a week at a level of 8.0 to 8.5 so your body can detoxify slowly.  Starting with water that has higher pH levels will not harm you, but you are more likely to experience headaches, mild flu-like symptoms, and possibly diarrhea.  Once your body has adjusted to detoxifying, most healthy adults should drink water in a pH range of 9.0 to 10.0 

10)  The opinions among the scientists in regards to the effectiveness and level of ORP for drinking water are much more divergent.  Some medical doctors and scientists who have never tested the water believe that the acidic level of the stomach immediately neutralizes the negative ORP values, thereby rendering the effect of the ORP as worthless.   Others scientists claim that the antioxidant values of the negatively charged ions are life changing and can lead to sustainable good health.   

Ionized water, alcohol, and sugar, are the only known substances that pass immediately through the stomach.  You can prove this to yourself with a simple test.  Drink 3 sixteen ounce glasses of tap or bottled water within a five minute period.  You will feel bloated for hours.  However, it you drink 3 sixteen ounce glasses of ionized water in the same five minute period, you won’t feel bloated at all.  Based upon this test and the fact that ionized water helped me get rid of severe arthritis and acid reflux while several forms of pharmaceutical drugs failed, my vote goes to the beneficial effects of negatively charged water.

The scientists that do believe in the beneficial antioxidant properties of negatively charged water have varying opinions in regards to what level of negative ORP should be consumed.  The scientists from Japan and Korea who have been around working on the water for 25 years seem to be of the opinion that you should drink water with a negative ORP level of -10 to -15.  Others claim that you should drink water that has a negative ORP of -180 to -200, as that is the value of the juice of a live orange on a tree.   There does seem to be some consensus that drinking water should not have an ORP of greater than -400.  However, Dr. Robert Young has indicated that he has had success with using -800 ORP for cancer patients, but that of course is a more extreme measure.

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1. Marketing hype in the water ionizer industry

It drives me crazy when I review water ionizer websites that claim that their machines are far superior to their competitor’s machines. They also seem to revel in bashing the competition. Why would anyone want to do this? All it does is confuse potential buyers and make the company look really stupid. The pharmaceutical industry must just be sitting back and chuckling at the ridiculous behavior of the participants in the water ionizer industry.

Bashing other companies or products in order to make your product look good by comparison is pathetic. The public is looking for information and the truth, not a sales pitch. Can you imagine GM using its marketing dollars to tell people not to buy a Ford or Chrysler because they make lousy cars? I think it was about 15 to 20 years ago that Coke and Pepsi went through a short period of bashing each other. The strategy turned the public off and people started looking to alternatives. The management teams at both Coke and Pepsi figured out very quickly that people don’t like that type of approach. I hope that the water ionizer companies learn the lesson quickly, so that they can start to focus on the important issues. I believe that everyone in the health care industry should be morally obligated to become as well informed as possible, as customers are putting their trust in their hands.

Now it’s time to take an honest look at what it takes to produce the best results from a water ionizer machine. I will start by saying that you can ignore most of the marketing hype that you see on the internet. While some sites provide excellent information, most focus their efforts on selling you their product. Marketing people emphasize the virtues of the products, and minimize the factors that are lacking in their machines.

Despite all the flashy proclamations on the internet, there are two key elements to producing the best results for ionized water. Marketing companies illustrate other virtues, but they are secondary factors in producing good results. The primary factors are:

1) The amount of electrolysis that actually occurs in the ionizing chamber of a water ionizer.
2) Dealing with the factors presented by the source water.

Dealing with issue number one (the time that water is exposed to the ionizer plates) is easy. It is simple physics to understand that the more electrolysis that takes place, the better the results in terms of producing pH and ORP. So, how do the machines achieve maximum electrolysis? The ionizer companies go on and on about the plate size, the material the plates are made of, solid plates vs. mesh plates vs. slotted plates, and power. The simple fact is that the more exposure to the surface area of the plates, the more electrolysis takes place.

More surface area can be achieved in three ways… more plates, bigger plates, and introducing slots in the plates. More plates cost more and therefore push the price up. Bigger plates make the machines bigger and therefore make the appearance of the machine on your counter more conspicuous. Slotted plates add 25% more surface area (according to the physicists) without changing the size or number of the plates. So, it seems that slotted plates are a “no-brainer” as it doesn’t affect cost or size. You will see the companies that don’t have slotted plates present an argument about clogging, but it is nonsense. Putting slots in plates is a positive thing and it doesn’t increase the cost, so all the companies should be doing it. In every case, if you slow the flow of the water flow over the plates down, the results will improve, because more contact with the plates means more electrolysis. The review sites use water flow rates as one of the tricks to make their machines look like they produce the best results.

The manufacturers have been engaging in a battle of the number of plates for the past year. I believe that the primary reason for this strategy has been to combat the claims of one of the Multi Level Marketing companies that their machine was better because it had more plates. It is obvious that more plates are better, but how much is enough? I personally wasn’t convinced that moving from 5 plates to 7 plates would actually make a significant difference in performance, as I assumed it was just more marketing hype that would allow companies to raise their prices. However, when testing 5 plate versus 7 plate machines, the 7 plate machines do in fact produce better results under soft water or hard water conditions. If your source water is ideal (pH level of 7.1 to 7.3 and moderate hardness 80 to 140 parts per million), then you can achieve reasonably good results with a 5 plate machine.

Choosing a machine for its plate size becomes a personal issue. Bigger plates are better, but it makes the units bigger and more cumbersome. A bigger unit on the counter bothers some people, but not others. If a machine has small plates, the shortfall can be overcome somewhat by a machine that has more power. Personally, I can’t wait until the industry provides a wide array of under the counter “UTC” units that are priced more reasonably than what is available at this time. UTC units will allow for outstanding output from machines without worrying about the size, because the machine will be hidden away.

Now we need to deal with the more tricky factors, the source water. Canada and the USA have many different source water issues. We have to deal with great variations in the amount of hardness in the water, and we also have to deal with other water issues such as impurities. In cities, most people have to deal with chlorine and fluoride, which are negative factors, as well as concerns about the contents of older pipes. Rural areas don’t have to deal with chlorine and fluoride, but they typically have to deal with sediment in the water, and sometimes nasty things like nitrates (on farms) or heavy metals.

Unfortunately, the water ionizer companies have basically ignored the various issues and focused on selling their units. It is a typical case of greed, where profits are more important than safety. I believe that they can do a much better job. The only issue that the companies have addressed at all is the issue of soft water. Soft water is a problem for water ionizers because soft water contains very few minerals, and the ionizer requires minerals to work.

There are two different strategies that the various companies have chosen to deal with soft water. The old fashioned way to deal with a shortage of minerals in the water is with a calcium port, and the two oldest ionizer companies use this method. Companies that use this system have their customers purchase calcium and inject it into the machine. This system is effective, but I personally don’t care for it, because the amounts injected are not metered out in any systematic and accountable way, and the cost is both high and unnecessary. In my opinion, the better way to deal with soft water is to use filters that slowly introduce minerals into the water as the water moves through the filters. This system makes a lot more sense on an intuitive level, and there are no additional costs. While I would like to say that the manufacturers have perfected this system, it appears that they still have some work to do. Fortunately, one company in particular seems to be getting much better results than others when it comes to dealing with soft water, so it is just a matter of time until the competitors make the adjustment.

When it comes to the nasty things that we find in the water, I find that the manufacturers just don’t seem to care. Maybe they do care, but they certainly haven’t done anything about it yet. I think they can do a much better job. To that end, I have been doing some research with manufacturers of purification systems that could be used in combination with the water ionizer systems. I don’t have anything definitive yet, but the prospects are promising. I believe that we should be able to combine the positive aspects of the purification properties of reverse osmosis systems with the healthy contributions made by water ionizers. There are some logistical problems that we are working on, but I think a cost effective solution is possible. I will keep you posted as things develop.

This is totally off topic, but I thought it was funny. I was talking to a lady the other day about her new water ionizer, and I asked how she liked it. She said that she enjoyed the taste of the water, and that she had more energy, but what really impressed her was that her cat wouldn’t drink regular water anymore. It reminded me of a message on a magnet that my Mom used to have on her fridge. The message said “The more I get to know people, the more I like my cat”.

© This Alkaline Ionized Water article was posted on Waterfy

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