I get a lot of questions from readers asking me which alkaline water ionizer they should buy. I don’t understand why anyone would want to buy an alkaline water ionizer as they are not designed to infuse the H2 created during electrolysis back into the water. What is the point of creating H2 if it gets lots into the air before it ever hits your glass of water, or if the H2 rises to the surface of the water and dissipates into the air before you ever get the chance to drink the healthy water. I normally answer the questions with private responses but I decided to publish a reply to a reader today as I think the response may be of interest to others. Here is my reply:
Hi Bentley:
Trying to figure out which alkaline water ionizer to buy has always been tricky because every company claims to be the best. The more research you do, the more confused you get. I would have to say they pretty much all of the various brands produce alkaline water at similar levels, so it doesn’t really matter which one you buy. It gets worse, because there is zero scientific or medical proof that alkaline water is actually beneficial for your health beyond the fact that drinking clean water is good for you in general.
Now for the bad news before I get to the good news
The alkaline water ionizer industry claims (cancer can’t exist in an alkaline environment, drinking alkaline water will make your body more alkaline, microclustering, etc) are all a marketing hoax that have never been substantiated.
It is not all bad news. Anyone that has been involved in the alkaline water industry knows that many people who begin drinking alkaline water experience benefits, especially in the first few days or weeks. So, if the alkaline water claims are a hoax, why do people who start drinking alkaline water experience benefits? The answer is hydrogen gas, which has been shown to benefit more than 170 diseases from over 700 studies and reviews. Alkaline water ionizers produce hydrogen gas at the cathode during electrolysis.
So….alkaline water ionizers produce hydrogen gas which helps people….no problem….right?
.
Not so fast. During electrolysis, the water becomes more alkaline. Unfortunately, when water becomes alkaline, the calcium in the source water precipitates out of the water and scales up the cathode. When the cathode gets scaled up, the alkaline water ionizer will continue to produce alkaline water, but the production of hydrogen gas slows down as the scale builds up until the unit doesn’t produce any hydrogen gas at all.
Q. How long does the scaling process take?
A. It depends upon how hard your source water is, which really means how much calcium is in the source water. Hard water (high calcium content) can scale up the cathode side of the plates in as little as a week while soft water (low calcium content) will take longer.
Q. How do you get rid of the scale?
A. You can soak the plates with citric acid or acetic acid (white vinegar) to clean the plates. This can be achieved by learning how to do it yourself which requires purchasing a pump and citric acid or vinegar, or you can typically buy cleaning filters from the company that manufacturers your machine.
Q. How often should the plates be cleaned?
A. To be safe, you should clean the plates once a week. If you have soft water, you might only have to clean the plates every 2 weeks or maybe once per month in really soft water.
Q. Is there any alkaline water ionizer that makes cleaning the plates easier?
A. Most alkaline water ionizers offer cleaning filters. However, they are expensive (usually about $40). As you can see, cleaning the plates gets prohibitively expensive. Enagic/Kangen has the best of the bad solutions as they sell a reusable cleaning filter that allows you to add citric acid (which they sell in pouches for a couple of dollars each). The biggest drawback to cleaning the Enagic machine is that each cleaning takes 5 hours.
Q. Is there a better solution?
A Yes. You can now buy hydrogen generator machines which are designed to produce hydrogen instead of the machines that produce hydrogen gas as a byproduct when the machines are creating alkaline water. These machines are vastly superior to alkaline water machines in terms of producing hydrogen gas because the plates don’t scale up during electrolysis. They are also designed to mix the hydrogen gas produced during electrolysis back into the water as opposed to the gas being lost into the air as soon as the water leaves the alkaline water ionizers.
Q. Is there a “best” hydrogen generator?
A. When the hydrogen generators first hit the market, the units were capable of producing hydrogen enriched water, but the delivery systems had many problems (leaks, insufficient power, etc.) One company in America (see www.brilliantz.com) spent a ton of time fixing the problems. Brilliants now offers their HIM2 (above counter) and HIM3 (under counter) units which are very efficient and reliable. They work with virtually every type of potable (safe to drink) water. The “2” in the HIM2 model stands for “second generation” as the reconfigured units effectively represent a new generation even though the units look the same.
Q. What do the HIM units cost?
A. Most of the HIM units on the market sell for $2,000. Brilliantz offers both the above counter and under counter units for $1,000.
Q. Why are Brilliantz H2 products 50% lower than all of the other brands when they are the best products on the market?
Brilliantz recently changed their business model from an Affiliate network to selling directly to the public. By eliminating their sales team, Brilliantz was able to drop the price of all of their H2 products in half. The change is risky for Brilliantz as there is no incentive for anyone to sell their products. I hope the plan works because their prices represent amazing value to the public.
I hope this long explanation helps.
Rob
- Tags: best water ionizers, Brilliantz
Hi Rob, thanks for the great wealth of info! One quick question, do you now recommend the HIM2/HIM3 over the Vitev MAXX? I live in a condo and just started reading today on the best bottled spring water brands vs. water filters and came across your blog and have read a few pieces this far. I’m looking for a product that provides healthy and clean water. Thanks in advance for your input!
Ethan
Hi Ethan:
The HIM units are very different from the Maxx. The HIM units are Hydrogen Infusion Machines (HIM’s) which create hydrogen during electrolysis and then infuse that hydrogen into the drinking water. The HIM’s produce consistent high levels of H2 across virtually all source water conditions of potable (safe) drinking water. The MAXX is a RO system that forces the water produced by the RO membrane through a filter containing magnesium (among other things)which produces lower levels of H2 on a much less consistent and declining basis.
There is a big difference in price as the HIM’s cost $2,000 and the MAXX costs $795.
Both systems are exceptionally efficient at removing contaminants from the source water.
Which is the best unit for you? It really depends upon what you are trying to achieve. If you can afford the HIM, it is far superior to the MAXX at producing hydrogen and both units are great at cleaning the source water. If budget is an issue, the MAXX is cheaper. If you do choose the Vitev solution, my suggestion would be to check out their Flo+ (a two-cannister system that can be installed above or below the counter top which costs $499) as it would save you $300 and give you pretty much the same benefits as the MAXX unless you have seriously bad source water.
Hi rob ive been reading your site for the last few hours and have a few questions about some products you mention.
First is the GO by brilliantz. Theres really little to nothing for information on the main website so could you tell me how it goes about making hydrogen water? Does it use plates or what? How long does the hydrogen last until it goes into the air?
Second was about the vitev (really hate the name since i cant ever remember past the vit part haha). So the maxx and also the pitcher versions are all natural hydrogen from magnesium and not from electrolysis. How long do the hydrogen stay concentrated in the water?
the thing i was wondering about is if hydrogen is generated simply by contact of water with magnesium, cant i put some mineral drops into water and shake it or something and get little amounts of hydrogen?
Would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
Hi Thomas:
You have asked good questions.
1) The Brilliantz GO unit creates water via electrolysis. The GO has a state of the art PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) that is far superior to any non-PEM unit and significantly better than the original PEM units. The manufacturer indicated that the half life of the hydrogen content in the water is 2-3 hours if the water is exposed to air. I have found the half life to be much longer in my testing. If the water is not expsosed to air, it seems to last indefinitely.
The folks at Brilliantz are currently populating their FAQ section which I have been told will include Q&A’s on all of their products this week. They have added a ton of Questions and Answers which are so far appear to be clear and concise. I wish other companies would share their diligence for detail and accuracy because it makes it a lot easier for me when I understand things.
2) High concentration of hydrogen (nearly 1ppm) in the water from the pitcher can only be created for a few hours after cleaning with vinegar or acetic acid. Beyond a few hours, the concentration drops to about 0.3 ppm for a few days. Beyond that, the pitcher won’t produce detectable amounts of hydrogen until is is cleaned again. Once the hydrogen has been created, it will last a few hours when exposed to open air.
The MAXX continues to produce hydrogen as water reacts to the magnesium. Therefore, when you turn the tap on you can get almost 1ppm of hydrogen for a very limited amount of water. However, when the water runs a bit, the hydrogen level drops
The GO is a much better producer of hydrogen than the pitcher or the Maxx, but the Maxx and pitcher are better at filtering the tap water (especially the Maxx).
3) Hydrogen is created by the reaction of water to elemental magnesium: 2H2O + Mg —> H2 + Mg(OH)2
The reason units like the pitcher and the Maxx can’t keep up with a hydrogen generator like the GO (or the HIM2 or HIM3) is due to the fact that a reaction of water with elemental Mg produce Mg(OH)2 as a byproduct which coats the Mg. When the Mg gets coated by Mg(OH)2, which forms like layers of onion skins, the water can no longer get to the elemental Mg and which means there is less and less H2 created over time.
To specifically answer your question, Mg drops are ionic compounds which are not in elemental Mg form which means they won’t react with the water to produce H2. I have read Dr. Carolyn Dean’s “The Magnesium Miracle” book which clearly illustrates the important health benefits of Mg. If you are interested in the benefits of H2 and Mg, you might want to check out: http://www.tryh2.brilliantz.com and click on their SHOP page and then click on the H2 Tablets.
Thanks for the replys.
Well the thing i was wondering about pitcher style products is that they basically store your water for you to drink it anytime, but if you have H2 in that water you cant really store that water in the pitcher can you? Since all the H2 would just go into the air. So it would be pretty inneficient because youd have to wait for it to filter the water and then drink it asap.
Do the H2 from generators or ones from goin through magnesium stay in water longer than from the alkaline water ionizers before going into the air? I read from your previous posts that it did but im not really sure why that is.
Could you bottle the H2 water produced by an HIM and that would keep the h2 from going into the air?
Dear Rob,
First of all, let me tell you how amazing your blog is. I have recently started to look into water filters and water softeners for my house and your blog has been the most useful source on the topic by far. It’s really difficult to make decisions when confronted with the maze of information and claims on the internet by manufacturers of filtering devices. It’s great to be able to read the thoroughly researched views of an independent and experienced individual like you.
However, in order to make a choice on the products I need to buy for my house, I still have a few questions that I’d like to ask you. I’d love to be able to hear your view.
I’ll give you a little bit of background on my situation first. I’m renovating my house (an old house from 1913) and turning it into three apartments. I’ve looked into the information available on the quality of the water in the area and I’m listing the relevant values (I’m only listing the values that might be relevant or that might be non-ideal. There are some other minerals in the water, however in negligible amounts, very very far below the legal norm.)
– Hardness: 38,1 °fH (or 22,2 gr/gal (US) or 21,4 °dH (Germany) or 3,8 mmol/l)
– Chlorine: 160 μg/l = 160 ppb
– pH: 7,67
– Alkalinity: 27,4 °fH
– Calcium: 123 mg/l = 123,2 ppm
– Magnesium: 17,2 mg/l = 17 ppm
– Natrium: 13 mg/l = 13 ppm
– Sulfate: 60,6 mg/l = 60,1 ppm
– Nitrate: 24,4 mg/l = 24 ppm
– Fluoride: 81 μg/l = 81 ppb
– Chloride: 31,8 mg/l = 31,1 ppm
Given that our water is rather hard (22,2 gr/gal) and I would like to avoid scale buildup in the water, I would like to install one water softener in our cellar that softens the water for the whole house (all three apartments) since it will get too expensive to install separate water softeners. For the apartment in which I will be living myself, I would like to add a water filtering device so I can enjoy excellent quality drinking water (I’m considering a hydrogen machine as you recommend on your blog because of the very promising health benefits).
However, I have the following questions:
A) Regarding the water softener:
1. You recommend salt free water softeners. Would such a softener be sufficient for softening a whole house with 3 apartments, where the current water hardness is 22,2 gr/gal? Some people on the internet are skeptical about the efficacy of salt free water softeners. Are there any criteria I have to be attentive about when buying a salt free water softener?
2. What setting for hardness do you recommend? (Water which is too hard is not good, but water which is too soft is not good either.) Where I live, they recommend a water hardness of 15 °fH (in US measurements 8,7 gr/gal). Do you agree with that or do you have another recommendation?
3. Is there any brand or device you can recommend for the water softener? (taking into account a good price/quality)
B) Regarding the water filtering device
1. I realise that Calcium and Magnesium are beneficial in drinking water for health reasons. However, I worry that the water softener will have removed too much of these helpful minerals from the water. What do you suggest I do? I am considering the Brilliantz HIM2 (H2Fx) (which I understand is great for adding hydrogen) or the MAXX Alkaline Water Ioniser (which I understand is great for filtering). I understand that these first filter the water (remove Calcium and Magnesium) and then re-add these beneficial minerals in a later stage. However, if these minerals have already been reduced by the water softener in the cellar, won’t the minerals end up too low? I’d love to know your view. Does that mean that the only option is to add a separate water pipe which delivers unsoftened water only to the filtering device used for drinking water? (In other words, what is not entirely clear to me if whether the minerals which are re-added by the filtering system are the same minerals which it removed in the first stage, or if these are other, new minerals so that it doesn’t matter if the water was too soft in the first place).
2. I wondered whether you have any idea as to how long the water stays beneficial/healthier after production in these devices (in other words, how long does the H2 stay in the water?). Is there a difference in this respect between the HIM2 and the MAXX device?
3. What water do you use for making tea, coffee etc., or to cook spaghetti, rice, … ? Do you use the water in the hydrogen machine or do you use warm tap water (unfiltered)? Does the H2 disappear (and thus ends up less useful) in warm water?
4. Also, the aesthetic side of things is quite important for me. I would like to place the filter device either in a built-in cupboard or under the sink. However, in an installation video on Youtube for the HIM2, I see that they attach the device to the kitchen faucet on the sink (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ogkz8UWU_A). Is this necessary? I would like to keep my sink minimalistic.
5. I also read about a system that seems interesting: http://www.perrinandrowe.co.uk/perrin-rowe-filtration/. Its advantage is that you can let your filtered water come out of the kitchen faucet (which is not a bulky, less appealing faucet like with other filter devices). From an aesthetic point of view, this certainly looks very good. (See as an example of such faucet: http://www.inderkitchen.co.uk/perrin-and-rowe-phoenician-mains-and-filtered-water-kitchen-tap-7938-p.asp) However, do you think this (“triflow”) filter system is comparable in quality to the systems mentioned above (HIM2 and MAXX), or does it have important disadvantages in your view?
6. I see that a separate tap is often used for filtered water (see the tap on the left on this photo: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/382102349620041546/) From an aesthetic point of view, I really like such a system (so that the whole filtration system is out of view). Can any of the hydrogen/filtration systems that you recommend be hidden under the sink and work with such a separate filter tap?
7. I love in the EU. Here, I have only found the HIM and not the HIM2 device from Brilliantz. Do you know where or how I could purchase this device in the EU? Or can you recommend another similar device that is easily available in the EU?
8. I will probably only buy the hydrogen/filter system(s) in autumn this year. However, the plumbing work will likely take place in July/August already. Is there anything I need to take into account and ask the plumber (in order to avoid having to break things open again when installing the filter system in autumn?)
Finally, I know that you want to avoid endorsing specific companies (and I fully respect that), but if you could recommend to me what would be the best choice for me personally, taking into account my criteria:
– Health
– Current quality of the water
– Taste of the filtered water
– Cost and time involved in maintenance (replacement filters, accessories, H2 supplies etc.)
– Aesthetic qualities (I want to hide the device in a cupboard or put it under the counter of a specific filtration tap)
If you think that for my personal use and criteria, one machine would be better than the others, I’d of course love to know.
Thank you so much in advance!! (My sincere apologies if I’m making your life difficult with all my questions…)
Kind regards,
Melissa
Hello There,
Its great to read this post and I want to tell that in India Blue Mount provides the best Ro Alkaline purifier for drinking. Its products are available here https://goo.gl/FRu6Za
Is there any suggestion for this company and products?
Hi Raj:
If you have been reading my blog lately, you will see that I have been totally “off” the alkaline story for about 3 years. The benefits all come from molecular hydrogen (H2).
Hi Rob
I see there are some unanswered comments on this page but I try my luck anyways and hope you can also reply to my question.
I understand your highest endorsement is for the HIM system, although it is quite pricey for me and I am satisfied with the Vitev Flo. Also it feels quite cumbersome to install it electrically under the sink… we’ll only my guessing, since there lack detail info on how it is about to be done….
However, recently I am considering the Vitev under the sink model but I have also discovered another player using similar housing but the filter is what differentiate from the two, as well as the price where the Vitev filter alone is almost double the price.
The other is from PlanetsOwn, using a microspiral filter which could be better at filtering through its spiral channels, trapping negative charged microbes which are killed by its anti-bacterial silver coating. Still it lets the water and smaller minerals through with quite ease.
I just don’t know what the pH of the water is and if there needs to be added some minerals afterwards, like magnesium.
But then I remembered that you have turned 180 degrees on alkaline water which you even call a marketing hoax, so I wonder if Vitev is any better than the microspiral filter. Perhaps still the Vitev, since it does at least have H2 in its water with the help from remineralized magnesium…..
Would love to hear your thought. Microspiral filter is news to me.
Hi Daniel:
I have been negligent at answering comments for awhile as I have been focusing on other things for awhile. Now that Brilliantz has inspired me with their big price reduction, I’m fired up again about talking about H2.
It feels like I have my nose stuck pretty far up Brilliantz’s butt these days which leaves me feeling a little nauseous. I just can’t help it because the Brilliantz H2 products are good and the half price thing is impossible for me to ignore. My hope is that the rest of the H2 industry responds to the pricing challenge because everyone should be drinking H2 enriched water.
You might want to consider the Brilliantz GO unit for $160 including shipping. The GO is a portable HIM that you can pour water into for single 10oz servings, or you can attach a $0.15 cent bottle of water to it and turn it into the equivalent of a $4 to $7 bottle of H2 water in a few minutes. If memory serves me, the GO produces about 2.5ppm which in about 7 minutes. I keep a GO on my desk at home and another on the counter at my cottage and I use it multiple times per day.
The only downside to the GO is that it doesn’t filter the source water. I don’t have fluoride in my source water at either place, so I just use a simple carbon filter at home and a UV light with a carbon filter at my lake house.
Your Vitev Flo produces H2. The H2 is created while water sits in the filter reacting to the magnesium component in the filter. Think of the process as being similar to steeping tea. When you first turn water on for your Flo, there is a healthy amount of H2 in the first water that comes out. If you are pouring a pitcher of water, there will be a lot less H2 in the water as the newly introduced water doesn’t have much time to react to the water. If you just take a glass of water with each use, the Flo produces H2 enriched water. I hope Vitev will eventually move fully into the H2 story, but I assume they, like all the other alkaline water sellers will continue to cling to the alkaline story until people wake up and smell the H2.
My knowledge of vortex/spiral technology is weak at best, so I don’t feel comfortable in offering any advice on the subject.
I think you are good with your Flo. You might want to try a GO unit to get the full H2 experience. It would be a nice fit to pour water from your Flo into a GO as your Flo is an excellent filter for removing contaminants.
I hope this helps.