Water Ionizer Buyers Guide

Introduction
Water ionizers are touted as the best purchase you'll ever make. The research performed on ionized water certainly makes for compelling reading, and anyone suffering from illness is easily entertained with the results they could personally expect.

BUT a water ionizer is a machine NOT ionized water itself - and the water used in studies is not produced from the instant-electrolysis-style machine associated with the term 'water ionizer', but rather from a batch process setup using reagents for precise outputs.

The purpose of this guide is to orient you as to what to look for in a water ionizer so that you can produce ionized water in your home with the accuracy and reliability that a scientist would expect, as after all, you may be spending up to £1000, so you want to make the right decision. We could simply tell you to buy a specific device, but we prefer to educate you in "what questions to ask", as ionizers are most likely a new concept to you.

PLEASE DO NOT buy a water ionizer on sight or straight after talking to a sales person. A water ionizer purchase requires consideration like any other purchase; if you are being pushed for a quick decision then your hope is being anchored to salvation which an ionizer cannot guarantee. Worse still a tempting free trial may lead you to invest in a device with a steadily declining performance.

Facts and figures
Anyone selling an ionizer should know their facts and figures and if they don't should be able to quickly find out the information you are seeking. You'll want to know:

1. Warranty duration and coverage
2. Electrode surface area in cm2
3. Expected water flow rate on typical British municipal supply
4. Number of pre-set output levels and the expected pH AND ORP at each level
5. Length of time the ionizer can be safely operated for
6. Cleaning cycle frequency and duration
7. Expected electrode effective life (i.e. how long before the ionizer can not longer attain the answers to question 4)

Answers to each of these questions are very useful, and for the most part their usefulness is obvious. Where we can expect a company to stumble is on question 2. They may know the number of electrodes but unlikely the surface area. The number of electrodes will barely affect the strength of ionization but the surface area will. The reason you will struggle to get an answer is two-fold. First, the manufacturer doesn't want you to know and so hasn't told the UK dealer, as the price of water ionizers is attributed to the electrode materials (platinum and titanium) so if there's not much of it in there the price is a farce. Second, the UK dealer is likely to have never opened an ionizer, removed the electrolysis cell, opened it up, measured an electrode and done the basic maths. (N.B. we have done this to multiple ionizers).

So here's a list of preferable answers to the above set of questions:

1. A good water filter will have a lifetime warranty, so an ionizer should really have at least 10 years. Ideally the electrolysis cell, being the most expensive part, is specifically covered for effective function for this time.
2. If an electrolysis cell has a surface area under 400cm2 it will become defective after about 6 months. By 1 year the ionizer will produce pH 7 water and serve as a filter only. Look for 600cm2 and above.
3. Higher is better of course. Do not settle for a maximum flow rate, you want to know what flow rate you will get. Less than 2 litres a minute is excessively inconvenient when units are available that can process 7 litres a minute.
4. The number of pre-set output levels is only really relevant if they are non-user-configurable. In any case you want to know the output pHs. Don't settle for "pH varies depending on input water" as that's obvious. You want to know figures. ALL scientific studies are based on specific pH levels, and the consensus on a recommended range for consumption is 9.3 - 9.8, so you want to know.
5. This is important as many users may run an ionizer for long periods, perhaps to serve many people or fill a large container. In any case, you don't want to damage a machine and find the warranty doesn't cover you simply because you had no idea.
6. Cleaning cycles are essential but you don't want them to be too inconvenient.
7. The golden egg, this question demands a sincerity which will be hard to come by, and will the answer align with the warranty from question 1. A simple word of warning here: The western world is a throw-away society, and whilst these devices may seem too expensive to be a throw-away item, we can assure you that in Korea (where most ionizers are made, and sold far cheaper than abroad) over 50,000 ionizers are sold monthly, to a population just 80% of the UK. In summary, people replace ionizers almost like they were mobile phones, so manufacturers don't need to sell on warranty any more than mobile phone companies.

Servicing
In the event of your precious ionizer requiring servicing you want know that it will be dealt with quickly and effectively, but also, at the dealers expense. This raises two important questions:

1. Can the ionizer be fully serviced/repaired in the UK?
2. Can the electrolysis cell be opened and cleaned using specialist equipment provided by the manufacturer?

You do not want your ionizer sent overseas as this will delay things too much. With regards to the electrolysis cell, you want to know if this most expensive component can be serviced by means other than vinegar (which many dealers recommend). Vinegar is highly abrasive and will perhaps de-scale but also weaken the plating. Anyone suggesting vinegar wants to avoid replacing your electrolysis cell and is probably not able to open the electrolysis cell - many are sealed at manufacture (throw away society?).

Control
Different pH levels have different applications, so surely you want to control the output pH precisely. If pH 5.5 is the pH of the skin then you want pH 5.5, not pH 5 or 6. Please find out the level of control available to you and how easily and how accurately you can exercise this control.

Control is NOT adjusting the input flow rate and neither is it using a pH test solution.

The water filter
Water Ionizers are water filters too, so unless you intend to pre-filter, please ask the following questions:

1. Water filter physical filtration level
2. Rated filter lifetime in litres
3. Typical filter lifetime in months
4. Replacement filter cost

The answers to questions 2-4 in this section will make straight forward comparison material. For question 1 a little technical information is required.

Typical carbon blocks operate at around the 1 micron level. Ideally a 0.5 microns physical block should be achieved to guarantee parasite and heavy metal removal.

Sometimes a filter is offered with ionizers that claim a bizarrely high level of filtration like 0.01 microns. Whilst sold as "comparable to dialysis equipment", these clog far too easily, reducing the overall effectiveness of your investment.

It is normal to filter water in stages, and whilst modern carbon blocks are often 'multi-layered' this is not comparable to physically separate filters. Traditionally, below 1 micron a 5 micron pre-filter of wound polypropylene is implemented, off-setting the buildup of large particulate on the finer filter.

As a reference we would like to offer the Certified Performance Datasheet of the Aquasana AQ-4000 system, as this is the best selling system in USA and one of the few to have been certified by the California Department of Health Services, which has the most stringent controls of any body. If you are interested in using the AQ-4000 either as your sole filter or as a pre-filter to a water ionizer, please visit Aquasana Europe.

Your right to a refund
Given that you have requested all this information, you want to reserve the right to a refund if the machine does not live up to its promises. Please mention this and ensure the answers to your investigations are supplied in writing and not just verbally.