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Can Calcium Build-Up Affect a Water Ionizer’s Performance?
Filed Under: Water Ionizer Installation & Maintenance
Filed Under: Water Ionizer Installation & Maintenance
Can Calcium Build-Up Affect a Water Ionizer’s Performance? Yes! It absolutely can. And, here’s why…
A water ionizer creates two streams of electrolyzed water: alkaline and acid. The alkaline water is rich in Calcium. Calcium is good for you and contributes to creating alkalinity in the water, but is also a naturally occurring crystalline mineral which creates lime. Lime is another name for Calcium Oxide [formed from a reaction with calcium and the oxygen in the water]. Because of its crystalline structure, Lime tends to scale up on the inside of pipes…and will clog up the inside of your water ionizer if you don’t have a good method of cleaning the plates and pipe works on a regular basis. Even with a good cleaning method, people in “hard-water” areas have reported lime-build-up problems with their water ionizers from time to time.
Here are some ways you can prevent the problem from plaguing you:
- If you live in a hard-water region, get a “hard-water” pre-filter to use in conjunction with your water ionizer. Some appropriate pre-filters to protect your water ionizers are: “Scale-Block prefilter” [$85.00]. It doesn’t matter what water ionizer brand you use, any pre-filter will work.
- Here’s another devise that can really help. It lasts for 2 – 3 years too! It’s called an EOS [Elimination of Scale] Anti-Scaling Device and sells for $160.00. This device transforms the Calcium crystals into a spherical shape which will not cake or scale up, and so it makes it impossible for the scale build-up to occur. How it does this is by adding carbonate ions to the water, it turns the Calcium ion into a Calcium Carbonate ion. Calcium Carbonate crystals are spherical shaped to be harmless & anti-scaling for your water ionizer, and Calcium Carbonate is a healthy mineral for you to consume. It’s also environmentally friendly. This device is as easy as 1-2-3 to install as well, and doesn’t take up any room on or under your counter.
to Cathleen LoGrassos — i REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR INFORMATIVE WEBSItE, including VIDEOS!
we have just put in a Jupiter Athena (under the sink model) and want to regularly test pH and ORP — what brand of pH /ORP meter — the green one in the video — do you use? prefer?
is it better to get separate pH and ORP meters?
is calibration needed?
THANK YOU,
beth
Beth,
The green pH ORP meter is called a Hanna Combo, and I got it on Ebay. I am not sure about anything better than this for testing pH and ORP, but I’ve been happy with this. I really like it, but let me tell you something you have to do to keep it working well…you have to store it in acidic water below 3.0. If you get that level of acidic water from your ionizer, perfect. Otherwise, the suggested solution is Coca Cola (which is supposedly the most acidic beverage) and change it out every few days. These meters take constant soaking in acidic solution. Then before you use it, soak it in alkaline water for a few min. to clean off the acidity, so you get a good/accurate reading. Yes, you should theoretically calibrate it, to really know it’s accurate, but I don’t do that. You can get a 7.0 neutral solution from a scientific supply company and periodically check it for a 7.0 value. As far as ORP goes, the tech guys at the Jupiter warehouse say that negative ORP is a tricky thing for these ORP meters to be 100% accurate on, so make sure you keep them clean (soaked in acidic solution below 3.0 pH) at all times and they should be accurate enough.
One more thing to consider is: never compare one person’s test results with another’s. Their meters are probably not exactly the same callibration unless they’re scientists. So, they can compare things all with the same meter, but don’t mix-n-match people’s tests.