Any Water Ionizer may be able to ionize well in St. Louis, where I live, but the same water ionizer may not ionize well in your municipality.

Why? Because the hardness and total dissolved solids from place to place are so different! If you look at the hardness map, above, you can get a general idea of the wide differences in water hardness around the USA. Keep in mind that these are general ground water conditions and do not take into account the other sources [lakes, rivers, springs and fresh water runoff collected when it rains]. If you live in an area that is …

• Temperate and moist, but very hard [i.e., the red areas on the map], your municipal water company may get their water from a variety of places [wells and rivers for instance] and so you may look hard according to the map, above, but not be too bad when it gets to your tap.
• Hot and dry,  your municipal water company probably gets most of your water from wells. In this case with the map, above, it shows probably a good picture of your water hardness. If you live in a hot and dry [all year long] location, and you have very hard ground water, I’m going to guess you also have a very high TDS [total dissolved solids].
• If you live in a region with very soft water it is possible that your municipal water company adds calcium [lime] to your water to buffer it. Water that is too soft may corrode pipes and so it is for the protection of the pipes that the water treatment companies do this.
• If you have a well, on the other hand, then your source of water is only the ground water, and so the map would more likely be showing a pretty good representation of the water you are getting.

The actual hardness of municipal water should be looked up, and if it’s your own well it should be tested.

The parts per million [ppm] of hardness is a very important number to a water ionizer owner. It means you are either going to probably get good, better or best ionization….or possibly not so good, and you should know something about this ahead of time, so you’re prepared in the event you need to do some prefiltration [in line with your water ionizer].

Your municipal water company has a responsibility to report to you what your water quality is. They file an annual water quality report online usually, and this can be located and looked at. The report usually tells you the levels detected of certain contaminants deemed to be regulated by the EPA. The report doesn’t have to tell you your water hardness, but sometimes you can find it in there. It’s a good thing to look at your water quality report from time to time, and if you can’t find it or if they don’t say what your hardness is you can call the phone number on your water bill [or your landlord's bill]. They will usually be very good about answering your questions.

What does this mean for your water ionizer purchase?

Very Hard Water: This water is possibly some of the hardest water to ionize. Many, many people in this situation are already using a whole house water softener and reverse osmosis. If this is you…you can simply add a Remineralizer in the line and you should be able to ionize just fine. [The best water ionizers to put in-line with a reverse-osmosis-remineralizer set up are the slower-flowing counter-top water ionizers, like the Jupiter models or the Chanson Eden. If you have a faster flowing water ionizer, then you could have difficulty with getting sufficient pressure and may need a water flow-rate booster pump to put in-line with the ionizer.]

Very Soft Water: This water isn’t too troublesome. If your water is too soft all you need to do is get a Remineralizer to put in-line with your water ionizer. Some ionizers have a mineral port for adding some calcium to the water. If all you need is a little boost, then this may be enough. [Note: Only use chunk calcium in the mineral port]

Medium Waters: The best water to ionize is between 80 and 180 ppm of hardness. Below that you may want to use a Remineralizer or mineral port. Harder than 180 you should still be able to ionize well all the way up to about 250 ppm, but you would need something to keep scale from damaging your water ionizer, [such as one or two Ionizer Armors or an EOS Device ].

Related Blog Posts:

Here are some articles I wrote that are of importance to the use of water ionizers with various types of water around the country. Rather than re-write the articles, I’m listing them here.

A New Hard Water Solution for Water Ionizer Owners

Water Ionizers: Where, When and Why Prefilter or Use Extra Devices?

The Melody Water Ionizer Works Great with the Soft Water of Tacoma, WA

Can You Hook Up a Water Ionizer When You Have a Whole-House Water Softener?

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Shopping Water Ionizers? Watch out for Deceptive Tactics.

If a company makes wild claims about how far-out better their water ionizer is than EVERY other water ionizer…beware. Many years and years of research have gone into the engineering of water ionizers. I would not completely believe that one company beats out ALL others, unless I tested their water ionizer against other exceptional water ionizers myself.

I used to believe these kinds of claims [at least partially believe them] until I started extensively testing water ionizers. Since then I’ve found out in every case where a water ionizer company has stated wild superiority, it was simply not true. Maybe it was an exceptional ionizer, but there were also other exceptional ionizers. Within the category of exceptional water ionizers, there are a few that are a little better than other exceptional ones in some aspects…but not in all aspects.

Is “a little bit better” worth it? I personally feel it’s worth spending an extra $500.00 or so for a little bit better ORP per unit of pH or for a continuous electrode cleaning system, however, I wouldn’t spend too much extra just to get a little bit better acid water. Each person has to decide for themselves on what’s worth it or not. It’s kind of like if you were buying a car and the salesperson claimed this car could go faster than any other car. That statement wouldn’t mean much to most people, but someone would want to pay extra for that if it were true. I don’t feel that “a little bit better ORP” or “a little bit lower acid pH” warrants wild statements of superiority though. I’ve tested all of the good water ionizers, and I haven’t found one that was wildly better than the rest. 

Are there bad water ionizers? Yes, some are just junk after a couple of years or even right away. If they aren’t using pure titanium coated with pure platinum, or worse, if they’re using titanium-platinum alloys they are selling an inferior product for three reasons:  

1. The levels of electrolysis with alloys will not be able to ionize the water well. Pure platinum is required for full water ionization. Platinum is the best known catalyst for ionization known to man.
2. Alloys will not hold up as well as titanium and platinum in their pure forms, therefore no matter what they say, their water ionizer will not last. It won’t continue getting good ionization.
3. Alloys may contain nickel, copper, or other minerals that can leach into your drinking water eventually. This could bring the levels of those minerals up too high, so as to make your water unhealthy. 

Water Ionizer Warranties: If it’s a new company I wouldn’t trust their warranty, especially if it was one of those “too good to be true” warranties. The test of a good warranty is not only what the company says, but look at some other things, then add up the facts before making your decision based on water ionizer warranty. I suggest to ask yourself these questions:

1. What would happen if everyone started cashing in on that unbelievable warranty down the road? Would the company go out of business?
2. How old is the company?
3. What is, their BBB rating?
4. Does the company seem forthright? Do they supply you with sufficient information about themselves so you could find them if they jumped ship? If they don’t divulge their name, address and such on their websites, they could operate multiple companies that never get linked to each other. Therefore it’s no big deal if one company fails, their other companies will pick up the slack. It’s a little shifty to not divulge these kinds of normal things.

Are there false water ionizer comparisons? Yes. It is definitely not conclusive if a company tells you how they’ve tested all of them and theirs is the best. Where is the proof? I try to keep abreast of all the water ionizer comparisons being done [both the reliable ones and the obviously biased ones] and I’ll share a few things I’ve observed from some of the more shady water ionizer comparisons I’ve seen:.

• Most obviously unreliable: When a company tells you they have compared their brand with other brands, but offers no proof of their claim to be the best, or their proof has holes in it.
• A little less obvious: When a company claims to have had an independent lab analyze their water samples vs. several other popular water ionizer samples, but they don’t have proof that the samples were collected and submitted properly. This is particularly questionable if their test numbers fall out of the range of possibility. For example: I saw a supposed lab test result the other day that showed that the ionizer [all by itself] removed over 90% of the sodium from the water. This is ludicrous, because only reverse osmosis or nano-filtration can do that. It was particularly interesting in that instance that the company collected their own samples to send to the lab.
• Even less obvious: When a doctor or health professional claims that they have compared all of the water ionizers and theirs is the best. This is less obvious, because people tend to believe doctors and health professionals, and they’re used to taking their word for things. This category includes: when a doctor or health professional tells you how bad all of the “other” water ionizers are, but they supply questionable proof or no proof [just anecdotal references to their past experiences years ago]. They of course don’t mention specific names either, because that then would possibly open them up to a law suite if they couldn’t prove what they were saying was true [and therefore it probably isn’t true].
• Most un-obvious: Water ionizer review sites may not be anything more than a front for one of the companies they are reviewing. If the reviewer tells you nothing about himself, nothing about his interest in the business, and nothing about his company, yet pays money to advertise his website….beware. There is something fishy there. I’m pretty sure he’s not just being a philanthropist. Also, if the reviewer sells only one brand, that makes their reviews questionable as well. 

Are there other false claims to watch out for? Yes.

• Here’s a good one: Company claims to be the only US manufacturer, then a year later divulges that their plant happens to be in Korea. When it comes to the purpose of water ionizers to be for improving one’s health, it makes no sense to buy from a company that hides or potentially skews their facts.
• Water ionizer companies who make deals with stars to sell their water ionizers: Does that mean their water ionizer is better? No. These endorsements don’t offer any proof that their ionizer is better. They only offer proof that they made a deal with that star. Using stars to sell a product is just another sales gimmick. It happens all the time with many products.
• Here’s another example: Company says they’re the first and only company that offers a lifetime warranty. This is just silly, because these things can be dated and proven otherwise. [In this case they were the third company to offer a lifetime warranty, and of course that means they aren’t the only ones either.] Always look for the proof of these kinds of claims…or better yet, just ignore them. This is just hot air coming out of a shallow hole.
• If a company tells you all of their certifications, without offering at least links to the PDF documents that prove that, it could be that there is something they are hiding. Otherwise why wouldn’t they show you the documents? Maybe they don’t want you to know the identity of their actual manufacturer, in which case they are probably hiding something.  
• If a company has an “About us” page that tells all about their goals for you the customer, but nothing about themselves or their own background or history, they are probably hiding something about their own identity.
• Or if they have a “Contact Us” page and they don’t even give you an email address, address or phone number, that’s a red flag that they could be hiding something. They should be able to provide you with names, addresses, phone numbers, etc., which tell real information about them.
• Beware of “camera-shy” companies. If you don’t see their ionizers in broad numbers of video-comparisons, and you only see them tooting their own horn, or on only a couple of carefully selected sites, or if they seem to try to stay out of the internet arena [where they would be subject to scrutiny or actual real comparisons]  it could be intentional. Their product might not be that wonderful, and they may not want you to see that.  
• Do not buy a water ionizer from a foreign country [including Canada]. You have no real idea where that water ionizer came from, whose tampered with it. They will show you a picture of the product and it looks right, but you don’t know anything more than that.

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Many people have requested a comparison of the Jupiter Orion, Aquarius, Athena, Melody and Venus water ionizers. So I’ve constructed this chart to help you see the similarities and differences between these great water ionizers.

Here’s some direct links for you to get more information:

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Yes, Whether they Know it or Not People Rate their Water Ionizers by Flow-Rate All the Time.

Here is the breakdown of fastest to slowest water ionizer flow-rates:

1. Tyent 9090 water ionizers   3-8 liters per min.
2. Enagic SD501water ionizers 3-4 liters per min.
3. Tyent Turbo water ionizers 2-4 liters per min.
4. KYK water ionizers 2-3 liters per min.
5. Chanson water ionizers  2-3 liters per min.
6. Jupiter water ionizers  1.5-2.5 liters per min.

It’s very, very tempting to think that faster is better, and in many ways it is. However there are some reasons to want a slower flow rate when it comes to ionizing your water.

Alkaline water ionizer will usually force you to slow down your speed of pouring water just enough to utilize your water filtration to the maximum effectiveness.

Why is Slowing Down the Flow Rate a Good Thing?

• There are many things in the water today that weren’t even an issue years ago. For instance, most municipalities are switching over to Chloramine, which is Chlorine plus amonia, [rather than using just plain Chlorine] to control bacteria and fungus. However Chloramine is more stable than Chlorine and is much harder to filter out. To get Chloramine out you need to run your water through the activated carbon filter slowly. When you run your water through a water filter quickly, it doesn’t remove the Chloramine.
• This is also true for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, or any other of the many contaminants that are in your water. Fast flow of water through any filters [except really large whole-house ones] does not filter the water very effectively. 
• A slower flow rater will also help to ionize your water more completely which will probably improve your ORP.

Wishing You Water Wellness!
Sincerely,
Cathleen LoGrasso
Blog-Master
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