Alkaline Water News [Water Wellness]

All water ionizers should have platinum coated titanium plates. This is the basis of sound and safe electrolysis. Never accept any water ionizer that has plates made of anything else. The safety and stability of the water ionizer is dependent on this above all other factors. Do not accept “platinum-titanium alloys”. The word alloy means that metals are mixed with other metals, and you do not want this with a water ionizer’s plates. The water you drink will be passing over these plates, and it is important to ensure that the metals used are pure titanium coated with pure platinum…both for safety and efficiency.

Why Titanium? The reason for titanium is its safety, strength, hardness, and ability to resist erosion. For these reasons titanium is used in bone and joint replacements. No other metal is better than titanium for these qualities.

Why Platinum? The reason for platinum is that every single other metal, including gold, has been tested for efficiency in ionizing water. Platinum exceeds all other metals in the ability to catalyze [speed up] electrolysis. It is absolutely essential to catalyze electrolysis in water ionizers. Water ionizers “instantly” provide you with ionized water. There are old-style water ionizers that “brew” the water for 20 or so minutes, and even these don’t work well without the assistance of platinum. The water molecule needs to actually be in contact with the platinum to have the process [of platinum catalyzing electrolysis]  work best. This is why I put such emphasis on the types of plates and types of cleaning systems found in water ionizers [below].

A low voltage current is passed through these plates which creates poles. These poles separate out the water into two streams. One is positively charged and the other is negatively charged.

During this process the water molecules are broken down into ions. One of the ions is OH-, which is a very simple and healthful antioxidant. This is concentrated in the alkaline water stream.

Types of Plates

Solid

Solid plates are the most common type of plate. The way that this works is the electricity will concentrate in certain parts of the the plate. Although this plate does work it is not the most efficient way to ionize.

Slotted

Slotted plates are one step above the solid plates. This gives the electric current a direction and allows for more efficient ionization.

Holed

Careful. Sometimes this is also called holed mesh and can be easily misinterpreted to mean a mesh plate. This has a handful of holes in it and does allow for more direction of the electric flow. However, it does not compare to the mesh plate

Mesh

Mesh is the most efficient plate in use in water ionization. There is the most direction of electric flow and also more surface area able to make contact with the water.

The only down side to having mesh plates would happen if the water ionizer does not have a method of continuously cleaning the plates. Remember from the first section of this article that the platinum has to have direct contact with the water molecule [for the most efficient electrolysis]. If the water ionizer self-cleans as you are ionizing then the platinum will always have this direct contact with the water molecule. So, while mesh is definitely the most efficient type of plate to use, please keep in mind that combining mesh plates with a water ionizer that uses a continuous cleaning system is best. The reason is that mesh plates will very easily scale without the continuous self-cleaning, and scaling reduces the plates efficiency down to the solid-plate-level.

Methods of Plating

Dipped

This is the most common type of plating process used in water ionizers.  Dipping the plates creates a smooth surface. Note: If your water ionizer doesn’t have a continuous self-cleaning system, dipped plates would be the preferable choice [because scale won't stick as easily to a smooth surface].

Nano-Plating or Electroplating

The terms nano-plating and electroplating are used by water ionizer manufacturers to describe a newer technology in plating. It is more costly, and allows for a less smooth surface [peaks and valleys on the surface of the plate], which allows for more surface area and more efficient ionization, provided the water ionizer has a method of continuously cleaning the plates.

Plate Cleaning Systems

Acid Wash

Acid washing [reversing the polarity of the two streams of water for several seconds every so often] is the most common type of water ionizer plate cleaning. Most people just wait several seconds while their water ionizer is performing this function and let the water which is produced at this time go down their drain. This type of system works with water ionizers which have solid plates. The problems with this method are: 1) waste of ionized water during the periods of acid washing, 2) waste of time for the consumer, and 3) the plates are only really clean for a very short while, and the performance of the water ionizer will start to drop off until finally they are acid-washed again.

Continuous Cleaning

Continuous cleaning means that the water ionizer design incorporates a system of reversing polarity as you are pouring. This allows you to not waste time or water, but more importantly allows the plates to remain free of calcuim [scale] build-up …which allows for the most efficient water ionization.

There are varying degrees of continuous cleaning, and the ionizers which do best [as of today's date] in this area are in this order: the Samsung Vesta, the Jupiter Athena, the Jupiter Melody, and the KYK. All other common US-marketed water ionizers have acid-wash systems.

Number of Plates

A lot of companies boast about the number of plates or size of plates they have in their water ionizers. Normally 5 to 9 are the numbers you will hear about. Seven or nine is not necessarily the best option as you can get the same or better ionization with less plates using different combination of plates, plating processes, cleaning systems and other engineering/design innovations. There are only so many volts of electricity going through the plates. It is an engineering-design combination of concentration of the electricity, concentration and strict control of the water flow, and ensuring the platinum is pure and the ultimate of clean so the water molecules can have direct contact with it as they flow in and around the plates.

How to Pick the Best Water Ionizer?

First thing is read this entire article [above]. This article provides the basics for choosing the best water ionizer. Then browse our water ionizer comparison chart to get more information about the different types of water ionizers. http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/water-ionizer-comparisons

After over 16 years of drinking alkaline ionized water, I can say with conviction that the very best thing I could give to myself or a loved one is a WATER IONIZER! Give yourself and your family the gift of health this year!

Wishing You Water Wellness!
Sincerely,
Cathie LoGrasso

Email Us: Support@alkaline-water-plus.info
Website Home: http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com
Copyright © 2006 – 2011 Alkaline Water Plus
Call for a “Best Price Quote” 1-888-MY-ALKALINE [692-5525]

Or call my [Cathie's] CELL: 314-452-9560

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How Great are Water Ionizer Mesh Plates? Are they Better? Do Mesh Plates Ionize the Water Better?

Many water ionizers are using mesh plates today. It used to be that all water ionizers used solid plates, and of course there used to be very little selection of different water ionizer companies [and models] as there are today. We benefit from the vast array of water ionizer companies and large amount of competition in water ionizer selling, but on the same token, we can become too bombarded with INFORMATION too! This makes things confusing for people wanting to buy a water ionizer.

These wide varieties of choices, though, don’t bother me in the least. Why?

Because I’ve been drinking ionized water for so long (over 16 yrs.) that I’ve seen it all. I’ve been there and done that…so to speak, and the results are: no matter how you design & re-design water ionizers, they are going to give you great, healthy water. It’s like comparing TV brands. Some people are going to be more concerned with buying the absolute best TV and others won’t worry about it. Sometimes you just won’t know until the first “new design” breaks down. Just about all TV owners enjoy watching great TV for years, and when the new technology comes along, might trade in the old for the new…or keep the old one till it breaks. The person who spent hours, days or weeks making sure they got the very best deal, may get a better deal, but he may also get a lemon. It’s happened.

The fact is: the least expensive water ionizer I sell is twice as good as the water ionizer I started out with!

My first water ionizer, back in 1993, cost me $1,100.00 — expensive! But it was a much less well-designed water ionizer. The point of me saying this is …from the time I started drinking ionized water, I ceased to have allergies, colds, ear infections, strep throats, or anything at all negative [health-wise]. That’s with an inferior water ionizer!

We’ve had our new Melody now for about 9 months, and I have noticed that some spider veins that were appearing on my right leg are now going away. This is probably the negative ORP that’s doing this. The Melody water ionizer I have now gets about three times as good ORP as my old Ange water ionizer. So, the newer models, with the better ORP are a great plus! But, the bottom line is, all the water ionizers I sell are great…& so don’t worry so much! My one suggestion is to stay within your budget.

You don’t have to spend $4000. on a water ionizer.

The Kangen water ionizer people [Enagic] will tell you that they have the best water ionizer and that’s because they have the most expensive one. Enagic will tell you how you have to have their water ionizer if you want the miraculous health benefits. However this is not true. All good water ionizers (which are the only water ionizers I sell) will give you similar miraculous health benefits. As a matter of fact, most of the research the Kangen Co. uses to sell their water ionizers was done with other brands of water ionizers [not the Enagic]. The majority of actual researchers they site are from years prior to the Enagic brand even being invented. The Enagic has only been out for 5 yrs. [since 2004] , so it’s ridiculous to think that all the 30 prior years worth of miracles didn’t happen.

The guy who started the Jupiter Co., for instance, was a multi-millionare whose health was failing. A friend introduced him to a primitive version of a water ionizer [this was about 30 yrs. ago] and within a year this man [Michael Moon] had regained his health. Now he was both rich AND HEALTHY. Guess which one he felt was better to be? That’s right! Healthy! So, people have been experiencing these miracles.

The only thing is that most of these people have not been Americans…due to the suppression of new natural health technology in America by the tycoons who profit from medicines, etc. Natural healing solutions tend to be suppressed in this country. So, the concept is very new to most people in this country.

When searching out the water ionizer you want to buy, keep alert for tricky sales techniques. On one website I was on this morning I found some pretty big untruths [AKA: Lies]. Not just one…several.

• The author stated that Life Water Ionizers had a choice of solid plates as an upgrade to their normal mesh plates. The author was very clear in saying that you had to pay extra for solid plates! Wow! Not TRUE! It’s actually the opposite: you have to pay an extra $100. for mesh plates in any Life water ionizer.
• The same author was saying that the Jupiter people made their mesh plates in large sheets, then electroplated them, then punched them and cut them. Again…Big Untruth! This guy was truly sincere sounding too! He was trying to make it seem that the Jupiter plate safety was in question. NOT TRUE AT ALL. Jupiter is the leader in electrode plate safety. The reality is that the Jupiter Co. stamps and cuts each plate first and one-by-one electroplates these mesh plates AFTER the cutting process. So every square fraction of a mm of surface area of the electrode is covered with a computer-accurate even coating. This ensures perfect plating to use for perfect water ionization. He also said the plates were made in Korea…not true…they’re made in Japan. Why he made such a deal about this was beyond me. Yikes! This author was either very sloppy in his lack of research or intentionally deceptive. Very bad show!
• The same guy, obviously an Enagic advocate (the author), was describing how awful electroplating was and how you needed to dip the plates for the best coating. The fact is …dipping the plates causes an uneven coating and is not a scientific way to coat the plates. This is why the Enagic company does not get as good pH and ORP for their ionized water, even though they have higher wattage and larger plates. They’re just not using as well-designed and engineered of a process as Jupiter.

I still sell the Enagic water ionizers, though. Don’t get me wrong…they’re great. But, so are all my other water ionizers…great!

When it comes to a choice between mesh plates and solid plates, I think that as long as your water ionizer has a great self-cleaning system, either type of plate will be good. Mesh will get a bit better pH and ORP, but usually costs more. The solid plate may last longer, but I don’t know. I know solid plates properly plated will last over 20 years…maybe over 30. However mesh plates are a newer technology. The theory (held by PHD scientists) is that the mesh plates will hold up as well as the solid plates.

Jupiter has a far better self-cleaning system, so that’s a company I tend to recommend more than Enagic. They sell both the Melody (with solid plates) and the Athena (with mesh plates). I like the Melody for the reason it ionizes really well (with great pH & ORP), cleans itself really, really well, AND it’s only $1,395.00.

I want to be able to know that my electrodes are free of scaling [calcium build-up] at all times…not just once every 6 months. That’s my bottom line.

For pH and ORP, [and more importantly: relative Hydrogen -- rH] though, the Athena outperforms all the others to date. Will the plates hold up as well as the solid plates? For that, we’ll all have to wait and see.

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