The biggest enemy of a water ionizer [or any water related device is hard water.

Hard water can deposit anywhere from a whitish film to full-blown scaling and clogging, depending on your water hardness, the water ionizer model you purchase, the prefiltration you set up, the hardness reduction devices you use and the everyday care you give it.

There is a fairly simple method of cleaning your water ionizer of its scale build-up that I'm going to teach you about in this post. In high school I once did an experiment where I took a hardboiled egg and placed it in vinegar over night. I was amazed that the next day I could bounce that egg like a rubber ball. What happened was the calcium, which made the egg shell hard, was eaten away by the vinegar. Vinegar [soaked overnight] will react with the calcium clogging up your water ionizer and will loosen it up and allow you to then flush it away.

Water Ionizer Owners: How do you know it’s time to clean your water ionizer?

• If your water ionizer’s pH is dropping over time it’s time to clean.
• If your water ionizer’s flow-rate is slowing down it’s either time to change to a new filter, time to clean [vinegar wash] your water ionizer or both.
• If you see a whitish film forming around your alkaline spout [flexi-hose] it’s a sign that it’s close to time to clean.
• If it’s been a year, and/or you’re getting ready to change your filters [and you've not given your water ionizer a good cleaning yet], it could be a good time to clean it just for good measure! [Please Note: Using products such as the EOS (Elimination of Scaling) device and/or the hard water buster http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/product/HardWaterBuster may prolong or even eliminate the necessity for the cleaning that is described below.]

Why Would a Water Ionizer Need a Vinegar Wash?

• Water ionizers do a good job of cleaning themselves with their acid washes, especially the Jupiter models, with their continuous cleaning methods. So, inside the water cell your electrodes would or should be squeaky clean, but there are lots of hoses & connectors inside a water ionizer that may get clogged. Calcium is a good mineral, and you need it for ionization, but at times you can have too much calcium in your water. The problem with calcium is, because of its crystal shape — it collects, sticks & clogs. That’s what calcium does. You need calcium though, because you can’t ionize water that’s too soft.
• Even if you don’t live in a hard water area, with extra calcium in your water, you may need to do these periodic cleanings to keep your water ionizer clean inside. But, particularly if you know your water is hard, plan on doing periodic cleanings or get yourself a device or two to prevent hard water build-up. You can find out the hardness [TDS & Calcium levels in your water] by calling the number on your water bill.
  • If you’re noticing the need to do these periodic cleanings more than twice a year, you may want to consider purchasing an EOS http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/product/EOS or “hard water buster” http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/product/HardWaterBuster or just do more acid washes [push the acid water button more often].
  • If you have a programmable water ionizer, it can hopefully be programmed to your water hardness to increase the frequency of acid washes.
  • You can pro-actively increase the frequency of acid washes in a way that doesn’t waste the water with this idea: Let’s say you drink your alkaline water at 9.5 pH (or Level 3), there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t push the acid water level 3 button and get your drinking water out of the bottom hose once a day. This may be a smart thing to do if you’re finding your hard water build-up to be too frequent.
• If your TDS is way too high [over 625ppm] you may even be smart to consider hooking in a reverse-osmosis-remineralizer which would then bring your TDS down to the proper range for ionization without the over-kill of too much hardness. 
• Another possibility for handling TDS that is way-out above the “appliance kill range” is a whole house [natural-sodium-free] water filter & softener, such as the Water Dove System which I sell on my site.
• I suggest not to use a sodium exchange water softener, because it’s unhealthy for you [too much sodium], sodium is not good for the water ionizer [tends to corrode], and it’s bad for the environment [where does all that salt-water go?] However I was in Lowes the other day and noticed they have come out with sodium reduced water softeners. So that may be a way to go. Then if it was me, I’d get rid of that little bit of extra sodium with an Omni-Pur sodium reduction cartridge http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/product/Sodium-Reducer .

It’s up to you to take care of your water ionizer and keep it safe and protected against scaling.

How to do a Vinegar Wash

What you will need:

• You should save your old used-up filters in the refrigerator in a plastic zip-lock bag to put into your filter port during your vinegar washes. This procedure will ruin your filter for anything but another vinegar wash. Or if you have a Chanson water ionizer, just remove the filter from its container and close it back up again and you’ll be good to go.
• 1 bottle white vinegar.
• Tape [masking or duct]
• funnel

Beginning Your Water Ionizers Vinegar Wash:

1. Unplug the water ionizer.
2. Place water ionizer on its back or side [on a folded towel -- for a cushion]
3. Take the acid hose and raise it to a position higher than the water ionizer. Tape it there, temporarily for the Wash.
4. Make sure your water ionizer has the old [used up] and drained filters in it.
5. Remove the calcium basket and tighten back on the lid. 
6. Curve the flex-spout upwards and using a funnel pour vinegar down the spout [or hose], either one, until it starts pouring out the other [spout or hose]. [If spout is clogged, remove it and let it sit immersed in vinegar for a few hours before you get to this step.
7. Let sit overnight.
8. Using the flex-spout as a straw, blow into it and suck [suction it] to agitate the vinegar inside the ionizer. Try not to spill too much vinegar out the hose. 
9. Over the course of several hours or a day, keep the ionizer in this position and do the agitation described in step 8 as frequently as you can.
10. When you think you’ve done enough, return the water ionizer to its normal position.
11. Run water through the ionizer, and if it’s not clogged anymore test the pH at the highest level [both acid and alkaline]. If all looks good, you’re done.
12. Repeat process [steps 1-11] if the ionizer is still clogged or if the pH ranges are not satisfactory yet.

[Note: If you have a very clogged water ionizer...don't worry if it is very slow-flowing or a trickle at first. The calcium build-up will eventually dissolve with this technique. I have nursed an almost unworking water ionizer back to like-new using this technique over a 3-day period.]

Also Note:

The steps outlined in this blog are steps you can use with any water ionizer to clean it. However, some water ionizer companies have their own cleaning cartridge they sell you to clean your water ionizer annually or semi-annually [as needed]. If this is the case, I would suggest to do the periodic cleaning according to your water ionizer manufacturer’s instructions. If you’re not sure if your water ionizer company has a cleaning cartridge or not, call 1-888-MY-ALKALINE [Cathie] and I’ll let you know.

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!  Even though Christmas is over, give yourself and your family the gift of health this year! And…  

Have a safe and happy winter!

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The Tyent and Enagic water ionizers’ flow control issues can be a problem, but they’re not so hard to solve.

Several water ionizers have flow-control issues [e.g., Tyent, Jupiter Orion, KYK Generation II, & Genesis Platinum], but the Tyent and Enagic are being featured in this article. The PH and ORP of your ionized water are obviously important to you when you are drinking that ionized water. For several reasons it is very desirable to be able to fine-tune the water flow rate of your water ionizer. Why?

• Some water ionizers will not give you desirable water flow rates if hooked directly to your plumbing, so they are typically thought to only be able to hook to a faucet with a diverter. The KYK and Enagic are good examples of this. If you hooked either of these directly to your plumbing the flow rate on the KYK would be 3 liters/min [which isn't so bad, but you wouldn't be able to get the better pH/ORP ranges that the KYK is known for.] The Enagic would come out at 6-8 liters/min. and your results would be much reduced from the Enagic’s capabilities.
• New water ionizer owners want to gradually build up to higher levels of pH and ORP. An ability to finely control your water flow rate will help you to do that.
• It’s nice to be able to just turn on the faucet and get your ionized water without thinking about the water flow rate, because you have already pre-set the flow rate. Using a simple device you can do that. The few seconds this saves you every time you pour your ionized water will add up to minutes and hours over time.
• If you compare two water ionizers side-by-side, it is essential and crucial to the results to get those flow rates exactly the same.

When a water ionizer doesn’t come with a flow control knob, then most people think their only option is to rely on the faucet to control their water flow. Not so. Watch the following two videos to see what the use of a simple “Quick-Connect” water flow-rate valve can do for your water ionizer’s pH and ORP performance.

This intro video shows two kinds of Quick-Connect water flow rate valves.

The following videos show the pH and ORP of the Tyent Turbo and the Enagic ionized water at slow, medium and fast flow rates.

This chart shows Enagic and Tyent water ionizers’ performance at Level 3 [Kangen Water 9.5] at varying flow rates:

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A water technician pointed out to me the other day that if you’re going on vacation or not going to use your water ionizer for more than a few days, you should take proper precautions to prevent bacteria from growing in the unused filters. It’s a very simple thing to do.

1. Remove your water ionizer filters and let them drain in the sink drain for an hour or two.
2. Put them in a plastic bag and then into the refrigerator for storage.
3. Do this with any prefilters you are using as well.

Another thing you could do, if you don’t like this idea for some reason, is to get a neighbor or friend to come over every day or two to your home and pour a gallon or two of ionized water [of course they should hopefully drink this ionized water rather than just pour it down the drain]. This way the filters are provided with clean fresh water every day or two and the water won’t go stale.

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Not all water ionizer filters are alike!

Before you buy your water ionizer, you might want to see how its filter-changing steps are, compared with the other water ionizers. I’ve provided you with a water ionizer filter comparison video followed by some commentaries below.

This video shows how to remove and replace…

filters from the Tyent, KYK and Jupiter water ionizers.

Some Water Ionizer Filter Insights:

• The easiest filter to replace was the Jupiter. You just pop it in and out.
• The next easy one down would be the Tyent. You just unscrew/screw it. Although it takes a little coordination to get it started.
• I didn’t show the Chanson in this video, but I did in an earlier blog post. It’s very similar to the Tyent in that it screws/unscrews.
• The KYK is the most complicated. You need to carefully remove the computer chip from the top of the filter. Be careful, because the entire operation of the KYK will go awry if the filter chip isn’t reading correctly. You’ll just get an error message until you fix the problem.
  • Once the chip is out, turn the kyk 1/4 turn and then wiggle and pull till it’s out.
  • But watch out for the water. The filter is in upside-down and so water pours out as you are removing the filter. It would help to do this in or over the sink.

Water Ionizer Filters: There are Other Differences

I’ve included links to the information pages for each of the water ionizers’ above filter pages. There are differences in cost and in what the filters will filter out.

• Athena Water Ionizer: The first filter [on the left] is usually a sediment filter: the Athena #1 Sediment Filter [49.95], and the right filter is either the Biostone .01 [89.] filter or the Biostone Plus [79.]. If you have a municipal water company supply and treat your water, then choose the Biostone Plus. If you use well-water, use the Biostone .01. I’ve seen people use two Biostone Plus filters. This would be for those people doubly concerned with chloramine and fluoride in their water. The Biostone Plus is the only filter to my knowledge that is specifically designed to filter out chloramine*. So this is definitely a “PLUS” for that filter!

*[Chlorine is an unstable element and because of that is very easy to filter out of water -- it bonds with the carbon in the cheap carbon-block filters and out it goes. Chloramine, on the other hand, is a stable compound of chlorine plus amonia (yuck!), and because of its stability it is difficult to filter out and special filter media must be used to get rid of it. Chloramine is a fairly recent compound being used by water treatment companies, and because it's far cheaper to use than chlorine...most municipalities these days are using it. Call the number on your water bill and ask them if they treat your water with chlorine...or look it up online by typing "water quality report" and your city/state [most municipalities post their water quality reports online now).]

• KYK Water Ionizer: The KYK filter set costs $129.50 and filters out fluoride, heavy metals, chlorine, and more.
• Tyent Water Ionizer: The Tyent filter set costs $85.00 and filters out chlorine, heavy metals and more.

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Water Ionizer Owners: How do you know it’s time to clean your water ionizer?

• If your water ionizer’s pH is dropping over time it’s time to clean.
• If your water ionizer’s flow-rate is slowing down it’s time to clean.
• If you see a whitish film forming around your alkaline spout [flexi-hose] it’s time to clean.
• If it’s been a year, and/or you’re getting ready to change your filters [and you've not given your water ionizer a good cleaning yet], it could be the best time to clean! [Please Note: Using the EOS (Elimination of Scaling) device may prolong or even eliminate the necessity for the cleaning that is described below.]

Why Would a Water Ionizer Need a Vinegar Wash?

• Water ionizers do a good job of cleaning themselves, with their acid washes or in the case of Jupiter, alternating polarity inside the water cell, your electrodes will be squeaky clean, but there are lots of hoses & connectors inside a water ionizer that may get clogged. Even if you’re using RO [reverse osmosis] remineralized water to ionize with, you still have calcium in your source water and a concentration of calcium coming out of your alkaline spout. Calcium is a crystalline mineral and because of its crystal shape — it collects, sticks & clogs. That’s what calcium does. You need calcium though, because you can’t ionize water that’s too soft.
  • Basically the minimum amount of TDS [total dissolved solids] to ionize well is 100 ppm [parts per million]. So even with soft or non-hard water, when you have a water ionizer a little periodic washing [maybe annually] may be needed from time to time.
• If you live in a hard water area [over 320 ppm of TDS or over 19 grains], with extra calcium in your water, you may need to do these periodic cleanings even more often [perhaps monthly] to keep your water ionizer clean inside. You can find out the hardness [TDS & Calcium levels in your water] by calling the number on your water bill.
  • If you’re noticing the need to do these periodic cleanings more than twice a year, you may want to consider purchasing an EOS or “scale-block prefilter” or just do more acid washes [push the acid water button more often].
  • If you have the Chanson model, it can be programmed to your water hardness and set to a customized frequency of acid washes.
    • Let’s say you drink your alkaline water at 9.5 pH (or Level 3), there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t push the acid water level 3 button and get your drinking water out of the bottom hose once a day. This may be a smart thing to do if you’re finding your hard water build-up to be too frequent.
• If your TDS is way too high [over 625ppm] you may even be smart to consider hooking in a reverse-osmosis-remineralizer which would then bring your TDS down to the proper range for ionization without the over-kill. 
• Another possibility for handling TDS that is way-out above the “appliance kill range” is a whole house [natural-sodium-free] water filter & softener, such as the Dove System which I sell on my site. Never use a sodium exchange water softener.
  • It’s unhealthy for you [too much sodium]
  • It’s not good for the water ionizer [tends to corrode]
  • It gets concentrated in your alkaline drinking water [so it's double unhealthy when ionized]
  • It’s bad for the environment [where does all that salt-water go?]

It’s up to you to take care of your water ionizer and keep it safe and protected against scaling. The rest of this post is explaining a basic procedure that can help de-scale a clogged up water ionizer or just help any water ionizer by giving it the periodic cleaning that it wants:

Here is the Vinegar Wash Procedure:

A vinegar wash is probably the cheapest and most effective type of special cleaning you can do. Here are the steps: [Note: I have not personally used this technique, because I've not had any of the symptoms saying I need to do it. These steps have been supplied by a water ionizer technician, and I believe they should work. When it's time for me to change my filters in my Athena water ionzier, I'll do a video of it and re-post this blog with the video-demo at that time.]

What you will need:

• You should save your old used-up filters in the refrigerator in a plastic zip-lock bag to use for your vinegar washes. This procedure will ruin your filter for anything but another vinegar wash.
• 1 gallon white vinegar.

Begining Your Water Ionizers Vinegar Wash:

1. Take the acid hose and raise it to a position where the water won’t run out. Tape it there, temporarily for the Wash.
2. Make sure your water ionizer has the old [used up] and drained filters in it.
   • If these have been used recently, make sure they’ve been drained. [Take them out and drain them for 2 hours in a dish drain (standing upright). then replace them.]
3. Open the calcium port [if there is one] and if it’s full of water — empty it. Remove the calcium basket. Then fill the chamber with vinegar. Replace lid.
4. Curve the spout upwards and pour vinegar down the spout until full. [If spout is clogged, remove it and let it sit immersed in vinegar for a few hours before you get to this step.
5. Let sit overnight or until unclogged/cleaned inside out.
6. Lower the acid hose to the normal position.
7. Run water through the ionizer.
8. Repeat process if the ionizer is still clogged.

[Note: If you have a very clogged water ionizer...don't worry if it is very slow-flowing or a trickle at first. The calcium build-up will eventually dissolve with this technique.]

Rinsing the Water Ionizer:

Some water ionizer companies have their own cleaning cartridge they sell you to clean your water ionizer annually or semi-annually [as needed]. If this is the case, I would suggest to do the periodic cleaning according to your water ionizer’s manufacturer, however the steps outlined in this blog are steps you can use with any water ionizer to clean it. If you’re not sure if your water ionizer company has a cleaning cartridge or not, call 1-888-MY-ALKALINE [Cathie] and I’ll let you know.

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Water Ionizer owners look at this!

This Water Ionizer easy-to-do trick is something that you can use if you live in a hard water area…to keep your water ionizer squeaky clean. Or even if you don’t live in a hard water area, but your water ionizer seems to need periodic cleanings. This trick can help you not need those cleanings so often [or ever!] No matter what brand of water ionizer you use, even the best self-cleaning brand [such as the Athena Water Ionizers], may have problems [of your water ionizer clogging up with scale] in hard water areas. This trick can save you time and money…and help you understand the workings of your water ionizer better. Here’s the video:

The Water Ionizer trick shown in the above video could save you time and money…and all without wasting any of your great, filtered, ionized water. Here’s a re-cap of the steps shown in the video [just in case you're unable to see the video for some reason.]:

• About once a day do this:
  • Reverse the polls [by choosing an acid setting] of your water ionizer to get your alkaline [drinking level] water from the bottom hose. [the first time you do this use the pH drops to ensure you're getting the right drinking level of water from the bottom hose.
  • Collect your acid water [if desired] from the top spout at the same time.
• Doing this once a day will give your water ionizer extra cleaning without wasting the filtered ionized water or wasting any of your time.
• If you live in a really hard water area, you may see that doing this twice a day is needed.
• If you use your water ionizer a LOT, you may want to do this more than once a day.

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A lot of people love having their water ionizer right there on the counter-top, but don’t like the hoses showingl. The G2 Faucet has a luxurious look to it, and for only $120.00 you can have this on your sink.

The G2 Faucet works as a hose attachment port. Instead of hoses going here, there and everywhere, you simply attach your two [water input and acid water output] hoses to the back of the G2 Faucet. Then you can turn on your water supply to your water ionizer right there at that faucet. Also, the acid water from your water ionizer dispenses from the spout of the G2 Faucet.

The G2 Faucet is attractive, easy to use and inexpensive! It can be used with any countertop water ionizer. The G2 Faucet can be used with Life, Enagic, Jupiter, Chanson, Tyent, and KYK water ionizers, and it makes a very luxurious addition to your water ionizer set-up.

Here are some videos showing the G2 Faucet:

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Why Would You do anything else With a Water Ionizer other than Ionize Your Water?

One popular thing is to use a prefilter with a water ionizer. This is needed if you live in an area that has either very hard or very soft water. With very hard water there are things you can get which help extend the life of your water ionizer. One such thing is a scale-block prefilter that can remove some of the hard water elements from your water prior to it entering and potentially damaging your water ionizer. There are two other products that I recommend even more than the scale-block prefilter now [because they're cheaper and last longer]. These devices can really help with hard water problems, they’re all natural, and they don’t add anything to your water. They are: the Ionizer Armor, and the EOS Anti-Scaling Device. With very soft water or RO (reverse osmosis) what I recommend is called a remineralizer cartridge [which adds only natural, organic, plant-source calcite & coral calcium, with 70+ organic plant-source trace minerals]. The Remineralizer Kit comes with an ordinary prefilter housing.

I’ve devised the following chart for you to look at if you are uncertain of exactly what, when and why you would add any extra prefilters or gadgets into your line before your water ionizer. Since water ionizers are so expensive, this is of great interest [or should be] to people everywhere who own a water ionizer. Here’s the chart:

 Hope this helps!

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Some water ionizers, like the Melody and Venus water ionizers and the Athena water ionizer can be installed under your sink with an undersink kit. The Water Ionizer Under Sink Kit comes with instructions and a diagram, but still and all some people will benefit from this video demonstration.  Here’s the video:

Here is the diagram that is referred to in the video:

Which Water Ionizers can be Hooked into an Undersink Kit?

Some countertop water ionizers turn on and off by water pressure. If water is pushed through the water ionizer it turns on, otherwise they go to “sleep”. The Venus, Melody and Athena water ionizers are like this. Though those water ionizers are made for countertop use, they are perfectly able to be converted.

The Genesis and Tyent can’t be converted with an undersink kit, because to pour water out of them you need to first turn them on, then push a button on the water ionizer itself. This won’t work well with undersink installation. They can both be hooked into your main cold water line, though, so you can have extra freedom and attractiveness around your sink and faucet area.

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What are water ionizer prefilters, how do you use them, and why would you use a water ionizer prefilter?

In this video I explain and demonstrate the water ionizer prefilter. Water ionizer prefilters can be found on my Other Products page. Most people don’t realize that water ionizer prefilters can be benefitial to your health, and your water ionizer’s health. This demonstration shows you an up-close look at a single housing with a prefilter inside. Here’s the video:

Water ionizer prefilters are beneficial to health, because they can filter out specific toxins you are concerned about in your source water. One particular element in most US municipal source water is fluoride. You can learn about fluoride and its harmful health effects in my blog posts about fluoride. Many professional water experts recommend the H3 Triple Housing Filter Set for city water with fluoride.

Well water users can benefit from specific prefilters sometimes if their well has some toxic element in it. An example may be arsenic or lead. While your regular water ionizer filter gets most of the bad stuff out of your water, it may not get all. Most water ionizer filters don’t get all the arsenic out. Therefore, if you have arsenic in your source water in significant amounts, you can benefit your health by choosing a specific prefilter to plug into your water input line which will get the arsenic out. The easiest way I know to test your well water to find out if there are any toxic elements in it is to get my Comprehensive Well Water Test Kit for $25. and find out instantly how much of each toxin you have and how this compares with the maximum amount of that substance allowed by the EPA.

Another popular reason to use a prefilter with your water ionizer is if you live in an area that has either very hard or very soft water. With very hard water there are scale-block prefilters that can remove some of the hard water elements from your water prior to it entering and potentially damaging your water ionizer. [Please note there are two other products that can help with hard water, the Ionizer Armor, and the EOS Anti-Scaling Device.] With very soft water or RO (reverse osmosis) there are remineralizer cartridges [containing calcite, coral calcium and 70+ organic trace minerals] that can be placed in your prefilter housing.

One more reason some people use prefilters is to save the life of their water ionizer filter. You can get a very inexpensive carbon block prefilter, which will get a lot of the junk out of your water prior to even entering your water ionizer. This will put less wear and tear on your Biostone or other more expensive main water ionizer filter…and allow you to use it for up to 50% more than without using prefilter(s).

Most prefilters last a very long time, usually 1500 gallons or more, and cost very little. So, prefiltering is often not just a healthy choice, but also an economical choice.

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