What I Learned About Electrodes and Electrolysis Chambers

OK, this is a big topic. It will probably be modified a lot as I clarify more and more.

You know how some people in Enagic teach that 'bigger is better"? "More power" is the refrain heard in the lobby of Enagic's HQ more often than Tim the Tool Time guy ever said. If you were taught by some people, you believe that the only way to get "deep" ionization that creates "hexagonal" clusters is to use more power!

BS. Mostly. OK, partially true - there is a relationship between plate surface area and power in what I will be referring to as "old technology" which dates back to 1989. And old technology is what everyone in the water ionizer selling pool is using in one form or another.

That pool is crowded with all the different water ionizer manufacturers and marketers pointing fingers at each other, stabbing each other in the back, and shouting "My tool is bigger than your tool," and turbocharging their power delivery, surface area, number of plates and so on.

In the other pool, there's just one. It's innovative and pioneering, thinking outside of the electrolysis chamber box. It's not even a plate. It has no membranes. It has nothing to collect scale and mineral deposits. It is recyclable and affordably replaceable (all ionizer plates have to be replaced at some point ... depends on how much you use them, how much you clean them and how hard your water is.)

Here are some of the indisputable facts about electrodes in the old technology pool:

• The electrolysis chamber is made of a series of solid or mesh titanium alloy plates coated with varying degrees and purity of platinum. You will find 3, 5, 7, or 9 plate machines. In between each electrode plate is a mesh that separates the alkaline and acid water.

• Solid plates, like the ones used by Enagic, are what we call "1G" technology, or first generation. They've been around, pretty much unchanged, since 1989.

• Mesh plates are what we call "2G" technology having been introduced a couple of years ago by Jupiter and Tyent, and perhaps some other brands of ionizers. They use less precious metals because they are much thinner, and have slits cut in the plates that increase the surface area for ionization.

• The problem with mesh plates is that they just don't hold up. Brand new out of the box, the ionizers appear to work very well, but 6 months of use, especially in a hard water area, you get different results. If you have the guts to void your warranty and look inside, it will gross you out. Scale accumulation, wearing away of the platinum coating, and burning of the plates from the electricity is common.

• Another issue with mesh plates is that the platinum coating is not reaching the inside of the slits, thus exposing titanium alloy to the water. I don't know about you, but I don't want cadmium, lead, nickle or other metals in my water or in my body.

• To be fair, plate wear is also a problem for solid plate ionizers, even Enagic. Is anyone willing to open up 1 year old SD 501s and inspect the plates? Since we own three of them, we are planning to do that with a metallurgical lab manager and see what we find. We know that plates wear, the question is, how fast? And how do you know? By the time your pH or ORP results have been affected, you've been drinking titanium alloy-contaminated water for awhile.

• You can, of course, replace a worn plate or an entire electrolysis chamber. Replacing individual plates won't break the bank, and Enagic does have the benefit of being able to open up the chamber to inspect and replace plates. Others are designed to replace the entire chamber. To do that typically runs nearly $1000 for the 5-7 plate machines.

• Cleaning is also an issue. When Enagic first started marketing in the US, the rule was to clean with citric acid once or twice a year, and now and then send your machine in for deep cleaning at the US office. Now they recommend running 1-3 gallons of Beauty Water (5.5 pH where the charge to the plates is reversed) daily, cleaning twice a month, and yearly deep cleaning. All that cleaning will reduce the life of the plates. On the other hand, the totally automatic cleaning process touted by Jupiter relies on frequent charge reversal, and that, too, is known to create a lot of wear and tear on the platinum coating.

• Do you have iron in your water? Then you better have a good ion-exchange pre-filter because iron will rust and create a mess in your electrodes.

• Finally, don't mess around about changing your internal carbon filter sooner rather than later. Chlorine MUST be removed from source water before ionization because chlorine reacts with platinum and will shorten the life of the plates. If your tap water is high in chlorine, you will probably need to change your internal filter more often than recommended, or use a KDF pre-filter.

To close, we know plates lose their platinum, exposing titanium, over time. But how do you know when? You have to test your water with pH drops and an ORP meter to see any decline in performance. Do most people do that? I don't know about you, but most people I sold machines to forgot that they should run Beauty Water daily and clean the machine even once a year. And I know they didn't buy an ORP meter.

So how does "3G" technology compare? Well, you have just one electrode - a disk - and no membranes. Nothing to clog up with scale. One moving part instead of several valves and motors. And the smart technology modifies the delivery of power depending upon the TDS or hardness of the water, so less scale is created in hard water areas. Should you have to replace the electrode, that cost will be well below $300. And I've already said that it performs as well, if not better, than the SD501 from Enagic.

It's a no brainer, right? That's what we thought, and that's what a lot of other now XEs thought. Sorry, Enagic. You might have built a better mousetrap in the 90s, but technology does not stand still. The trend is always more for less.

You snooze, you lose.