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How To Clean & Care for Your Water Ionizer
Basics of Water Ionizer Use:
This post includes directions for your water ionizer use, health tips & beauty tips. It provides you a proper indoctrination in the many applications for purified water.
Water Ionizer Set-Up Tips:
Most water ionizers are quite easy to install. However, we have posted some information in this post to make your installation easier.
Fast-Connect Fittings:
Many water ionizers use “quick connect fittings,” and even include a plug in the water-inlet ports quick-connect fitting. This plug has to be unplugged as one of the first steps in setup. It is somewhat complicated, so here is some explanation for this.
- Pull back on the small movable ring [from the hole of the quick-connect fitting]
- Using your other hand (or another person) pull the hose out [or in this case, the plug].
Adding a Hose to a Quick-Connect Pairing
- Ensure the hose has a fine, 90-degree, straight cut.
- Put the tube into the quick-connect as far as you believe it can go.
- Then pull the hose to make sure it will not pull right out
- Lastly, push once more until you’re sure it’s well seated into the fitting. Leaking in the quick-connect fitting is quite uncommon and is usually because the tube was not seated well enough.
External Flow-Control and Shut-Off
Having an outside shut-off to your system is very easy to use, and it is comfortable with the John Guest Shut Off. Some shut-offs also work as a flow-control knob. In this post, we have described a few reasons why you might want this piece.
- If you would like to eliminate the water ionizer and take it with you on holiday, but you do not need to mess with the hard-plumbed installation bits or the diverter.
- If you want a backup system for your water ionizer’s flow-valve or merely to give it a rest (make it last longer),
- If your water ionizer does not have a flow valve on it, but you need one.
Using Ionized Water
Your new ionizer produces three types of water:
- Of course, the primary use of your water ionizer is to create alkaline water (many alkalinity levels from 7.5 to 11 PH). Alkaline water is harder than any other kind of water to collect in such a way as to maintain the pH/ORP qualities. Therefore we have created an entire page to show you precisely how to store alkaline ionized water.
- Another water ionizer usage is for filtered water (not ionized, usually neutral pH (it’ll have the same pH as your source water). For infants and toddlers, it’s ideal to use filtered water that’s neither acidic nor alkaline. PH ranges 7-8. Also, when you’re on medication filtered water is best.
- The production of acid water is another known water ionizer usage. If you place your ionizer on and set acidic level, alkaline ionized water will come out from the bottom hose. However, acid water comes from the bottom hose or spout when you’re pouring soluble ionized water. Acidic water stores very well. You may keep it in an open container, bathtub, etc. and it will keep the exact acidity level as when you poured it.
Rules For Drinking & Using Alkaline Ionized Water:
- Drinking: Within pH range 8.5-9.5, alkaline ionized water is the best drinking water. It is beneficial to maintain the acidity of the body by reducing and slightly alkalize it. Alkalizing the body helps to prevent from infections, cancer and other germs to the naturally healthy condition of the body. Ionized water also helps in removal of toxins from the body safely. Along with the health-benefits of alkalizing your body, the contrary ORP [oxidation reduction potential] of alkaline ionized water will supply the body with a lot of easily occupied antioxidants. Anti-oxidants are essential to be able to stop free-radical damage that would otherwise be due to oxidation in the body. Instructions: Start drinking at about an 8.5 pH and gradually work your way up to 9.5 pH. For best results, do not rush it.
- Vitamins: Don’t hesitate to drink whatever degree of ionized water when you are getting your vitamins. Ionized alkaline, micro-clustered water can help out with the very best and quickest absorption of vitamins into the human body.
- Illness: If you are new to ionized water and become sick, lower your level of pH until you’re feeling back to normal. Drink additional water at the reduced level, however, to help flush anything it’s from your system. If you get ill when you’re a veteran [of at least a few months] at drinking ionized water, and you have not recently changed anything concerning the pH level of your ionized water, you should drink more ionized water at the level that you’ve become comfortable drinking. This will help flush whatever it’s out of your system faster.
- Cleaning Things: A remarkable everyday water ionizer use would be to wash grease or oils with it. For this, the high alkaline such as 10.5 – 11.5 pH is used, and this high levels ionized water will emulsify oils. Lots of people will soak their non-organic vegetables in this high alkaline water because soaking in it is going to help to naturally get rid of the oily pesticides from the outer coating of the vegetable. Additionally, there is another fantastic use of high alkaline water is as a stain remover. Many people claim that they had success with entirely removing blue-berry blot, chocolate, blood, peanut butter, pet stains and other stains from clothes, carpets, tile-grout, and furniture through the years.
Here are some more suggestions for utilizing the highly alkaline for cleaning:
You can pour a bowl of this high alkaline and another one of acidic water… for cleaning fine washables [like stockings, silk skirt, etc.]. If you do this, we suggest letting it soak for seven minutes in the highly alkaline, then move and wring-out the clothes. Continue with a soak in the low acid water, and this will function as a germicidal softener [eliminating any remaining alkaline minerals] and make it fresh.You can drain 2 – 4 gallons of high alkaline water in with your laundry, not have to use detergent. You can use high alkaline for cleaning oily areas, like floors, countertops, and stoves.
When to Use Filtered Water
- Medicines: Neutral 7.0 – 8.0 pH filtered water is ideal for taking medications. For 20-30 minutes before and after taking drugs, it is suggested just to drink filtered water. The compound make-up of medicines and the estimated rate of absorption into the body can be changed by drinking micro-clustered, ionized water together. Rather than have a possibility of messing up your doctor’s plans, it is far better just to take the safe route explained here.
- Infants & Toddlers: Water ionizer use with babies and toddlers isn’t recommended, aside from using the filtered water system. A neutral pH is ideal for babies. Give infants and toddlers “filtered” water, not ionized, till they’re about 2 years old. After that, you can gradually introduce them to ionized water [i.e., over another 2 – 3 years use level 1, and then do the exact same for level two, etc.]. At the age of about 9 or 10 years, a child can consume the same amount as an adult.
The Programs for Acidic Water [Beauty Water] [Acid Water]
- Hair and skin: Acidic water in the 3 – 4 pH-level are ideal for neutralizing the hair and skin [which should be approximately 5.5 pH, but due to alkaline shampoos and soaps you use, skin and hair follicles are usually found to be way off-balanced].
- Skin Toner and Conditioner: The acid mantle [surface] of your skin is the body’s first line of defense against bacterial, viral or fungal infections. Maintaining this acid mantle at about a 5.5 pH is necessary. But due to the nature of soaps [soaps are usually a high alkaline pH to be able to emulsify and flush oils away], the acid mantle is generally left at too high of a pH after showering or bathing. The effects of this are a breakdown of the acid mantle, hardness brought on by a cluster of alkaline minerals left on the skin and drying out of the skin. Rinsing with acidic water will help to eliminate the remaining alkaline minerals and restore skin to its ideal 5.5 pH level.
- Hair Rinse: Shampoo often contains high alkaline pH. A high pH solution when applied to your hair, it will open up the hair cuticles [the cuticle is the uppermost hair-layer surrounding each hair shaft], and expose it to getting damaged and dry. It’s most advantageous to the beauty and health of your hair to close hair cuticle. The hair cuticle opens with a high pH and closes with a low pH. When you wash with water at a pH of around 3.0 to 4.0, this low pH water mixed up with the high pH of your freshly washed hair and restores it to its ideal pH of approximately 5.5. Beauty Secret: Hair which has tightly closed cuticles possesses a smoothed, shiny, silky look to it and does not split at the ends.
- Natural Healthy Coolant: Acidic water can be poured in a spray bottle and brought with you to sports or other outdoor events in warm weather. When you put your bottle to mist, this comes with an air effect of cooling your body. It’s good for you to use acid water at about a 5.5 pH on your mister, instead of regular tap water, since the objective of misting would be to cool yourself, not alter the pH of your skin. The correct pH of the skin is 5.5 pH.
- Organic Laundry Softener: Add acid water to your final rinse cycle of any load of laundry. This eliminates extra alkaline minerals from the clothes, brightens up the colors, and softens the laundry naturally, without using chemicals.
- Plants: Alkaline water with having a pH level of 5 – 7 pH is fantastic for watering plants. Plants just love the filtered micro-clustered water, and they also like the water to be somewhat acidic. Flowering plants have a tendency to enjoy lower acidity than green shade-plants.
- Germicidal Water: For killing germs, it’s ideal to use acid water in the pH level of 2.5 – 4. The lower the pH, the quicker the bacteria are killed, but even in a 4 pH, if you soak anything for about a minute, it’ll kill the germs on it. Laboratory testing has shown that exposure to acidic water on a 2.5 pH and reduced kills germs on contact.
Benefits of Drinking Alkaline Ionized Water
- Taste: Many people think that alkaline ionized water has a better flavor than bottled or tap water.
- Filtration: Water ionizers filter toxins and chemicals from water.
- Quicker Absorption: Water ionization splits large water clusters in half, making them smaller and easily absorbable by the human body. So, the water you consume will hydrate your cells much better than any other water may do.
- Detoxifying: Drinking ionized water can help alkalize your body. It increases the pH of your drinking water to reduce the consequences of the acidic state of your body. For many people, many toxic acidic wastes sit in the cells for extended periods or indefinitely to be removed. Ionized water can detoxify your body at the cellular level.
- Reverse Aging: As it helps your cells eliminate the toxins, combats free-radical harm and prevents infections, your cells are allowed to work correctly again way into your senior years. It does not stop aging entirely, but it certainly slows down it and helps to create the aging process a healthier, more energetic experience.
- Preventing and Reversing Disease: Research indicates that diseases thrive in an acid environment. The contemporary fast-food diets we consume, sodas we drink, and stressful lifestyles we live only make that acid environment within our own bodies worse over time. To fight this, consuming alkaline water helps to reduce this acidity and neutralize our bodies, letting our cells to be cleansed.
- Organic Fast-Absorbing Antioxidant Water: Converts water’s ORP (oxygen reduction potential), and hence it acts as an antioxidant.
- Burning Fat: Helps the fat-cell clusters of waste storage to be released eventually. Ionized water, alone, won’t make you skinny, but if that is what you are trying to get it done will help you.
- Heart Health: Ionized water, with its readily available antioxidants, improves the veins and arteries remain healthy and keep their ability to slough off cholesterol.
- Bowels: Helps the bowels become cleansed and hydrated. Many ailments stem from intestines and dysfunctional bowels. Hence the cleansing effect of the ionized water onto the organs is a huge benefit to your overall health.
Introductory Directions for Consuming Ionized Water:
- Begin with the lowest reading for alkalinity. Drink this at least for three or more days. Your body goes into what is called a detoxification-phase (detox) since it’s plenty of acidic wastes (toxic) that are now able to discharge from your cells. If you choose it kind of slow at first, you will feel less discomfort because of this detoxification procedure. Some signs of detoxification are headaches, increased desire, pimples, cold or allergy symptoms, aching in the lower back (kidney) areas and much more. Some people never observe specific detox symptoms.
- If you do not feel any adverse effects after 3 days, then move up to the next high level of alkalinity. With kids make every change in pH for months or years [depending on age], and watch them get any responses at all.
- If you had symptoms, but they are now subsided, and it has been some time, move up to another level.
- There is no need to rush. As soon as you reach about the 3rd degree, stop moving up. That is the usual “drinking-level” for alkaline ionized water. However, if you would need to attempt a higher level, that ‘right. If you want the flavor, and you do not feel any adverse effects from it after about 3 days, then it is most likely the perfect level for you.
Flow-Rate is Important:
It’s important to focus on flow-rate when you are pouring your ionized water. Too low flow-rate can get the system to overheat or power-off as you’re streaming. Too fast of a flow-rate may lower your pH & ORP and hence decrease the benefits; put excess pressure into and through the system, and decrease the number of contaminants which the filters can remove. Filters always work best with about 1.5 to 2 liters per minute flow-rate. See if your machine has a display which shows you the best flow-rate and listens to it, or figure out it (i.e., it should take 15 minutes to fill an 8 oz. cup optimally.)
Warnings:
- You should recognize your body for symptoms [pains, allergies, bowel, itching, urinary irregularities, rash, etc.] and instantly lower your degree of ionization for at least a couple of days [or indefinitely] until you can move up to this level without those signs. Your body is most likely detoxing too fast and these toxins will re-infect if you release them too quickly.
- Children shouldn’t drink as high of a level as adults. Their bodies are alkaline. Give them their water in the lower levels till the age of 8-10 years unless they are already displaying allergy symptoms (in which case their bodies aren’t as alkaline as they ought to be). However, there may be other causes of allergy symptoms, so if you ever boost your child’s alkaline degree over 8.5 pH, you must watch their physical reactions and plan to adjust their pH levels so.
Caution: We Do Not Recommend Commercial Use of Water Ionizers
Most water ionizers are built with keeping residential usage in mind. If you are pouring more than a gallon of water at one time, it could over-work a machine. Surely more than 10 gallons daily would be considered excessive usage. If you want to pour more than 1 gallon at a time, we recommend you wait 10 or 20 minutes between pouring, to provide the machine an opportunity to cool off. In case you’ve got a public corporation with many gallons being poured in time regularly, we suggest that you buy either several machines or a commercial water ionizer.
Caution: We Do Not Recommend Excessive Use of this Strongest Power-Level of Any Water Ionizer
Most water ionizers have different power-levels. For Example, Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. Sometimes they’re called by other names, such as 9 and 9.5, but this could be just another way of just naming a power-level for the machine. However it is named, we don’t recommend using the hardest power-level too much. Over-use of the most powerful level of a water ionizer can untimely damage the machine, so we don’t suggest it.
How Much Water You Need To Drink Per Day?
You must drink a minimum of 1 ounce of ionized water half times the weight of your body. That would mean, if you weighed 150 pounds, you would drink 70 ounces every day (8 or 9 cups) of ionized water or longer. However, it’s even better if you’re able to consume nearer to a gallon of ionized water every day for optimal results.
Questions and Answers
Question: How do you set a Water Ionizer for the pH level you desire?
Answer: There are different levels of alkaline spanning from around 7.5 to about 11.5. You may raise alkalinity some by slowing down the water flow at any level or increasing the level selected. Then once you move up to another level, you can use a faster flow at first then slowing it down for greater alkalinity. Each water source differs, so it is difficult to let you know what pH you’re going to receive at any level without testing it. There’s a pH test kit that every ionizer includes. You can use this kit to test the ionized water at different levels till you have the notion of what to expect at different concentrations at different water flow-rates. We recommend monthly testing to ensure that your ionizer is performing correctly.
Question: Should I buy a portable unit to start – to see if it helps?
Answer: We advise purchasing a standard water ionizer because the ORP will be a lot better than a portable one, but I do not think it is a bad approach at all to buy a portable one like the Well Blue pitcher, that is the best portable water ionizers. A portable ionizer won’t provide the benefits as a standard water ionizer, but the Blue Well comes closest.
Question: How much alkaline water should you drink?
Answer: Drink as much as possible. Thirst isn’t always the best evaluation of whether you require water. With the passing age, it is difficult to judge your own hydration requirements correctly. They believe that they’re not thirsty hungry, so they do not drink. It’s easy to stay dehydrated and forget to drink water. The best test would be… if you had some congestion, sinus problems, headache, or constipation whatsoever *** it is time to drink more water! If all you can drink in the beginning is a quart a day, then do this. However, try to go up to a minimum of 1/2 ounces for each pound of body weight as a general rule. Then drink more if possible, little-by-little, daily until you feel great in every way.
Question: How much time does the body become accustomed to a change to higher pH water?
Answer: Everyone is different, so it is essential for people to learn how to observe how your body is doing. When it’s doing well, you must move up a level. Some people do this quickly [every few days] and a few slow.
Question: How can you watch for symptoms as you raise your pH?
Answer: The symptoms could be pains, migraines, rashes, congestion, constipation, diarrhea, colds. When you raise the alkaline of your body, you allow toxins to discharge from your cells and flow through the bloodstream. Toxins are best released gradually. Also, the many organs in your body require different pH levels. As an example, your skin needs acidic [around 5.5 – 6.5] along with your kidneys/urinary tract requires a slightly acidic pH also. Your body’s alkalinity is only going to increase so much before your acid-loving organs oppose the changes. It’s a slow process to alkalize your body, so do not make hurry.
Question: What happens when you boil ionized water?
Answer: Water loses its alkalinity when you boil it and may actually turn acidic. Additionally, its ORP also gets lost. Also warming the water to under boiling point does some of this. That is has been said, the clinics in both Japan and Korea use alkaline ionized water in cooking for pregnant women, individuals with diabetes and other disorders. They’ve noticed a difference with this water for cooking, even though it loses lots of its properties.
Question: What happens when you freeze ionized water?
Answer: If you freeze ionized water you cannot measure the pH and ORP until it’s melted. At the point it is thawed enough to check the pH and ORP it’s lost a whole lot of the pH and ORP [but not all]. What we do in our home is pouring the ionized water in ice-cube trays and then put the cubes from the ionized water if we need it cold.
Question: What will happen if you put acidic liquids/mixes like lime, lemon or Kool-Aid into ionized water?
Answer: Ionized water will become neutral or even acidic if you add taste benefits to it, nevertheless lemon is assumed to have an “alkaline ash” [which means the byproduct of digestion]. Therefore we suggest drinking ionized water only, but of the beverage mixes listed above, the one we recommend for people is a mild natural lemon-aid or green-tea [undated], and if sweetened then use something organic, like Stevia. Adding alcohol to ionized water does not change the pH or ORP of it.
Question: Which container is ideal for storing ionized water?
Answer: It is best to use tiny containers [about 24 oz or less] instead of huge gallon-sized ones. Using containers full of water and no air-gap is ideal. This way you will have the advantages of nearly the same pH and ORP as you had when your ionized water was poured.
Question: Are white small particles or a white film on the inside of glass normal?
Answer: Yes, it is. Ionization will split some of the dissolved calcium that is in your water. When it is un-dissolved, it appears as deposit and will sink to the bottom of the glass or adhere to the sides of the bottle or glass with time. It’s harmless calcium carbonate; the amount of calcium in your water doesn’t replace the need for calcium supplementation, because the amount is truly insignificant.
Ed is a water specialist in Tampa, FL. He built CleanerSofterWater.com to help his friends and family learn about DIY solutions to common water quality issues in the home.
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About the Author Ed Carmichael
Ed is a water specialist in Tampa, FL. He built CleanerSofterWater.com to help his friends and family learn about DIY solutions to common water quality issues in the home.
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