Alkaliser / Ioniser Marketplace Tips
Traps for new buyers; a summary of what you should be looking for in a water ionizer.
The marketing of water ionizer has grown with a giant leap in the last two years. The reason is simple; multilevel marketing.
It's interesting to note that when water ionizers began thirty years ago in Japan, multilevel marketing caused similar problem to those experienced in the industry today. In Japan, a special government report was commissioned to evaluate claims made by MLM marketers that seemed in excess of the water ionizer's capabilities. As is usual in the market cycle of an new product sold through MLM, the MLM's eventually folded due to their need to price their products excessively, and the companies making and selling ionizers in Japan, Taiwan and Korea today are all large operators marketing with traditional pricing.
The undisputed advantage of MLM is the market penetration it affords the seller. By persuading distributors that they can create their own business, the company's marketing cost is vastly reduced as the distributors do all the work. Unfortunately, the distributor has to sell at the inflated MLM price, and often as not, has little product knowledge compared to the professional sales, installation and support company.
The net effect is that a war soon erupts with claims, counterclaims, unfounded science and wild assumptions flooding the web and confusing the potential buyer.
This is very unfortunate because there is no doubt that the water alkalizer is perhaps the most significant health strategy to appear for many many, years. The product does not need unfounded claims and hokey selling techniques.
Another complication is the classification of the device by relevant government bodies. In the US, the FDA forbids any stories of users benefiting therapeutically from consumption of alkaline ionized water being published by any sellers. In other countries the systems come under similar restrictions.
So the only way information can be published is a site like this where no sales take place. Our mission is simple; to allow potential users to evaluate the water alkalizer/ionizer based on availabel studies, stories and facts.
Compare Ionizer Sites
A relatively new marketing strategy that has made it harder for people to make a clear educated choice is the proliferation of sites claiming to be water ionizer comparison sites. It was soon discovered that they were the pet project of the seller whose ionizers just happened to be voted best on the sites. Later, agents of sellers began the same practice.
So when looking at any of these sites or videos, make sure that you can see clearly whether a declaration of interest is clearly visible on the site.
Here's one such example of a website run by a reseller.
ORP and pH
A vigorous debate has appeared on the web between water ionizer sellers who try to prove that their ionizer is the best becasue it is able to output water with the highest pH and ORP (Oxidation. reduction Potential - an indicator of antioxidant effect). The simple truth is that we do not need high pH and ORP. We need only drink water at around pH 8 to 9.5.
This longstanding website is run by a retired canadian Chemistry professor. It rates highly on water ionizer searches because so many people are looking for what is wrong with such a product. Unfortunately, the professor's theory is fundamentally flawed.
He (correctly) claims you cannot ionize pure water -and follows on to condemn water ionizers for this seeming 'flaw'. What he does not understand is that water ionizers are not designed to ionize pure water. They actually need dissolved minerals in the source water to create an electrical polarity.
Wwe have been informed that he has been alerted to this argument flaw and even agrees with it but chooses not to alter his website.