Massive 900cm2 electrolysis cell is double the size of most domestic ionisers, enabling the unit to ionise more strongly, at higher flow rates and for longer. This leading feature alone puts the HydroTech ahead of every other machine on the market.

You will struggle to find out the surface area of other ioniser electrodes - they normally just state the number of electrodes, but what does it matter how many electrodes there are if you don't know the electrode size?

The reason why other ioniser manufacturers are using ionisers with electrode surface areas ranging between 200cm2 and 400cm2 is two-fold. First, because the electrode materials are platinum and titanium, which are extremely expensive metals, providing smaller electrodes enables a manufacturer to produce a machine for less money. Second, inefficient power transformers cause larger electrodes to heat up and deteriorate - this is not an issue with the HydroTech, which uses an advanced SMPS electrical system that doesn't use a transformer.

The electrolysis cell is not permanently sealed, which is quite simply because we want this expensive component to be refurnishable. Every ioniser in the world will suffer the build up of minerals on the electrodes, decreasing its performance. As other ionisers ship with a sealed cell, you can do nothing about this other than dispose of your machine when you test the output pH/ORP to discover it is no different then your municipal supply. Because we insist on a lifetime of constant performance, we have the facilities within the UK to refurbish electrodes, which on the 900cm2 model is usually around 8 years. If you test any other ioniser that has been used for over 6 months you will find a decrease in performance, and no performance at all within 2 years.

We offer a lifetime warranty on the electrodes because they will never be damaged by heat, and can be cleaned to a 'new' condition when necessary. The ionising potential of the HydroTech is so high, that it can undergo up to 8 years of use before its performance decreases sufficiently to prevent the machine from ionising at the maximum levels, which themselves are safe limits imposed by a programme on the central chip.

The HydroTech offers 7 output levels: pH4 to pH10, and ORP +680mV to -400mV. These levels are programmed to 7 easily identifiable buttons. The unit also has buttons on its control panel to adjust these levels, in pH increments of 0.1, permitting over 70 possible levels. The top setting can be adjusted to produce a maximum ORP of -460mV, at pH 10.2. This is a pre-programmed safety limit, but to indicate the ability of the HydroTech, if you set the machine to produce acidic water of pH 4, and collect water from the drainage tube, the alkalinity will be around pH 11.5.

The HydroTech produces a constant pH and ORP, as verified by an on screen display of the pH and ORP. The ONLY way to produce a constant pH and ORP is to take measurement and adjust the power to the electrodes accordingly. We claim to be the only ioniser with a constant output function. Please note any other claims, be they of artificial intelligence or neuro electric computers, are absolutely absurd and false. There is no brain inside the ioniser and nothing brainy about a constant output function. All that is required is a device that measures the pH & ORP, and the ability to adjust the ionising strength accordingly.

There are two simple ways to tell if an ioniser is able to produce a stable output: 1) adjust the input flow rate, 2) test the machine on water with a different level of dissolved minerals. The first test is easy, and most other ioniser literature will indicate that the machine ionises more strongly if the flow rate is decreased (proving that it does not achieve a constant output). The second test requires you either removing minerals, adding them, or testing the unit under a different water supplier or indeed different country. Actually, we did all these tests - from Japan (very soft water) to Ibiza (crazily hard water) - and the machine produced the same results (noticeably drawing differing amounts of power, which we measured too).

Of course, the quick way to tell is to look for a display panel that tells you the pH and ORP, because if the machine is measuring these factors, why would it keep that information to itself when it's so valuable to the user?

To advance our technology further for the benefit of the user we have created the worlds only colour display, that changes colour according to the setting. Anyone with a passing familiarity with pH testing will know that most methods test using paper or a solution and produce a visual result. From red (acidic) to a dark blue (alkaline), the HydroTech changes its colour, so you know at a glance what it's doing. Conveniently, red, commonly associated with danger, is the colour for highly acidic water. This way you'll never have an accident and drink something unintended.

In addition to colour, the machine beeps whilst producing acidic water.

The HydroTech has a very high flow rate of up to 5 litres per minute, which simply means less waiting time for water. How does this compare with other ionisers? Most claim flow rates of up to 3 litres per minute (we have seen 4 stated on websites, but product literature from the manufacturer always claims 3). How does this work in reality? On most municipal water supplies in the UK we find that the output on the HydroTech is 4.5 litres per minute. On numerous other makes of ioniser that we have tested, the flow rate is typically less than 2 litres per minute.

Even at 4.5 litres per minute the HydroTech is able to produce results that other ionisers could only achieve if the inlet flow rate was reduced to less than 1 litre per minute.

It is worth noting that the HydroTech displays the output flow rate, because like everything else it is measuring this, and we believe you should know. Thus, when the HydroTech tells you how many litres of water have been used, and that it's time to change the filter cartridge, you can trust this basic countdown. All other water ionisers available perform their countdown in arbitrary units based on operation time and offer no reflection of actual water volume processed, making their filter change notification unreliable.

All ionisers need to operate a cleaning cycle. This is due to the unavoidable mineral build up on the electrodes. Cleaning is performed by reversing the polarity of the power supplied to the electrodes so that minerals of the opposite electrical charge move over the plates causing them to de-scale.

The HydroTech Ioniser initiates an automatic cleaning cycle only once every 12 hours. You'll find most other systems either perform their cleaning cycle before you collect water every time you open the faucet, or operate some faux cleaning method that doesn't interrupt the collection of alkaline water. Unless acidic water move throughout all channels of an ionizer normally carrying alkaline water, those parts will suffer scaling. Whilst the electrolysis cell is the most valuable part of any ioniser, there are other components too which must be maintained.

The HydroTech excels in performance by allowing a continuous ionised output for up to 4 hours without over heating or causing any damage to the electrodes. Other ionisers (which typically limit ionisation to 15 minutes!) cannot achieve this because the plating on the electrodes is too thin and fragile and would risk damage.

One considerable problem affecting this in other ionisers is the use of an inexpensive and inefficient power transformer, which wastes up to 50% of energy consumed as lost heat. Apart from a cost saving, transformers are an easy way to adapt machines to differing global power supplies.

The HydroTech Ioniser uses an advanced SMPS electrical system that doesn't use a transformer. This switching solution is specific to the power supply characteristics of the territory within which it is sold, it is extremely power efficient and far quieter too.