Use | Storage | Durability | Electro activated water
FAQ’s | Alkaline activated water | Water Filters | Water Treatment
The FAQ video interview about alkaline activated water is presented in detail by Mr. Asenbaum to deeply understand the subjects of water and water treatment. The video shows the most important questions and answers, which still cause doubt, for example: the subject about water and stomach acids. Below you will find our pool of collected FAQ’s and you can also browse through our FAQ database.
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FAQ’s | Alkaline activated water | Stomach acids
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A categorised overview of all our Frequently Asked Questions about alkaline, electro-activated water, hydrogen water, opposed views, technical questions and answers, proof from experiments
The following questions and answers have been very kindly compiled by author and researcher Karl Heinz Asenbaum over the last 12 years (!) and these are continuously updated and extended. These FAQ’s and a few more dealing with the subject of water and water treatment can be found in German on his knowledge database.
Use | Storage | Durability | Electro activated water
How should activated water be stored?
Herbert F.: The new water ionizer is being used for the last few weeks in our accountancy office by our co-workers. I even offer our clients a carafe of water as an alternative to coffee, tea and fruit juices during consultations. The glass carafe now has a milky white stain which is mainly at the bottom. A co-worker has already asked me what kind of a sediment that is. I also discovered, reading in between the lines, that the main question was: is the water really as healthy as he has proclaimed? Having a few sceptics in the business this is grist to their mills since they question the well intended gesture. I would like to answer competently the questions that have been posed. How should the glass carafes be cleaned to let the purity of the water shine through or are there more appropriate containers for presenting the water?
- It is clear that a seminar on the importance of calcium cannot be held with each of your clients. That is why the question about presenting the water is completely correct, even though, sadly, very difficult to answer.
- For your own knowledge: the white sediment is a calcium and carbonic acid compound. Not harmful, yet also not very useful. The moment it shows, the active water has overstepped its relaxation period and should be replaced.
- The more contact the water has with air, for example, in an open container like a carafe, the shorter the relaxation period is because carbon dioxide from the air is absorbed as carbonic acid into the active water and flocculates as calcium carbonate. That is why a filled to the brim, air tight bottle is favoured for the conservation for water. A more economic option is violet glass, followed by blue glass or brown glass. These bottles are the best for extending the relaxation period.
- The best solution are stainless steel thermal flasks. They can keep the dissolved hydrogen and ORP value for two weeks, if closed and filled to the brim.
- Storage containers that have not been decalcified encourage the relaxation period to be shortened, because they offer the calcium carbonate a crystallization core. They drain the negative Redox Potential almost as much as a – forbidden with alkaline activated water – metal bottle. So always decalcify all containers.
- Acidic water from a flow-through ionizer is usually not acidic enough to remove a layer of limescale. It is best to use a spray bottle with a natural, unproblematic citric acid, and spray this into the bottle until the sediment is released. Then rinse it with tap water and it is ready to be used again. It can be a bit tedious, yet there is no other way. It is best to drink alkaline water immediately after the carafe has been filled. This is obviously not possible in your office.
Excerpt from the book “Karl Heinz Asenbaum: Electrically activated water – An invention with extraordinary potential.”
Copyright 2016 www.euromultimedia.de
Link to this post | Storing activated water
For how long can I drink activated water? How long is it activated? When does it loose its benefit?
- It is different from place to place, water to water and climate dependent. It is particularly difficult to foresee this.
- Alkaline water, compared to acidic water which keeps for years under cheap circumstances, has a very short relaxation period from a few seconds to a few days. It has a use, as long as the index parameter of the Redox Potential still behaves abnormally and still looks for a reproduction of the thermo dynamic balance. This is the so called metastable state.
- The fastest parameter: H2 – molecular hydrogen – hydrogen gas – strongest antioxidation: In flow through ionizers, where the water is ionized in a pressure tight electrolysis cell, excess pressure is created with the hydrogen gas, since under normal conditions only 1,6 mg/l hydrogen gas can dissolve in water. So hydrogen bubbles are formed when the acidic water flows out of a water ionizer, which after a few seconds disperse into the atmosphere, as long as they are not drunk together with the fresh alkaline activated water.
- With absolutely pure water, which was mixed with hydrogen gas, a negative Redox Potential occurs up to minus 600 mV. The hydrogen gas makes quite a lot of anti oxidative “steam”. According to a long disputed theory with drinking water, that a “gas reserve” in the form of a normally volatile H- transfers with the cations, which gradually reacts with the protons of the autoprotolysis to H2-gas and sinks the potential. This is one of the most exciting areas of water research, which as a research journalist offers many sources, yet also more unanswered questions.
- Indisputable and easy to measure is the discovery made by Vitold Bakhir, that activated water when alkaline or acidic has abnormal properties, which can be observed when in its relaxation state. For example; the ORP of an activated solution is not calculable with the help of the Nernst equation because of the chemical redox series of diluted particles. Activated water is a substance temporarily outside of the thermodynamic balance. It swings, so to say, the energy input of electrolysis so long until it comes to a standstill because of the resistance of its surroundings. He discovered, beginning of the ‘70s, the abnormal properties of a water solution achieved electrolytically and established with that the theoretical fundamental understanding of the phenomenons and effects, previously only observed by pragmatics from Germany and Japan.
- One of the most interesting questions is that of activated hydrogen, with which Hidemitsu Hayashi, one of Japan’s top researchers, employs his time with. Also the molecular biologist, Sanetaka Shirahata researches on the forefront of this field. The German biologist U. Warnke speaks of “H-minus-water” (Source: Interview in praxis: nature 4/12). With this you understood the normally highly unstable hydrogen anions H-. You can hardly measure that quickly, how its excess electron is given to a much larger reaction partner or, at least, to a hydrogen cation H+. Yet the indications increase, that hydrogen anions with strong cation clusters, so called mineral colloids with a positive charge, can temporarily park. The theory of this hydrogen mineral colloid does come closer to the explanation of the peculiar behaviour of alkaline activated water. Evidently more cations are collected at the beginning as in the long run with this water. Hydroxide ions are not known to be volatile, for the chemical lyes made by them are over a long period of time stable. The excess electrons keep longer and are not responsible for the abnormally low Redox Potential of alkaline activated water. Yet hydrogen is very volatile, it can even escape most storage containers. If short term hydrogen anions, created with electrolysis, really have a “parking time” with mineral cations, then this would be a plausible explanation for the fall out of cations with a time range of 0 – 36 hours, which can mostly be observed. What is interesting, is that certain minerals from slate tunnels, like in Nordenau, apparently can contain the active hydrogen, without a noticeable Redox Potential predominating. So far the reasons for this from research literature is not clearly evident.
- Back to your question and my empirical values after thousands of measurements of Redox Potential: Biggest use when you drink immediately. Big use when you drink within the first 3 hours. High use up until 36 hours. Good use until 48 hours. Afterwards the water has mostly returned to normal electrochemically, the ionized mineral excess has visibly fallen out and the water is softer. It is still a useful water, but you should use it rather for tea or watering the flowers.
Excerpt from the book “Karl Heinz Asenbaum: Electrically activated water – An invention with extraordinary potential.”
Copyright 2016 www.euromultimedia.de
Link to this post | Durability of activated water
What is the difference between electrolyte water and activated water?
Engelbert D.: At an event a doctor showed me the unique effect of Kangen® water. Now you write in your book “Drink yourself alkaline” only about alkaline water”. What is the difference?
- The original German term for activated water was coined by the inventor Alfons Natterer and was called “electrolyte water” up until the 1980’s, since it is made with electrolysis. In the introduction of this book I have named various other terms which are in use as well. All these terms refer to alkaline, acidic or neutral water types, that have been treated with electrolysis. The hallmark of electrolysis is, that a molecule and ion separation takes place in the water when a continuous electric current is fed. Nothing is added to the water, something that happens when a chemical water ionization takes place.
- The first publication that used the term was in the book by Dietmar Ferger: “ Alkaline activated water – How it works and what it does”, Lörrach 2006. Since then activated water has become a mainstream term in Germany. Kangen®Water, Aquion®Activated water, etc. are copyrighted brand names of different companies, since the German Patent and Trade Mark office declined patenting the term.
- The main point of activated water is the length of its activity, known as the relaxation time. During this time it displays abnormal properties, which can be used medically and technically, so it is described as functional water.
Excerpt from the book “Karl Heinz Asenbaum: Electrically activated water – An invention with extraordinary potential.”
Copyright 2016 www.euromultimedia.de
Link to this post | Activated water
Johannes R.: How long can I drink the alkaline activated water? How long is it active? When does it lose its usefulness?
This question concerns the duration of the relaxation time, which can be regarded as a core concept for electro-activated water. It concerns the period in which alkaline activated water retains its antioxidant properties. After the relaxation period, it is only alkaline water, not activated water any more.
Dating back to the researchers Prilutsky and Bakhir (electrochemically activated water: anomalous properties, mechanism of biological action, Moscow 1997) one understood the period in which an exceptionally low redox potential in the alkaline activated water can be measured under relaxation time. This is different from place to place, from water to water, in all climate conditions. It is difficult to predict. Ultimately you don’t get around to an empirical measurement.
Alkaline activated water can, compared to acidic activated water, keep for years under favorable conditions, it has a very low relaxation time of a few minutes up to a few days. This is a so-called metastable state. Hydroxide ions and the hydrogen content contribute to this index parameter directly. Also, the nature and quantity of the cations plays a role.
The most volatile parameters are the H atoms generated at the cathode, their antioxidant capacity one can demonstrate, for example, by reduction of tungsten trioxide. Hydrogen atoms unite quickly to H2 – molecular hydrogen – hydrogen gas. Both are very powerful antioxidants.
Since the year 1997 Sanetaka Shirahata (Shirahata et al., Electrolyzed reduced water scavenges active oxygen species and proteins ECTS DNA from oxidative damage. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 234, 269174, 1997) has also constantly discovered atomic hydrogen in activated water and it has been discovered and proven that this atomic hydrogen on a DNA level protects against oxidation from free radicals.
Also since 1997 different hypotheses have developed about where and how long these hydrogen atoms “park” before they bond as hydrogen gas. For example, Dietmar Ferger represents the hypothesis of the so called alkaline nano mineral colloids, which is neither contradicted nor proven. Quote: Ferger, “Jungbrunnenwasser”, Weil am Rhein, 2011, p. 71.
“There is virtually an ‘electron cloud’ that surrounds alkaline minerals and hydrogen and binds them together. So also the hydrogen is negatively charged and activated, and therefore > activated hydrogen < is produced." If the aforementioned borderline scientific explanation for the behaviour of alkaline activated water is actually correct and needed, is doubtful. For also the antioxidant properties of water, which is merely enriched with hydrogen gas, fulfil my expectations as an adequate explanation of the phenomena. It is quite clear that the hydrogen saturation is entirely responsible for the negative redox potential. If the somewhat more difficult to measure hydrogen content decreases, then the the redox potential (ORP) also decreases. So it is ultimately irrelevant whether one or the other value is determined. In flow through ionizers where the water in a pressure tight electrolysis cell is ionized, in the cathode chamber a relief of hydrogen gas is produced, since under normal conditions there is only a maximum of 1500 microgram/l hydrogen gas in water, although during the electrolysis substantially more will be created. Therefore, when flowing from the outlet hose of a water ionizer hydrogen gas bubbles are formed and after a few seconds evaporate into the atmosphere, provided that they are not drunk with the very fresh, bubbling alkaline activated water.
With a non-pressure-tight batch ionizer, activated water can be fully saturated with hydrogen gas in the cathode chamber. The formation of bubbles and the outgassing of the surplus hydrogen already takes place during the longer electrolysis process.
Both with a batch ionizer as well as with a modern 9-electrode device I was able to produce with alkaline activated water with a complete hydrogen saturation and over saturated water up to 1800 microgram/l , but within minutes it falls back to the normal saturation.
Since the beginning of 2007, research of Shigeo Ohta can hardly be doubted that hydrogen gas (H2) is the decisive share of the antioxidant capacity of alkaline activated water. (Overview: Ohta, P., molecular hydrogen as a novel antioxidant: overview of the advantages of hydrogen for medical applications, Methods Enzymol. 2015;555:289-317).
It is therefore essential to ensure that a water ionizer must be designed so that in the event of a drink the ideal pH values of 8.5 to 9.5 are reached with as much dissolved hydrogen gas in the water. Compared to the model of Nihon Trim, which Shirahata used in 1997 and therefore reached in the drinking pH range a hydrogen content of only between 200 and 350 micrograms/l, here between 2010 and 2015, significant performance increases were reached with more than 5 times those amounts reached. Other new techniques have already as a prototype have reached the complete hydrogen saturation of 1500 micrograms. For further issue of hydrogen saturation please read the FAQ hydrogen rich water.
A decisive factor is the extension of the relaxation time by preventing the outgassing of hydrogen. For we cannot always drink freshly ionized alkaline activated water immediately. This shows a clear advantage in the combination of a very dense materials such as stainless steel and thick blue glass when storing the bottles horizontally after having completely filled the bottles, no air bubbles. We have tested the following materials and after 19 hours of horizontal storage (except crystal carafe) they have been measured again in the Refrigerator:
One of the most interesting questions is of the active hydrogen which Hidemitsu Hayashi, a top Japanese researcher who works extensively in the field of alkaline activated water. Also, the molecular biologist Sanetaka Shirahata is at the forefront in this area. The German biologist U. Warnke speaks of “H-minus water”. (Source: Interview in practice: nature 4/12).
This means the normally highly unstable hydrogen anion H-. You can hardly measure so quickly, how it gives off its excess electron H + to a much bigger reaction partner, or at least a hydrogen cation. However, there is growing evidence that hydrogen anions alongside strong cation clusters, known as mineral colloids with positive external charge, could temporarily park there.
The theory of hydrogen mineral colloids comes closer to understanding the strange behavior of alkaline activated water. For clearly in the beginning there are more cations gathered than what can be kept in this water.
Hydroxide ions are not known to be particularly volatile, because chemical lyes are stable for a very long time. Their excess electrons are kept longer and therefore cannot be responsible for the abnormally low redox potential of alkaline activated water.
It is interesting that certain minerals from slate studs like in Nordenau, Germany, can apparently hold activated hydrogen, without a noticeable redox potential prevailing. So far, the reasons for this are not clear from the research literature.
Back to your question and my experience after thousands of measurements of oxidation reduction potentials: you get the most benefit from drinking it immediately. Great benefits within the first 3 hours. A high benefit up to 36 hours. Good benefits up to 48 hours. After the water has normalized electrochemically, the ionized mineral surplus has been visible and the water is softer. It is still a useful drinking water, but you should use it for tea or watering flowers.
Excerpt from the book “Karl Heinz Asenbaum: Electrically activated water – An invention with extraordinary potential.”
Copyright 2016 www.euromultimedia.de
Link to this post | Relaxation time of activated water