If you haven't joined our Facebook group, I suggest you do so.  It's growing and we're starting to get some discussion going.  The lastest post was from Europe about the effects of the EM® Ceramics on water.  The person has installed a unit in the home and is wondering what is going on.  I have posted replies according to what I know and have read over the years.   And let me tell you, the information on these items is lacking!  You kind of have to go out on a limb and trust your senses to know if they are working.  It is like you say to yourself, "I know something is happening, but what?  How do I know for sure?  The water tastes better...I think...  I feel better when I drink it..."  You can second guess yourself crazy with these things.

That is until you have something to measure.  When I was working for EMRO USA I learned a lot of different things.  One of them was that you use ORP to measure the effects of the ceramics and magnets, etc on water to know if it is going to be a good thing.  (An ORP meter isn't something I would suggest everyone buy.  If you are really into the science of things you should have a brix meter, a pH meter, and EC meter, and an ORP meter.  Sometimes you can find meters that have three or four measuring points, but never include brix....just to drive you nuts.)  Anywhooo....  measuring the ORP shows how oxidative something is.  In other words, if the water you are measure has a reading of 100 vs -100 it has more free radicals in it and is more oxidizing.  You want a negative number and the lower, the better.  This means that the water will be less oxidizing and support antioxidants.

Another thing I learned is that the ceramics have almost no affect on pH.  This is kind of weird because all the measurements (pH, EC, ORP) are measure charges in the water.  EC is measuring salts, charged particles.  ORP is measuring oxidation, ion levels (an ion is a charged particle by the way).  And, pH is measure H⁺ and OH^-, or...charged particles.  So, even though the ORP will drop, sometimes dramatically (we saw is go from +100 to -69 right from the tap) it doesn't change the pH.  I also found this weird because the ceramics themselves are alkaline.  The Super C powder has a pH of somewhere around 9 (7 is neutral).  The powdered ceramics can change the pH of water as they get suspended in the water as long as they stay in suspension.  The hard ceramics do not make any change.

Just some food for thought...