A water ionizer prevents many health problems in your body through the simple daily routine of drinking healthy water. You can avoid problems with your ionizer too by taking simple steps to mitigate the effects of hard water.
In areas with a hardness of 300 ppm or above, we recommend the use of an EOS Descaler Cartridge (available on our product pages). If you do not have one, you can still assist in the prevention of limescale build-up by RUNNING ACID WATER THROUGH THE UNIT regularly. The ionizer can keep itself clean internally to a great extent, there are parts however that it requires your help to reach :-)
Should limescale have been allowed to build-up to the extent that it is affecting the performance of the unit, however, then all is not lost as it can be easily cleaned out again by following the protocol below:
Cleaning your Jupiter Water Ionizer of Limescale (for hard water areas)
The ioniser requires a filter change approximately every 6-12 months depending upon usage. Apart from this, it should be a maintenance-free purchase.
If however the flow of water decreases and there is very little water coming out of the alkaline drinking water dispensing tube or tap, the unit may need cleaning because of mineral build-up in the internal pipework downstream of the electrodes.
This usually does not become an issue until at least 12-24 months of use, however, in particularly hard water areas it can show in as little to 3-6 months. If this is the case then more extreme mitigation may be required.
The first step to carry out in case of this occurrence is to clean the unit internally using vinegar (an acid which safely dissolves the limescale).
De-scaling Without a Pump (Microlite, Venus, Neptune, Melody, Orion, Aquarius Units)
You will need:
• A bucket
• 500mm/1 litre of vinegar (although you won't use all of this)
1. Disconnect the unit from the water and electricity supply (detach the hoses attached to the outlet port of the ioniser) On either the Venus or Melody units set the tap to closed.
2. Place the unit in a sink/bath, drain the water from the unit by tipping / shaking the unit. Re-attach the hoses attached to the outlet port of the ioniser)
3. Remove the chrome drinking water spout, place in the bucket and soak in vinegar
4. Fill the coral calcium port with vinegar until it begins to run out of the hoses for tap water inlet and acid water outlet
5. Take the acid water outlet hose and raise it above the level of the top of the machine, secure with masking tape, refill the coral calcium port with vinegar to the top of the port.
6. Leave the ionizer to stand for overnight
7. Lower the hose, allow the vinegar to run out, re-install the ioniser
8. Flush the unit by running acidic water for 5 minutes, then running alkaline water for 1 minute.
If this does not entirely resolve the reduction in the flow, then try the more involved method below, which will fix the flow problem.
De-scaling Without a Pump (Delphi Unit)
You will need:
• A bucket
• 500mm/1 litre of vinegar (although you won't use all of this)
1. Disconnect the base unit from the water and electricity supply (detach the hoses attached to the outlet port of the ioniser).
2. Place the unit in a sink/bath, drain the water from the unit by tipping / shaking the unit.
3. Re-attach the hoses attached to the outlet ports of the ioniser.
4. Fill the coral calcium port with vinegar until it begins to run out of the hoses for alkaline and acidic water outlets.
5. Take the hoses for tap water inlet and acid water outlet and raise them above the level of the top of the machine, secure with masking tape, refill the coral calcium port with vinegar to the top of the port.
6. Leave the ionizer to stand for overnight.
7. Lower the hoses, allow the vinegar to run out, re-install the ioniser.
8. Flush the unit by running acid water for 5 minutes, then running alkaline water for 1 minute.
The Delphi tap may also need to be cleaned with vinegar. To do this, demount the tap, and fill the centre/alkaline spout with vinegar. (First, block the spout end, turn the tap upside down, and pour vinegar into the centre water inlet at the base of the tap).
If this does improve the issue but does not entirely resolve the reduction in the flow, then next run the unit at it's highest acidic setting for 3* 30 minutes. The unit may shut off during this time, as it has an overheat protection mechanism, this is no cause for alarm as the unit will function normally when it has cooled down.
The water can also very usefully be made much more acidic during this cleaning operation by the introduction of table salt into the coral calcium port. Simply fill the basket with the salt at the beginning of each 30-minute cycle.
(incidentally, this 'super-oxide' water has many topical medicinal applications, for skin complaints)
De-scaling Using a Separate Aquarium Pump
If the de-scale method of simply filling the unit is not successful, then the next step that can be carried out at home is to re-circulate WHITE VINEGAR through the unit using a small fish tank pump or small water-garden pump (approx £25).
1. Unplug the water ionizer from the electrical outlet. Remove as much water from the ionizer by blowing through the silver tube, inlet tube and acid tube. Also, remove the filter and shake as much water from it as you can then replace it. The filter must be securely placed in the ioniser for cleaning the ioniser in this method.
2. Prepare a container of WHITE VINEGAR for the pump. Attach the INLET hose from the water ionizer to the pump. Depending on the pump you purchase, this may require some minor modifications so that the hose will fit into the pump properly. Submerge the pump into the white vinegar.
3. Plug the small fish tank pump or small water-garden pump into the electrical outlet. (A GFI safety plug should be used for this in order to protect against electrocution).
4. Place both the silver tube and acid water tube from the ioniser into the white vinegar container so the entire system is re-circulating.
5. At first, there may be very little flow through the silver tube. However, as long as the slightest amount of vinegar is flowing through the silver tube, the vinegar will eventually dissolve the calcium that is blocking the water from flowing out the tube.
6. Clean the ioniser for 2-12 hours depending on how much calcium and other minerals have been deposited on the electrodes.
7. Reattach the ioniser to your water source and flush the unit with water for 10-20 minutes to clean out the vinegar from the unit.
8. Begin using the water ionizer again.
Calcium buildup on the electrodes can also cause the pH of the ionised water to drop because the source water is not coming in contact with the electrodes, and so the methods detailed above are also suitable in any case where the pH of output water has significantly changed.
Once your water ionizer is cleaned using this method, the pH of the alkaline ionized water will be higher because the water is now coming in direct contact with the cleaned electrodes.
Tip: You can also remove the silver tube from the unit and submerge it completely in the WHITE VINEGAR overnight to remove much of the calcium build-up.
Note: The reason for the calcium build up on the alkaline side of the ionizer is because the high pH of the water causes the minerals in the water to precipitate out of the water and become displaced. The water ionizer must be unplugged from its power source while cleaning the unit in the above manner.