Kangen water is a term you can’t miss when researching alkaline water or water ionizers. It has an almost deified reputation and as a result, it’s the subject of a lot of talk.
However, to make Kangen water at home you need an Enagic ionizer. Now, that’s not a problem as long as you have deep pockets, but not everyone can afford to spend over £3500 on a decent water ionizer.
So, why are Enagic ionizers so expensive compared to their competitors and is Kangen water actually superior enough to make the cost worthwhile?
What Makes Kangen Water Different?
To start off, let’s look at the differences between Kangen water and regular alkaline ionized water. Luckily, this is a very easy task as, from a scientific perspective, there are no structural differences between them.
| Unsure About Alkaline Ionized Water? |
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If you’re not familiar with alkaline ionized water, you’ll probably want to check out our guide covering the basics of what it is and the scientific principles that serve as its foundation. |
In fact, the only defining quality of Kangen water is that it must be produced by an Enagic ionizer. In short, it’s simply a marketing term used to make the Enagic products seem superior and different.
To add insult to injury, by modern standards, Kangen water is actually a bit inferior to the alkaline ionized water produced by some competitor models. Specifically in relation to measurements of ORP and Molecular Hydrogen (H 2).
Does that mean it’s bad? No, of course not, it’s still alkaline ionized water after all, and its reputation isn’t built purely on marketing and lies. However, it is certainly not superior to the alkaline ionized water produced by competitor machines.
How are Enagic Ionizers so Popular?
With all that information in mind, you may be wondering why Kangen water and Enagic ionizers retain such a good reputation. After all, surely if there’s no advantage to paying more people wouldn’t buy them?
The reason is simple. Brand presence and reputation. By nature, we trust brands we’ve heard of before and a positive reputation goes a long way.
That’s where the power of Enagic’s multi-level marketing scheme shines brightest, as by nature we trust word of mouth above all else. Especially if such glowing reviews are coming from friends or even family members.
Naturally, that doesn’t mean the information being given is false. Most people recommend Enagic products based on their own positive experiences. Plus, a small financial payoff is also a nice reason to avoid mentioning any weaknesses.
However, it’s only possible to know the value of something when it is compared to similar items. Unsurprisingly, it’s under analysis against competitors that Enagic ionizers falter, especially in regard to their price.
Why are Enagic Ionizers So Expensive?
Enagic is a brand that operates primarily through a multi-level marketing scheme. If you’re not familiar with this term, it’s similar to a pyramid scheme, but it operates in a slightly more legal manner.
Effectively everyone who buys an Enagic ionizing machine can become a registered seller. Allowing them to make a small commission for any sales they drum up by recommending the brand within their community.
Registered sellers are then recommended to recruit their own subset of representatives, making it easier to make more sales in their area.
The end result is that the items being sold have an inflated price to provide each member of the selling chain with their commission.
Unfortunately, that sales structure is the entire reason for the high price behind all Enagic machines. They aren’t offering over £1000 of additional value. They just need to cover all the commissions in the sales chain.
Are Enagic Ionizers Worth the Price?
Whether Enagic ionizers are worth more is always a subjective question. From phones to vacuum cleaners to fridges, we are often happy to pay more for a more popular brand.
However, in most cases, we pay more for additional features, higher quality materials or to support a brand seeking to do some good for the world.
Unfortunately, Enagic ionizers don’t tick any of these boxes. Their machines are, at best, equal to their competitors in terms of features and materials. As for the brand, supporting multi-level marketing isn’t something to be encouraged.
Therefore, our opinion falls to the negative and we simply can’t justify paying at least £1000 more just for an Enagic product. The ionizers themselves certainly aren’t bad, but they have to be held to the standards of their competitors.
On that level, they fall short, offering a very expensive package with nothing to show for it. In many cases, cheaper models from other brands offer even more features than the best models in the current Enagic range.
Which Competitor Brand is Best?
Now that you’re aware of the flaws behind Kangen water and the Enagic line of products that produce it, you may not know where to turn. Luckily, there are plenty of great ionizer brands out there to look at instead.
Through our years in the water ionizer market, we’ve tried and tested a lot of models from brands such as Tyent, Chanson, AlkaViva, LifeIonizers and Alkamedi.
Based on the comparison between models from all of these brands we currently rate both AlkaViva and Tyent as the best. As a result, we have chosen to stock models from both of these brands within our collection.
However, if you’d like to make up your own mind on which model from the more reputable brands is best for you, we’ve created a detailed and unbiased comparison of them to help you in your healthy living journey.
If you’re looking to avoid wasting time on research, we strongly recommend taking a look at the AlkaViva Vesta H2. This ionizer is one of the best we’ve ever used and we’ve rated it as our best ionizer to buy in 2021.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for a really powerful ionizer that can fit neatly into your kitchen, the Tyent UCE-11 is a great choice. Packed with features and sporting a high-quality touch interface it’s a truly fantastic ionizer (while remaining much cheaper than it’s closest Enagic competitor).
Obviously, we’ve been quite critical of Enagic in this article and it is worth noting that, excluding price, their products aren’t all bad. So, if you’d like to see how they stack up, we’ve compared them against the AlkaViva H2 range for your convenience.