Comparison of Jupiter Athena & Enagic SD501: Plates, Power and Performance 

The Athena plates are so innovative that this one, single feature allows for the better performance of the Athena water ionizer at the lower, drinking-levels of ionization. Both the Enagic SD501 water ionizer and the Jupiter Athena water ionizers are excellent water ionizers. I have done numerous testing of the power and performance of these two water ionizers [you can see, below, for actual testing and link to more testing.]

The flow-rate of each water ionizer: Biggest Difference

• The Enagic SD501 has a faster flow-rate for ionization but it's not better ionization. Faster flow-rate is the main way the Enagic is better than other water ionizers. However, a fast flow doesn't make for better ionization or filtration.
• There are a lot of websites claiming that the Enagic or some other big-plate water ionizer is "better”, due to the larger plates. I see this claim on many Enagic websites. However, in all the times I've compared the best water ionizers over the past five years, the Enagic did not perform significantly better than the Athena. See this article: Bigger is not Better
• As a matter of fact at the lower [drinking levels] of pH the Athena has consistently performed better than the Enagic.  
• The Athena water ionizer does best when the flow-rate is 1.5 to 1.8 liters per minute. This is the perfect flow-rate for filtration by the way. The Enagic’s SD501 machine will not operate well at 1.5 -2 liters per minute and does better at about 2 to 3 liters per minute. If you try to flow the Enagic slower, it will give you an error message. [With either machine if you flow the water faster than the recommended rate the ionization falls off and gets poorer results in testing.]
• The Jupiter Athena plates are designed especially to allow it to have a more efficient ionization at the lower pH-levels. With the Athena, the ORP [antioxidant potential] is better than what you are able to get with the Enagic at the same pH-level.

Enagic SD501 vs Jupiter Athena: Plates & Water Cell Technology Used

Jupiter Athena vs Enagic Plates/Water Cells: The size, number and construction of the Jupiter Athena plates are vastly different than the Enagic plates, of the SD 501 water ionizer.

• The Enagic water cells are bigger but not better.
• The Enagic water ionizer’s flat plates are 5″ x 7″ and a total surface area touching water is a flat 490 square inches. The Athena has 5 mesh-plates; each plate 3″x5″, and the area of the Jupiter mesh-plates is a mesh 300 square inches. Because the Athena uses "mesh-technology" you can multiply that surface area by about 2.5 times.
• In addition to a greater surface area, the actual mass of the Jupiter Athena plates is estimated to be about 1/4 of the mass of the Enagic SD 501 plates. In electronics, a smaller mass of the electrode is good, it’s more efficient. Basically the smaller the mass of the electrode, the less power is needed to do the same amount of “work”. This is why over the years we have seen all electronics get smaller – smaller – smaller and NOT bigger. Yet, the modern equipment using smaller electronics performs better, faster, etc. The Enagic has to use more power [230 watts] than the Athena ionizer’s power [which is variable – up to 150 watts], however the increase in watts and plate size only allows the Enagic to get a faster flow-rate and will not allow the Enagic to get better ionization at the drinking levels.
• There are a lot of claims about how much better the Enagic’s plates will ionize water, but in reality, they only have two advantages over the Jupiter Athena water ionizer: flow rate and extremes [i.e., they will get a slightly higher/lower pH-range than the Athena]. That’s it. All of the other advantages belong to the Athena [filtration, warranty, better ORP at the drinking levels of pH, and more built-in control and protection]
• The Jupiter water cells are designed much better than the Enagic.
• The Jupiter Athena plates are an innovative, ingenious design. They use the most expensive, purest forms of titanium and platinum. The plates, electronics and all parts in the Jupiter water ionizers are designed to last at least your lifetime [Jupiter water ionizers come with a lifetime parts warranty to back up this claim while Enagic parts are warranted for only 5 years.] You will never see criticism of the Jupiter water ionizers number of plates, plate size, plate construction, fine workmanship, fine materials used in all parts, etc., unless you are seeing it written by a competitor of the Jupiter company. Even the Enagic company doesn’t ever “bad-mouth” the Jupiter company – I’ve only seen this from individual dealers. The Enagic uses high quality platinum and titanium and though the individual dealers will predictably boast that the Enagic uses the best, there is no fact behind that claim. It is just empty rhetoric. The fact of the Enagic 5-year warranty for parts as opposed to the Jupiter “lifetime-parts” is, however, verifiable.
• Jupiter mesh-plates [the Athena plates] are separated from each other by a proprietary high-quality, durable padding [which will probably out-live anyone reading this article]. This accounts for the great durability of the Athena water ionizer and also the more efficient ionization. This padding helps to channel the water with more control to ensure the water ionizes as it passes through the water cell.

• The Athena ionizer will probably never need a “vinegar wash”, because of its continuous cleaning feature. [The Jupiter water ionizer company has no problem with customers use of vinegar to clean their water ionizers due to the durable parts.]
• The Jupiter Athena water cell is constructed using a patented technology that continuously cleans the plates within it. Whereas, the Enagic water cell is subject to calcification and potential corrosion of the platinum off of the plates. The Enagic company will void their warranty if the customer doesn’t clean the plates twice a year with their citric acid e-cleaner. Whereas the Athena water ionizer’s plates will never get even the slightest build-up of calcium on the plates, because of their innovative, patented continuous-cleaning system.
• The Enagic’s water cells are in danger of three things: corrosion, scaling, and burning out [melting].
• Burning out, because they have no fuse or other protective mechanism built in that will protect the Enagic ionizer in the event of lightning or other reason for overheating.
• Scaling, because the way their cycles run is 15 minutes of alkaline pouring then 30 seconds of acid washing. This system enables scale to build-up on the plates.
• They are in danger of corroding, because the saline solution used for the strong acid water is very caustic, and if anything will errode platinum, it’s salt! Of course Enagic protects itself with warnings about these two dangers, however it is not common knowledge shared before the sale. In this picture of a damaged Enagic plate you can see examples of both scaling and corrosion.  The plates will become corroded by misuse of the saline injection feature. Misuse would be simply not flushing out the saline well enough after each use of the “Strong Acidic” setting or using the saline feature too often would do it too.

Another big difference between the Jupiter Athena and Enagic water ionizers is filtration, but that’s for another day.

See a full page summarizing my water ionizer comparisons and water ionizer reviews.