The John Ellis Electron Water/Air Machine™ is one of many devices that falsely purport to restructure or otherwise alter drinking water in ways unknown to modern science in order to make it more healthy or physiologically effective. In spite of the obvious vacuity of the claims, the device was widely promoted to the scientifically naïve, even in otherwise-respectable publications such as Popular Science.
"Fifty years ago the hydrogen bond angle in water was 108° and you rarely heard of
anyone with cancer. Today, it's only 104° and, as a result, cancer is an epidemic!! By
using our machine you can increase the bond angle to 114° and, unlike any other water,
doctors can see an immediate change in the red blood cells under a microscope! It's
truly amazing!!"
In early 2008, the original Web page was replaced by one that eliminated some of the most obviously crackpot claims such as changing the bond angle in the water molecule. But as of late 2009 it was still there in the form of a tedious and tendentious rant that is not easily accessed through their Web site. (One wonders how a guy who claims to have such a great education can write such ungrammatical English!) But even their "sanitized" site contains fatuous hype about the efficacy of the same device in killing microorganisms— which they disingenuously say "can mutate so as to survive boiling in ordinary 'one-pass' distillers." They go on to say that
ordinary distilled water is "dead" because of the lack of sufficient destruction time and intense heat and the energy from ultraviolet radiation on small amounts of water at a time (to increase the
intensity). As a result, ordinary distilled water has no residual energy and can't destroy the cause of disease...
With respect to drugs and drug residues (present in trace amounts in some water supplies) they make the nonsensical claim that
the small molecule drugs are so light they travel with the steam with continuous, rather than start and stop boiling (to lower the steam velocity)!!
(One wonders how a guy who claims to have such a great education can write such ungrammatical English!)
The facts are that
The device employs a 1500-watt heating element which boils water and then recondenses it, producing what is in effect distilled water. The device is an improvement on a simple distillation apparatus in that it discourages passage of low-boiling volatile impurities such as hydrogen sulfide into the distillate. It also employs an ozone-producing ultraviolet lamp that can theoretically decompose oxidizable impurities. So far, so good— although in my opinion one could accomplish the same sterilization and degasification task much less expensively by simply boiling a pot of water in an open container.
The manufacturer and promoters of this device embellish the above mundane facts with variety of statements that are scientifically absurd and would likely be considered laughable by anyone who has recently passed a high-school chemistry course. Unfortunately, this group excludes most of the potential buyers of this device, who are not equipped to critically examine these claims and are thus more likely to be taken in by them. The two overriding themes that dominate the John Ellis sales sites are the following:
Hype |
Comments |
| The size and structure of the water molecule are altered: the molecule is enlarged, and its bond angle is increased by 10°. | The size and shape of the H2O molecule is governed entirely by the balance of forces between the ten nuclear charges and the ten electrons in the molecule. There is no evidence for the changes claimed. |
| Electrons are added to the water. | There are several ways to add electrons to water, the most common being electrolysis, but all result in the immediate decomposition of the H2O molecule. |
Listed below are some of the specific claims that have been made for this device on previous incarnations of the John Ellis site. I consider all of these statements to be scientifically absurd, meaningless, or misleading. Needless to say, the manufacturer offers no evidence to support these claims, nor do they provide any performance data to demonstrate the effectiveness of the very small amount of ozone that can be generated by means of ultraviolet light. Although they make the obligatory disclaimer that the [mis]information they supply is for "educational purposes only", the promoters offer a large number of "testimonials" to the beneficial health effects of the water produced by this device.
Bunk |
Debunk |
| ANY LAB will tell you, many other health promoting activities can't work without the ELECTRONS found in 1CHARGED WATER because 2OXYGEN levels have dropped to as low as 8%, in today's water molecules, they are SMALLER and CAN'T HOLD the additional donor ELECTRONS (from OXYGEN) needed to make them work!! 3As a result, VIRUSES and BACTERIA are mutating out of control... CAUSING almost ANY problem you can name! | 1This ungrammatical sentence contains numerous false statements, beginning with the first five words. There is no such thing as "charged water" (a fundamental law of physics prevents bulk matter from acquiring significant electric charge.) 2It is not made clear whether this refers to oxygen levels in the air, those dissolved in water, or the oxygen atoms comprising the H2O molecule itself. Any of these interpretations would be false. 3Mutations in viruses and bacteria are natural processes that have no direct connection to oxygen levels or electrons. |
| MOST VITAMINS CAN'T WORK because there aren't enough donor electrons to make them work! It's like a leaf that falls off of a tree, the nutrients are still there, but it's ELECTRICALLY DEAD...they must be reactivated by ELECTRONS! | There is no scientific evidence for this claim. The mechanism by which vitamins work is mostly well understood, and their effectiveness cannot be enhanced by supplying electrons, fictitious or otherwise. |
ELECTRONS KILL VIRUSES (ordinary water doesn't have enough ELECTRONS), returns wells to purity, and expanded molecules |
Addition of electrons (other than by direct bombardment in an accelerator) is not a recognized way of deactivating or destroying viruses (which, by the way, are not independent living organisms.) |
| In the beginning, as the earth cooled down, clusters of water molecules gained Electrons and tremendous energy with every expansion-contraction... explaining Biblical ages! | The H2O molecules on early Earth had exactly as many electrons (10) as they do nowadays. Much of this water is believed to have originally been associated with the lighter solids that accreted to form the planet. |
| A pdf document from an earlier version of the John Ellis site bears the title "Is this the answer to cancer?" It goes on to falsely state "Fifty years ago the hydrogen bond angle in water was 108° and you rarely heard of anyone with cancer. Today, its only 104° and, as a result, cancer is an epidemic!! By using our machine you can increase he bond angle to 114° and, unlike any other water, doctors can see an immediate change in the red blood cells under s microscope!" | There is no evidence that the bond angle in water has ever been different from 104.5°. The implication that this fictitious change is somehow associated with cancer appears to be a cynical attempt to market the device to the vulnerable and afflicted. There are no credible reports of visible changes in blood cells resulting from consuming so-called structure-altered waters. |
| "Mr. Ellis' machine provides repeated expansion and contraction of the water molecules with a differential temperature of 80 degrees or more per minute1. The water vapor created by Mr. Ellis' machine's boiler is then exposed to a high intensity ozone light from a special device developed for Mr. Ellis by Owens Corning. 2The ozone reacts chemically with the vapor, adding high concentrations of free electrons and oxygen (not ozone) into the absolutely pure distilled water the machine produces." [link] | 1Molecules are not subject to thermal expansion, although bulk materials such as water are. 2Ozone (O3) is formed in small amounts when short-wave ultraviolet light is absorbed by oxygen. Ozone is used as a water disinfectant, but it reacts with water very slowly and does not add "free electrons" to water. Since the O2 added by the ozone comes from air in the first place, this would seem to be an extraordinarily expensive source of added oxygen. |
1Today's water molecules are TOO SMALL...any lab that studies the properties of water can PROVE IT TO YOU! 2DON'T listen to all the scientific jargon about products! |
1Both of these statements are false. 2This old refrain is a classic sign of pseudoscience and quackery, credible only to the scientifically illiterate who are most likely to fall for these promotions. |
The following U.S. patents have been issued. None of them refers to any of the absurdities noted above.
Reference |
Comment |
| 4,612,090 - "Water degasification and distillation apparatus" (John C. Ellis, Jr., 1986) | Describes a distillation device in which boiling alternately starts and stops due to changes in pressure. The principal novelty here is that the water vapor formed at the beginning of each boiling cycle is not condensed, thereby allowing the escape of any volatile odor-producing components in the water. Suggested applications are for making coffee, tea, soups, etc. |
| 5,203,970 - " Method for water degasification and distillation" (John C. Ellis, Jr, 1993) | Describes the addition of a motorized stirring component to the apparatus, its purpose being to improve degasification of the water by generating a moving region of lower pressure to encourage bubble formation. |
| 6,409,888 - " Method and apparatus for water degasification and distillation" (John C. Ellis, Jr., 2002) | Describes the addition of an "ozone generator" component to the apparatus for the purpose of promoting the decomposition of oxidizable impurities. |
For another opinion of this device, see Crystal Clear Energized Water machine and John Ellis