Yes, tap water is fine. Hard water does not affect the detox process. (Here at the home of the  Ionic Body Balancer™, we only use warm/hot tap water straight from our bathtub. We have very hard water and have found that hard water does not affect the detoxification process.)  However, if you have a water softening system in your house, you will need LESS salt. Water softening systems add sodium (salt) to your water to negate the effects of other minerals in the water.

If you have a water softening system, or if your local water company adds salt to the water supply, you may find it helpful to keep a bottle of distilled water on-hand to reduce the salinity of your foot bath water. You will need to heat the water prior to adding it to your foot bath. You can contact the manufacturer of your water softening system if you have questions about the amount of salt that has been added to your water. Due to the wide variability in these systems, we are unable to answer any specific questions about any water softening system you may have installed in your home or workplace.

If you live in the U.S., you can find information about your local water supply on the EPA’s website.

There is probably too much salt in your foot bath water. If you have a tingling sensation around your ankles when you turn on the machine, you need to turn off the unit, remove some of the water, and replace it with fresh (warm/hot) water to reduce the salinity of the water. If you do not see any bubbling action around the array after approximately 10 seconds, add a dash or two of salt, for most persons 1/4 teaspoon is standard, not more than 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Some people are more sensitive to the current in the water than others. If you are one of these lucky ones, shake in salt a little bit at a time until there is some fizzing at the array. You can always add more salt throughout your session as needed.

See additional FAQ for more information here.

We recommend starting with several DASHES of salt (if you are using sea salt). You should see a fairly vigorous amount of bubbling at the top of the array. If you are not seeing this, then use up to 1/4 teaspoon of salt, not more than 1/2 teaspoon.

If you have a tingling sensation around your ankles, when you turn on the machine, you have too much salt and you need to turn off the unit, remove some of the water, and replace it with fresh (warm/hot) water to reduce the salinity of the water. Follow the above salt amount recommendations.

You can use ANY kind of salt you wish, other than iodized salt. Table salt, Kosher salt, Sea Salt are all perfectly acceptable. A word of caution:  due to variability in the size of different types of salt (sea salt is a physically larger grain than table salt), you may need to add LESS salt if you are using table salt. 

Due to variability in local water supplies, as well as each person’s sensitivity to the Ionic Body Balancer™, more or less salt may be necessary. Salt is required for the detoxification process to happen – salt is what drives the chemical reaction in the foot spa water that creates the ions in the water.

*** Too much salt over many treatments can create a drain on the power supply and cause it to short out.

During the detoxification process, some people will leech acid into the foot spa water (especially during your first 10-15 treatments). The body’s natural pH should be slightly alkaline to fight infections and toxins most effectively. (In chemistry, ‘alkaline’ means ‘cool and slow,’ whereas ‘acid’ means ‘hot and fast.’ You can compare an acidic car battery, which needs to run hot and fast to start your car, to an alkaline battery in your TV remote control, which you would want to stay cool, and run for a long time.)

However, some toxins and disease can cause our body to become more acidic. The acidity that is released into the foot bath water is being released by your body as part of the detoxification process. (Please note that the absence of this rash is not necessarily a sign that the Ionic Body Balancer has failed to work. Each person will detoxify differently.)

If you do get this rash, be sure to wash your feet thoroughly with soap and warm water after each treatment. You can also gently rub baking soda (which is an alkaline) on the affected area to help neutralize the rash, and then rinse the area well. If the rash becomes itchy, you can try applying calamine lotion. Appearance of this rash does not mean you should stop treatments. If it makes you uncomfortable to continue treatments, then wait a few days before resuming. Appearance of this rash can be a good thing, as it means that the detox treatments are working. However, our goal is to reduce pain and discomfort, not add to it!!