7 Shockingly Scary Facts about Echo Water Machines

Every now and then, like in most areas of business, the water machine industry experiences a tremor that causes a few shock waves.

When a pair of videos showing two Echo employees repairing an Echo water machine was uploaded to Youtube, the contents initially looked fairly innocuous. However, listening and watching them attempt to repair an Echo machine is nothing short of alarming.

I will reveal the shocking videos in just a second, but first I want to cover some other important and eye-opening facts that put everything into context.

Echo/Synergy Science

Echo water machines – now sold under the mantle of Synergy Science – are relative newcomers to the water machine/water ionizer business. The owner of Echo refers to ’12 years in the business’ while skimming over the fact that he got to grips with ionizer technology at Alkaviva. He left that company, came up with his own product and promoted it as being a superior version.

The main problem here? It’s really not.

 

Unhappy Dealers

Amazingly, the owner of Synergy Science – Paul Barattiero – managed to persuade some dealers from the rather more established Enagic to work for him, selling Echo water machines. Once those experienced dealers realized they were expected to promote what was increasingly obviously an inferior product, they weren’t happy. And that’s putting it mildly.

So let’s cut back to those videos. At this point, it’s worth mentioning that Echo water machines are not a budget option. The price-point is at the upper end of what you’d expect to pay, rubbing shoulders with the very best in the water ionizer industry. What’s more, a big selling point with Echo is that their machines will never have a build up of calcium scale.

Video Killed the Calcium Claim

So, the first video. That ‘no calcium scaling’ claim bites the dust at around the 0:55 mark, as a component is shown to be completely scaled up, with the employee commenting, ‘that’s packed with calcium, completely scaled.’ Later, one of the employees says, ‘Anti-scaling technology?‘ in a voice that’s heavy with sarcasm, as they attempt to remove the thick calcium scale.

Yep. It’s really that bad.

Beware! Here is the Most Alarming Part of the Echo Machine

The second video won’t make Mr. Barattiero feel any better. In fact, it should have him breaking out into a sweat, as an Echo machine smokes while a working component glows lava-red and overheats to a dangerous level. An overwhelming concern is that neither employee seems in the least surprised at what they’re looking at. In fact, it seems like the polar opposite – they’ve seen it many times before with Echo machines.

At around 1:03 on the second video, there’s a chilling quote that should have Paul Barattiero simultaneously watching through his fingers whilst putting his lawyers on speed-dial.

The employee makes it plain that ‘he wants me to take the used power supplies, from this batch, from these machines, and put them into those machines and send them out.’

Read that again. The employee is expected to take out the faulty, overheating components and get them reinstalled in other machines.

Pretty shocking stuff.

Is There an Echo in Here? Dissatisfied Customers Speak Out

Customers of Echo are complaining about the machines they’ve bought failing to live up to the claims made on the company website. The claims are big, bold and frankly, in some cases, untrue.

1. You will not find a better system in terms of performance, reliability, quality, and support. Period.

The videos don’t really paint that picture, with Echo’s own employees openly mocking the ‘quality’ of the machines, but still, let’s move on…

2. The Echo® 9 Ultra H2 is guaranteed to operate scale-free.

Unfortunately, video footage of calcium build-up being scraped out of the machine undermines this one as well.

3. The Echo Water Machine produces the highest amount of dissolved molecular hydrogen available (up to 3ppm tested at a normal flow rate).

Frustrated customers report that the best they can get from their Echo hydrogen machine on a regular setting is 0.5 ppm of hydrogen. Another claim that bites the dust.

4. The Echo® Forever Warranty* is the best in the industry

Well, with those videos, it had better be.

And of course, it’s not. Crucially, what happens to that ‘Forever’ warranty if the company doesn’t exist in 2 years time? Those machine parts that were having the calcium build-up scraped off them/threatening to ignite won’t be manufactured anymore, so you can kiss goodbye to those repairs. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing, judging by the components. Who knows how many machines they’d already been in?

If you considered buying an Echo, please invest your money in a water machine, like a water ionizer, that’s actually safe and that has been around long enough to essentially support the lifetime warranty.

Bottom Line: Don’t buy an Echo Machine!

What This Means to the Water Ionizer Industry

It’s disheartening when a company threatens to bring an industry into disrepute. Good companies and excellent dealers can get unfairly tarred with the same brush.

Being able to drink hydrogen in ionized water is a wonderful thing and thousands of people are discovering the incredible benefits for themselves. However, while the science behind it is ancient, the industry is still fairly new outside Japan and Korea, where ionizers and hydrogen water machines have been available since the 1950s.

The Good Guys Have to Speak Out!

The water ionizer companies who work really hard to deliver excellence to their valued customers need to be unafraid to highlight substandard company practice when hard-won reputations are threatened.

The evidence on these videos is damning and tells it’s own story. At the end of the day and in all parts of life, competition is good. It can make even the best of us try to raise our game even further.

But when it leads to a company such as Echo/Synergy Science making false claims, finding angry dealers on its hands and disappointing its customers, nobody wins.