Don’t buy this · Water
Don't pay extra for alkaline or ionised water
The verdict
An alkaline cartridge adds minerals back to RO water and raises its pH. That part is real. The claims usually attached to it — that it changes your body's pH, neutralises acidity or confers health benefits — are not supported, and are inconsistent with the fact that stomach acid sits at roughly pH 1.5 to 3.5 and will neutralise alkaline water within minutes of drinking it. If you like the taste, that is a legitimate reason to buy it. Health is not.
When this does not apply to you
Placed here rather than at the end, because if one of these describes your situation then the rest of this page is the wrong advice and you should know that now.
You dislike the flat taste of RO water
This is a real and sufficient reason. RO removes the minerals that give water its character, and a remineralisation stage puts some back. Buy it for taste, knowingly, and it is money well spent.
You are drinking exclusively very low TDS water
Remineralisation also slightly reduces the corrosiveness of very low mineral water towards metal fittings. A narrow benefit, but a genuine one.
A clinician has advised it for a specific condition
Follow medical advice over a website. This page is about marketing claims made to the general public, not about individual clinical guidance.
Why you were told otherwise
Usually not because anyone lied to you. Almost every claim in this category is technically true and incomplete, which is a much more durable technique.
- Alkaline is one of the few remaining ways to differentiate an RO unit, because the core technology is a commodity.
- The claims are vague enough to be hard to falsify in a showroom — 'better hydration', 'neutralises acidity', 'antioxidant'.
- It adds a recurring consumable, which is worth more to a manufacturer than the one-time premium.
- The pH number is measurable and demonstrable, which lets a demonstration prove something true while implying something else.
What to do instead
A page that only says no is an opinion. This is the part that makes it useful.
- 1
Spend the premium on a laboratory water test
₹1,200 to ₹3,000 buys you a full panel that tells you what is actually in your water — which changes what you should buy far more than a pH stage does.
Read more → - 2
Spend it on better pre-treatment instead
On borewell water, an iron filter or a softener ahead of the RO extends membrane life dramatically. That is a genuine return; a pH stage is not.
Read more → - 3
Buy the remineralisation stage if you want it for taste
Nothing wrong with that. Just buy it knowing what you are buying — a taste improvement, which it delivers, rather than a health benefit, which it does not.
Note
Frequently asked questions
Does alkaline water have health benefits?
Is an alkaline cartridge worth the extra cost?
What is a good pH for drinking water?
Cost figures are indicative Indian market ranges for budgeting, last reviewed 2026-08-08. This page argues about the general case; the exceptions section above is where the specific case is dealt with, and it is written honestly rather than as a hedge.