Every can of hydrogen water was filled somewhere else, before you decided you wanted it. That single fact separates canned hydrogen water from a glass made on your own counter, and it shapes nearly everything else in this comparison.
We should say one thing up front. We do not test other companies' cans or pouches, so this article makes no statement about what any of them contain. It compares two ways of getting a glass of hydrogen water: buying it ready-made, one serving at a time, or owning the machine that makes it.
Two owners help frame the choice. Norm wanted to get this right for his household, and he never bought a trial product along the way. "This is our first shot," he said of the machine. Arsallan, who keeps a machine as the shared water station at his office in the San Diego area, took the same route. "I went straight to the machine," he said.
Two Formats, One Molecule
Start with what the two have in common. Hydrogen water is water with molecular hydrogen gas dissolved in it, whether it reached you in a can or came out of a pitcher. Our guide to what hydrogen water is covers the basics. The difference lies in where and when the water gets made.
What ready-made means
A can or pouch is a finished product. The water is prepared at a facility, sealed in single-serve packaging, sent through distribution and bought at a store or online. When you pick one up, the decision about when it was made has already happened, and that part of the timing sits outside your kitchen.
What made at home means
A hydrogen water machine sits on the counter. You fill it, run it, and pour. The water in your glass was made minutes ago, in your own kitchen, from water you chose. No delivery schedule. No case to carry in from the car.
What Researchers Measured After Opening
Hydrogen dissolves only sparingly, and that is true of every format. Johnsen et al. (2023), in a review of 81 clinical trials and 64 publications on human studies, drawn from a field with more than 2,000 publications, named hydrogen's low solubility as one of the challenges of delivering it. That is why researchers pay such close attention to how the water is prepared and handled.
Kurokawa et al. (2015) offer one useful window. The team prepared pressurized, super-saturated hydrogen water in laboratory PET bottles and followed it over time. Kept sealed, their preparations held their levels for seven days. Once the cap came off, levels fell significantly at one hour and again at two hours, and the authors advised drinking within two hours of opening. These were lab preparations, not retail products, so we do not read them as a statement about any can or pouch on a shelf.
The practical lesson applies to every glass, ours included: drink it soon after you pour it. Our article on how long hydrogen water lasts goes further. With a machine that habit takes care of itself, because the pour and the drink happen in the same few minutes. Arsallan keeps it simple too, saying that "the key thing is to not heat the water." Pour it cool. Drink it fresh.
How anyone can check a number
Gas chromatography is the gold standard for measuring hydrogen. Liu et al. (2014) used high-quality sensor gas chromatography, with samples prepared in airtight tubes, and reported a sensitive and stable determination of hydrogen concentration in rat tissue. For everyday readings of drinking water, a dissolved hydrogen meter is the practical tool, and our guide to how hydrogen in water is measured explains both. Three questions work on any hydrogen water product (ours included): Is the lab named? Is there a certificate number? Can you read the original document?
Buying by the Serving vs. Owning the Source
The biggest difference for most households is not chemistry. It is arithmetic.
The daily math
Ichihara et al. (2015), in a review of 321 original articles published from 2007 to June 2015, reported that hydrogen water was mostly given ad libitum, meaning freely rather than on a fixed schedule. Many of our owners use it the same way — it is simply the water they drink, and they aim for about 2 liters a day, often starting with two big glasses first thing in the morning before eating food. That is a common habit, not a medical recommendation, and it is where the formats pull apart, because a habit measured in liters means several single-serve containers every day, for every person in the home, bought again each week and carried in, opened and recycled.
Run your own numbers: price per serving, times daily servings for your household, times 365. A machine works the other way around, with one long-term equipment purchase and a fresh pitcher whenever you want one. The Lourdes Hydrofix Premium Edition is $2,599.90 (or about $234.66 a month with Shop Pay), and our breakdown of what you pay for in a machine shows where that money goes.
One source for the whole home
Norm and his wife both drink from the same machine, and they have for several years. Hydrogen water shows up "first thing in the morning," he says, and the machine has faded into the background of an ordinary week. Arsallan's version is bigger: staff and visitors pour from one machine at his office. His summary of how that has gone runs to three words. "People love it."
Taste plays a part in both stories, and it is easy to overlook. "We loved the taste," Norm said of his first glass. Arsallan's reason for drinking hydrogen water is just as plain: "I prefer to use hydrogen water because of the taste." Now he is thinking about a second machine for home, for "just the convenience of having another device so I don't have to carry large amounts of water back home." Someone who already owns a machine is weighing a second one rather than keep hauling water. That says plenty about carrying water as a daily habit.
Where the Lourdes Hydrofix Fits
Given these differences, here's how the Lourdes Hydrofix Premium Edition answers them, and why it is the one way of making hydrogen water we recommend. It makes the water at home, on demand, using separate-chamber (dual-chamber) electrolysis with a Multi-Layer Fibriform Polymer Membrane (MFPM), and it is designed to deliver up to approximately 1.6 ppm under normal conditions.
You can find the Lourdes Hydrofix in our best hydrogen water generator collection.
Every certificate number here is one you can look up on our Certifications page. That is not an accident; publishing everything is the standard we set. Japan Food Research Laboratories (JFRL), an independent testing lab, tested water from the machine under Certificate No. 23028707001-0201, and the selected substances on that certificate were not detected under test conditions. Masa International Corp., a third-party testing lab, performance-tested the hydrogen output (Test No. MM03-6024-01), and the marketed figure is approximately 120 mL/min, depending on usage conditions. A metallurgical certificate, No. 17-MANS-0078-B, covers the TP270C titanium at 99.928% purity. Every unit is tested before it leaves the factory and ships with its own certificate of authenticity.
Norm put the case more simply. "It looked like the best quality that we could find, and it's certainly met our expectations," he said, and when pressed on why, he pointed to "just the engineering part of it." Several years on, his verdict is one line: "It's been flawless in its performance, so the quality is absolutely there." Would he buy it again? "Yes, absolutely, we would do it again."
Arsallan treated his purchase as an evaluation — he put the machine where people would actually drink from it, let staff and visitors use it day after day, and left the verdict to the years, which is about as practical as a buying decision gets. "Pretty easy setup," he said, and nearly four years on he reports that "it's been working great." That is the appeal of owning the source. Fill it, run it, drink it, and the next glass never depends on what you remembered to buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is canned hydrogen water the same as hydrogen water from a machine? The dissolved gas is the same molecule. The difference is where and when it is made: a can is filled and sealed at a facility, while a machine makes the water at home right before you pour it.
Does Holy Hydrogen test canned or pouched hydrogen water? No. We do not test or review other companies' products, so we make no statement about them. Our testing record covers the machine we carry, and every certificate is published.
How soon should you drink hydrogen water after pouring? Most owners drink within a few minutes of pouring. Kurokawa et al. (2015) advised drinking lab-prepared hydrogen water within two hours of opening.
Related Reading
Further Reading
For the wider literature, see PubMed's results for hydrogen-rich water.
- Ichihara et al. (2015), Medical Gas Research. PMID: 26483953. A big-picture review of 321 papers, and a good place to see how researchers gave hydrogen water to study participants.
- Johnsen et al. (2023), Molecules. PMID: 38067515. A review that walks through the ways hydrogen can be delivered and why low solubility makes delivery a design question.
- Dhillon et al. (2024), International Journal of Molecular Sciences. PMID: 38256045. A systematic review of 25 articles on hydrogen-rich water, whose authors called early results encouraging and asked for larger, more rigorous studies.
- Kurokawa et al. (2015), Medical Gas Research. PMID: 26504515. The sealed and opened bottle measurements described above, with each preparation method laid out step by step.
- Liu et al. (2014), Scientific Reports. PMID: 24975958. A methods paper showing how a lab keeps a small, slippery gas from escaping while it is being measured.
References
- Johnsen HM, Hiorth M, Klaveness J. (2023). Molecules, 28(23). PMID: 38067515. DOI: 10.3390/molecules28237785.
- Kurokawa R, Seo T, Sato B, Hirano S, Sato F. (2015). Medical Gas Research, 5, 13. PMID: 26504515. DOI: 10.1186/s13618-015-0034-2.
- Liu C, Kurokawa R, Fujino M, Hirano S, Sato B, Li XK. (2014). Scientific Reports, 4, 5485. PMID: 24975958. DOI: 10.1038/srep05485.
- Ichihara M, Sobue S, Ito M, Ito M, Hirayama M, Ohno K. (2015). Medical Gas Research, 5, 12. PMID: 26483953. DOI: 10.1186/s13618-015-0035-1.
- Dhillon G, Buddhavarapu V, Grewal H, Sharma P, Verma RK, Munjal R, Devadoss R, Kashyap R. (2024). International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(2), 973. PMID: 38256045. DOI: 10.3390/ijms25020973.
Holy Hydrogen products, including the Lourdes Hydrofix Premium Edition, are not medical devices and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. All information on this site is provided for educational and general wellness purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before beginning any new wellness practice, especially if you have a medical condition, are pregnant or nursing, or take prescription medications.