What is a hydrogen bath and is it good for skin?

A hydrogen bath on an Ella walk-in tub is a normal warm bath into which a built-in generator infuses molecular hydrogen gas as micro and nano bubbles, started with one press of the H2 button. The generator and its pump sit under the molded seat and are fed from a small tank of distilled water, and by the time the tub fills to the drain overflow the bath water carries 1500 PPB of dissolved hydrogen, which is 1.5 ppm. Ella's published list of studied benefits includes improved skin health, and the hardware itself is described in What Is H2 Hydrogen Therapy on a Walk-In Tub?. This page explains how the bath is made, what is actually in the water, what Ella says hydrogen bathing does for skin and body, and how you can verify the hydrogen level yourself.

Please read this as product information rather than medical advice. The benefits below are the ones Ella describes as having been studied, and your physician is the right person to ask about your own skin or health condition.

How a Hydrogen Bath Is Made

You do not make hydrogen water separately and pour it in. The tub makes it while you fill. On a Standard60 with the H2 and Microbubbles System the steps are:

1. Before the very first use, cut the shipping ties holding the container under the tub, remove the container, connect the hose to the front of the tub, and fill the blue tank with distilled water. Distilled water is available at any grocery or drug store.
2. Fill the tub with warm water from the faucet as you normally would, until the water is above the hydrogen inlet jet and the microbubble port. The pump must never run dry.
3. Press the H2 button once. The generator draws distilled water from the blue tank, produces hydrogen and injects it into the bath as micro and nano bubbles through a single jet below seat level. On the Standard60 the microbubble system runs with it and the water turns milky white.
4. Soak. The concentration reaches 1500 PPB by the time the tub fills to the drain overflow, and it can rise to about 2000 PPB, which is 2.0 ppm, during an extended 15 to 20 minute bath.
5. Press the button again to stop, and switch the system off before you open the drain so the pump is not left running as the water level falls.

Because the hydrogen rides in nano bubbles, it stays in the water longer than it otherwise would. The Standard60 setup, including the button on the deck and the blue tank, is walked through in H2 microbubble therapy on the Standard60: setup, distilled water, and what to expect.

What Is Actually in the Water

Two different waters are involved, and searchers often confuse them. The bath water is the ordinary water from your faucet. It is not distilled and does not need to be. The distilled water goes only into the blue tank that feeds the generator. Tap water contains minerals the generator is not designed for, so topping up the tank with anything other than distilled water can lead to weak output or a dirty tank over time. If the bubbles ever seem weak, fresh distilled water in the tank is the first thing to check.

What the generator adds to your bath is molecular hydrogen gas, H2, delivered as bubbles. Ella's video describes hydrogen molecules as tiny and highly permeable, which is why they are said to penetrate cells easily. Hydrogen is the only thing the sources describe the generator adding to the bath water. On the Standard60 the microbubble half of the package also fills the water with billions of oxygen-rich bubbles, each smaller than 50 microns, and that system produces water with up to 70 percent more oxygen than regular tap water. The cloudy white water is the therapy working, not a water quality problem. Microbubble on its own, without hydrogen, is covered in Infusion Microbubble Therapy: What It Does and Which Tubs Offer It.

What Hydrogen Bathing Is Said to Do for Skin and Body

Ella's hydrogen therapy video, which plays on this page, presents the system as inspired by leading researchers in molecular hydrogen in Japan. Its central claim is that once absorbed, hydrogen neutralizes harmful free radicals, which cause cell damage and accelerate aging. The video then lists other potential benefits that have been studied:

• Increased muscle performance and faster muscle injury recovery.
• Anti-aging effects and fat cell reduction.
• Improved skin health.
• A boosted immune system, reduced stress and overall mood improvement.

For skin specifically, the microbubble half of the Standard60 package is the part bathers notice first. Ella describes it as a skin therapy rather than a massage: the bubbles soften and exfoliate the skin, and customers with dry or sensitive skin choose it most often. Ella presents hydrogen's skin benefit as one that has been studied rather than as a guarantee, and it is worth keeping that wording in mind when you read claims elsewhere.

How You Can Verify the Hydrogen Level

Every hydrogen tub is individually tested for hydrogen production before it ships and comes with verifiable test results. The sheet that ships with your tub is the authoritative number for your unit, and Ella guarantees levels of up to 2.2 ppm per those results. The test video on this page shows how the measurement is done. A 6 mL sample is dosed with drops of a blue reagent that turns clear in the presence of dissolved hydrogen. With regular tap water, the first drop stays blue, which indicates 0.1 ppm of hydrogen or less. With water from an Ella tub fitted with the generator, the sample stays clear drop after drop until the twenty-second drop, which means 2.2 ppm. The point at which additional drops no longer turn clear is the titration end point.

The figures fit together once you convert units, since 1000 PPB equals 1 ppm:

• 1500 PPB, or 1.5 ppm: the level by the time the tub fills to the drain overflow. The Standard60 spec sheet states the same figure after 5 minutes of operation.
• 2000 PPB, or 2.0 ppm: the level the water may rise to during an extended 15 to 20 minute bath.
• 2.2 ppm, or 2200 PPB: the result measured on Ella's demonstration tub and the ceiling of the up-to guarantee.

The side-by-side explanation of PPB and PPM is in Common Questions About Ella Hydrogen Therapy: PPB and PPM, How It Is Generated, Which Tubs Can Have It and the Test Video.

Which Tubs Offer It and What to Keep

The Standard60 is the catalog model with the H2 and Microbubbles System, which pairs the hydrogen generator with infusion microbubble therapy on a 1 HP, 10A pump with a pressure vessel and agitator valve. Ella's video says any Ella walk-in tub can be outfitted with a hydrogen generator, ordered on its own or as a combo with other jetting packages, and the knowledge base adds that special-order installation in other tubs depends on the space available under the deck. Ask your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 about your specific tub before assuming either way. Keep the test results that shipped with your tub with your other paperwork, and for any ticket have your model, serial number and those results at hand.

Watch: Do Hydrogen Therapy Walk-In Tubs Really Work? Ella's Bubbles Puts It to the Test | Ellas Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

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