How can magnetic water descalers work

[John K]

Every bone in my body is screaming "they can't work" but I thought I would check with the Borg Brain Collective on the forum.

Is there any way an inline magnetic water softener / descaler work.

I have previously used a Combimate which you add 'balls' to, but to be honest it's been a right PITA so was looking around for an alternative.

It's not long before the Google starts to suggest Magnetic water softeners... But I really cannot see how they could work.

Perhaps if you ran your water supply through the LHC at CERN it might alter the makeup of the water in some way, but a magnet round your pipe..?

Sounds like BS, but I am listening...

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

The Wikipedia piece comes as near as I've seen one do, to calling it snake oil till proven otherwise...

clicky

[John K]

Will avoid...

And glad it seems to be BS, because my common sense gland was giving me a right good kicking

[Rory's Dad]

Our Brita filter has transformed our tea drinking - removing all the scum. Why do you need your water softening Mr K??

[pistonbroke]

A friend fitted one of these reverse osmosis treatment units , the water tasted clear and sweet when I tested it , thinking of doing one myself but a bit stuck for space in our small kitchen .

They use similar to these on boats and ships to get fresh potable water from seawater  

 

http://www.eastmidlandswater.com/products.asp?menuID=7&CategoryID=9&Cat=Reverse Osmosis

[John K]

33 minutes ago, Rory's Dad said:

Why do you need your water softening Mr K??

Apparently in Broadway we are borderline for being in a 'firm' water area.

You can notice the calcification on the spout of the kettle, but nothing too bad. Taps don't go rough or anything like that.

In terms of drinking water, the taste at home is great. My folks living on the south side of Nottingham did have horrible tasting water, but I got them a Brita jug and now I can actually drink the tea

When I had the original combi boiler fitted the plumber suggest a combimate (with Syphilis balls or something in it) on the cold water supply to the boiler to keep the heating plates in good nick. I was intending to do the same again - if you are dropping a few £ on a new boiler, seems prudent (unless the collective tells me otherwise)

So as for why - no urgent need, just protecting my investment. But if I do it. It will be with a Combimate and not a snake oil magnetatron (c)

[Rory's Dad]

Good man 

[Blatman]

Apparently in Broadway we are borderline for being in a 'firm' water area.

LOL. Down here in London the water is hard like concrete (except the water contains more solids...) and the chlorine is noticeable. I use a Brita for drinking/tea/coffee. At some point I'll be fitting a filtered tap to the sink and dispensing with the jug.

For the rest of the flat (and my house before) I have been using a Kinetico water softener and Harveys Block Salt therein. That's a total of nearly 20 years of having a Kinetico. As far as I am concerned, they are excellent. No damage happens to any of the internal pipework nor the boiler/rads despite reading (and ignoring) some dire warnings. In fact prolonged use should remove any limescale present and I can bear this out. I would not be without one. The main kitchen tap is fed from the mains. All other water goes through the softener. My washing machine is 10 years old and scale free. All my taps are almost scale free and and the rads seem to warm up quicker now compared to when I moved in. I know this 'cos I have adjusted the length of time they are on in the morning during winter. Soap and shampoo lather up more easily and it takes less to do so. Same for the washing machine, less soap required for the same amount of suds. Suffice it to say I'm a fan of the Kinetico water softener...

[corsechris]

I recently fitted a softener - just a cheap 'Water2Buy' made in China thing but it does the job well. Salt usage is quite low and the results were instantly noticeable. Our water came out the tap at about 250 mg/l. It's now around 20 mg/l. Shower no longer scummy, soap is properly soapy now. We've had filtered water for drinking for ages so its not made a difference to that, but I think it was well worth doing. Longer term I hope it'll help keep the rest of the kit in the house working well, although to be fair, most of it is probably already partially furred up.

Basically, same results as Blatman. Happy/10

[John K]

6 minutes ago, corsechris said:

Our water came out the tap at about 250 mg/l. It's now around 20 mg/l.

How do you get this measured? Do you have super special secret squirrel access to a testing lab or can mere mortals run DIY tests?

Because to be honest, I'm not so sure we do have 'hard' water - that was just the doom laden (probably A*** covering) report from Severn Trent.

If I do run a test and its shown to be baby soft - I won't bother because experience has shown the more things you have in the water system, the more places it can leak from.

As always thanks to all for the advice

[corsechris]

Just some testing strips from eBay.  Not exactly lab accuracy, but good enough for purpose.

these:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Total-Water-Hardness-Test-Strips/dp/B00XGMOLXQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501698333&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=edesia+express+water

[dombanks]

I had one of the RO systems from east mid water fitted at a previous job. It was ok but the reservoir ran out really quickly and took ages to fill. 

[Blatman]

On 8/2/2017 at 12:35, John K said:

How do you get this measured? Do you have super special secret squirrel access to a testing lab or can mere mortals run DIY tests?

Because to be honest, I'm not so sure we do have 'hard' water - that was just the doom laden (probably A*** covering) report from Severn Trent.

If I do run a test and its shown to be baby soft - I won't bother because experience has shown the more things you have in the water system, the more places it can leak from.

As always thanks to all for the advice

Loads of water hardness testers on Amazon from simple paper strips to electronic meters. Pool/jacuzzi water testers can be used to test for pH and chlorine.