Do inline scale reducers work?

stockhausen

stockhausen

stockhausen

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I have been advised to fit an inline scale reducer on the incoming water mains.

These claim to "Use the principles of electrolytic action to alter the characteristics of hard water so that limescale simply passes through a domestic hot water system without sticking to the heat exchange surfaces."

This sounds like complete nonsense to me. Does anyone have any experience of these? Do they make any sort of scientific sense at all?
 
I don't know, but would be interested to find out too, the water in Lincs is so hard it produces masses of scale.


err: someone edited my post?

I hope the same action will be taken in future to everyone else then, especially since I was just being tongue in cheek.
 
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I've read that these are recommended to be fitted to American style fridge freezers with ice & water dispensers to increase the life of the filters. As I have on arriving shortly is it worth adding one in line?
 
what? to prevent scale you would need to chemically alter the calcium (bi)carbonate. There is no way a magnetic field as small as they claim could do this, it could, possibly have an effect on disolved ferous metals. I don't believe that these small, in-line 'solutions' are effective.
However, show me the chemistry and I will happily change my view.
 
I ha spent some time Googling these things and it seems they are pretty much a con, without any reproducible scientific evidence to prove they work.

Someone I asked about them pointed me in the direction of a similar con trick from the past. The spark plug enhancer was a popular car tune-up scam. It consisted of two screws embedded in plastic with the threads exposed. You were supposed to cut the HT lead and insert the device - it allegedly resulted in massively increased MPG and was an absolute snip at just £14.99 :p

So, no inline scale reducer for me then even at a £50 supplied and fitted.
 
Sundance said:
I think they make some scientific sense, but they don't actually "soften" the water as such.

http://www.scalewatcher.co.uk/pages/what_can_you_do.asp
Click to expand...

And from that glorious advert, this glorious pseudoscience:

As the name suggests, when water flows through the inhibitor, it crosses a magnetic field. This causes the tiny crystals to adhere to each other altering their shape and size rendering them less likely to attach to plumbing.
Click to expand...


Complete cobblers. If they worked every house would already have one.


M
 
They don't actually stop the scale, you would need a water softener for that but from what I know make the scale less stubborn so easier to clean off.
 
My wife got one though British Gas to put on the feed to our combi boiler. I was completely sceptical and as an engineer I wanted to know how it works and wasnt coonvinced, but I have to say that the shower head hasnt furred up like it used to:confused:
 
We have a combination boiler German Vaillant 30 years old still working fine without clogging and protected with a salamander magnetic devise in a very hard water area
 
I think scalemaster is a bit like the Hydrosonic pump (AKA Griggs machine).

"Obviously" it cant work the way it is claimed to work.

But

People who fit it do seem to have less problems with scale :confused:

In much the same way, customers who replace their immersion heaters with hydrosonic pumps use a lot less electricity.

At the end of the day they don't care about the physics as long as it works!

(The people who DO care are of course the Physicists who cannot really figure out what is actually happening. But this is a more common problem than you might think)
 
We are in one of the hardest water areas of the country, boiler taps etc completely knackered all the time, fitted inline magnetic stuff and was useless, fitted a combimate 18 months ago and the difference is amazing, limescale appears but as dust so easily wipeable etc
 
MikeB said:
We are in one of the hardest water areas of the country, boiler taps etc completely knackered all the time, fitted inline magnetic stuff and was useless, fitted a combimate 18 months ago and the difference is amazing, limescale appears but as dust so easily wipeable etc
Click to expand...
The ingredients a one a them Combimates don't 'alf put air on yer chest!
 
MikeB said:
We are in one of the hardest water areas of the country, boiler taps etc completely knackered all the time, fitted inline magnetic stuff and was useless, fitted a combimate 18 months ago and the difference is amazing, limescale appears but as dust so easily wipeable etc
Click to expand...

Has it affected water pressure at all? reduced it?
 
We have a scalewatcher installed by previous residents... its been turned on and off at random over the years - mostly by accident with rather interesting results...

It appears to have pretty much no impact generally (i.e. never noticed a difference with the kettle when its been on or off for weeks at a time)... however there is a big difference to how quickly the shower head gets gunked up... but its fitted to the piping before the kitchen and after the bathroom... so that doesn't seem to make sense to me - but it seems to be more than just coincidence.
 
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