tags: Questions, Science
Do electronic limescale inhibitors work?
June 22nd, 2005, by Rich.
I’ve been intermittently toying with the idea of fitting an Anti-Limescale device to the water supply in our home.
Today, with the delivery of a new phone book, I got a flyer describing a product called ScaleWatcher which reminded me of my occasional curiosity with the subject. It’s a nice convincing-looking flyer, with a money back guarantee, so I’m tempted to give it a go.
We have a nice glass sided kettle so it’ll be really obvious if it actually works.
I may be forced to try a little experiment and take daily pictures of my kettle, so please spare me from the madness and give me some definite answers:
- Has anyone I know actually used a household electric water softener?
- Was the experience worthwhile?
- Are they any better than the magnetic or salt based ones?
December 17th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
IF there is no doubt about the effectiveness of electronic or magnetic scale inhibitors or their function then why are so many of us doubting? Why do manufacturers need to promote these producs with guarantees?
Well for the same reason so many have pointed out before:
- Lack of scientific theory of operation and explanation
- Lack of hard evidence (non-anectdotal)
- Lack of independent tests
We installed a Scalewatcher about five years ago in our house on the mains pipe in the kitchen. It has made no visible or tangible difference. However, short of cutting open pipes and boiler I cannot say for certain it has made NO difference at all. And even if I did, how do I know it’s any better than before?
All I know is that the shower, taps and kettle still get lime scale as usual.
January 1st, 2009 at 12:06 am
My electric shower used to scale up completely within a year and needed the head cleaning weekly. I was sceptical about electronic water conditioners and before buying I checked out how these things worked on the internet. Interestingly I came across a university conference site where this topic had been discussed. Apparently the results were mixed depending on where you lived. They do work for certain types of hard water but not for others depending on the mineral content. Also the changes to the water only last about a couple of days so if conditioned water is stored say in a header tank in the loft then it will revert to normal. Anyway I decided to buy at less than £40 and since then (3 years) the shower has not furred up, the head has only had to be rinsed out twice in this period but I do get a soft powder deposit in the kettle. I replaced a failed heating element last year on the washing machine which was spotless but I recently had to renew the hot water tank as this was all furred up and started to leak (30 years). I get my water from the river Wye.