eebeegeebee asked:
Has anyone got an electronic water descaler fitted to thier pipes? Is it effective in cutting down the amount of limescale that accumulates in the kettle. I mean the small box type fitted to your cold pipe, not the more expensive water softener installations. thank you
Has anyone got an electronic water descaler fitted to thier pipes? Is it effective in cutting down the amount of limescale that accumulates in the kettle. I mean the small box type fitted to your cold pipe, not the more expensive water softener installations. thank you
February 8th, 2010 at 2:53 am
Anecdotally most people believe they do work. However when I looked into this 12 years ago I found a report done on them for the Water Research Council based on work carried out at Garston.
This report found that their working was completely unreliable.
1) They might work in a house and then mysteriously after a few weeks become totally ineffective.
2) The same design might work in one house but in the next door house of the same design not work at all.
3) Although at one time they were believed to alter zeta potential ( the charge on tiny particles of scale caused by friction in the water) preventing these particles coagulating it was actually found that zeta potential varied so widely from day to day that this couldn’t be the mechanism.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:42 am
Hydraflo are probably one of the best on the market. I live in a really hard water area and have had my last kettle for nearly 5 yrs with a Hydraflo fitted to my combi boiler. Nothing but praise for them.What it does is keep the limescale in the water with a small electric current put into every water pipe into the house, stopping the limescale sticking to the pipes / elements /immersion htrs etc.
You have to be very careful where you fit them and be careful of earth bonding as this can effect their performance.
February 11th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
There are ‘magnetic’ scale preventers that clip round the pipes, much the same thing. Given that it affects the linkage of the molecules electrically, the effect does not last very long. (about 2 hours) Hence, the one for my washing machine is on the inlet to the machine