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Some while ago, I posted this topic on another forum (elsewhere) and was greeted with much skepticism and disbelief. I was not surprised and would have taken this view if it were not for personal experience.
There are a lot of products available for fitting to the incoming water supply which are claimed to reduce limescale. The seem to be based on permanent magnets or electromagnets which are pulsed.
I live in Brighton - a very chalky area - and my taps and heater elements used to accumulate a very hard limescale deposit. This was particularly noticeable on the underside of taps, where a very hard 'stalactite' would form. It was so hard that you needed a knife to scrape it off. Kettle elements used to build up a thick hard layer very quickly.
Several years ago I fitted one of the 'electronic' versions, which involved wrapping a coil of (about 100 turns of) wire around the rising main. There was no dramatic change but I soon found that the electric kettle now seems to shed its scale and you can empty most of it out after sloshing water round it and the taps, having cleaned them off once, just need a mild scraping with a fingernail to remove the scale buildup. I couldn't say that there is less scale but its nature has definitely changed.
There is no need to introduce the topics of double blind tests and objective measurement methods into this thread because, of course, that is the only way to treat the subject properly but I have no such evidence.
BUT i should really like to know if informed opinions have changed significantly about the subject and are there any worthwhile theories to explain or justify my experience. Many plumbers 'swear by them' which is some sort of evidence, I guess and I have read the instructions for installing one form of solar heating which expressly discourage the use of this form of scale preventer as the particles can clog narrow pipes.
I really don't need to be told that it just isn't happening because X,Y or Z is true. If it's a placebo effect then how can that be affecting what we 'see'?
I feel a bit awkward about posting this as I have made some pretty devastating comments about other ' alternative' Science claims but I have seen something happen and would love to hear an explanation.
There are a lot of products available for fitting to the incoming water supply which are claimed to reduce limescale. The seem to be based on permanent magnets or electromagnets which are pulsed.
I live in Brighton - a very chalky area - and my taps and heater elements used to accumulate a very hard limescale deposit. This was particularly noticeable on the underside of taps, where a very hard 'stalactite' would form. It was so hard that you needed a knife to scrape it off. Kettle elements used to build up a thick hard layer very quickly.
Several years ago I fitted one of the 'electronic' versions, which involved wrapping a coil of (about 100 turns of) wire around the rising main. There was no dramatic change but I soon found that the electric kettle now seems to shed its scale and you can empty most of it out after sloshing water round it and the taps, having cleaned them off once, just need a mild scraping with a fingernail to remove the scale buildup. I couldn't say that there is less scale but its nature has definitely changed.
There is no need to introduce the topics of double blind tests and objective measurement methods into this thread because, of course, that is the only way to treat the subject properly but I have no such evidence.
BUT i should really like to know if informed opinions have changed significantly about the subject and are there any worthwhile theories to explain or justify my experience. Many plumbers 'swear by them' which is some sort of evidence, I guess and I have read the instructions for installing one form of solar heating which expressly discourage the use of this form of scale preventer as the particles can clog narrow pipes.
I really don't need to be told that it just isn't happening because X,Y or Z is true. If it's a placebo effect then how can that be affecting what we 'see'?
I feel a bit awkward about posting this as I have made some pretty devastating comments about other ' alternative' Science claims but I have seen something happen and would love to hear an explanation.