# Electronic Hard Water Conditioners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-hard-water-conditioners/529360 "2010-02-17T17:41:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inspector911](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Inspector911](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inspector911)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-hard-water-conditioners/529360/1 "2010-02-17T17:41:25Z")
Ok, I have hard water. I heard a “Smart Water” commercial. No salt, passive type system. A coil of wire is wrapped around the main water line. The coil is supposed to make the hard water NOT STICK to surfaces for approx. 7 days, end of story. Some people say you should spend your money on Magic Beans instead, too good to be true. The science seems somewhat simple, so I believe it. Does this work? Where can the science be found? The system is said to de-scale your entire home plumbing system. Systems range from $1300 to $200. Anyone? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-hard-water-conditioners/529360/2 "2010-02-17T18:05:51Z")
the science is simple. apply a vacuum to your wallet and the money gets sucked out. just slick marketing with science sounding buzz to fool people who don’t know science and technical stuff. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-hard-water-conditioners/529360/3 "2010-02-17T18:09:18Z")
I have an electronic water conditioner that works great. Every day at about 3 AM it electronically recharges the ion exchange resin that removes magnesium and calcium. I do have to manually add potassium chloride every so often though. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-hard-water-conditioners/529360/4 "2010-02-17T18:19:54Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > I have an electronic water conditioner that works great. Every day at about 3 AM it electronically recharges the ion exchange resin that removes magnesium and calcium. I do have to manually add potassium chloride every so often though. OP was not asking about using salt for water conditioning 😃 ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-hard-water-conditioners/529360/5 "2010-02-17T18:21:37Z")
check out > **[Electric/Magentic water conditioner effectiveness?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=531101)** > > Question for the Teeming Millions, hoping one or more of you ha the Straight Dope on products like the Water Imp/Elf. We have particularly hard water and have had mineral deposits in our dishwasher. A neighbor indicated that their mineral issue seem... ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-hard-water-conditioners/529360/6 "2010-02-18T03:00:45Z")
Magic Beans, really you mean that you have a source for magic beans.