Magnetic water conditioning magnetic modules and complete units are sold for encircling your incoming water line.
The magnetic field is alleged to netralize the effects of dissolved solids.
Prices range from about $100 to $300.
Do you have any creditable information to confirm or deny?
Is Magnetic Water Conditioning Real or Scam?
Magnets attract nickle, iron, and I believe cobalt.
Nothing else.
So, no.
Well, water is magnetic (slightly). But I strongly suspect this is a scam.
I thought “Magnetic Water Conditioning” was the Pink Floyd album between “Ummagumma” and “Atom Heart Mother”…
(Yes, I know it was actually Zabriski Point, but that was a soundtrack.)
Definitely maybe.
God knows, there are hundreds of sites on the Net that will tell you the benefits of magnetic water conditioning - from the manufacturers of magnetic water conditioning products. But the Snake Oil salesman will claim his Snake Oil will cure your cancer while it lubricates your snake - that doesn’t necessarily make it true. Always take the claims of the salesmen - whether they’re selling water softeners or magnets - with a grain (or handful) of salt. Similarly, I seldom trust the anecdotal “evidence” of users, who may feel that their home systems work, but who seldom have the impartial evidence to prove their claims.
More trustworthy sources seem to indicate that yes, there may be some benefit from magnetic conditioning of water - but that doesn’t mean that every system that is for sale to home-owners is effective, or that magnetic conditioning is “better” than other systems. The “seed” for magnetic conditioning seems to be an article by K. J. Kronenberg in* IEEE Transactions on Magnetics* (Vol. Mag-21, No. 5, September 1985, pages 2059-2061):
So what the heck does this mean? Basically, the calcium carbonate in “hard” water can be precipitated out as aragonite instead of calcite. Aragonite is much less adherent to heat exchange surfaces (boilers), and tends to form smaller-grained or softer-scale deposits. But note that scale is not eliminated, just changed to a different form. It still has to be removed from the system, through filtration or flushing.
And will the typical home unit work? Maybe. The water content has an effect - silica or iron in the water will contaminate a magnetic system, as will particles (undissolved solids), so pre-treatment of the incoming water stream may be required. The magnetic unit should be located at least 36" away from your 220v electrical panel, and you should not be using the water supply pipe as your electrical ground, as this can induce currents that will disrupt the process. Many homes have a “utility room” that includes the electrical panel (grounded to a cold water pipe), furnace and water conditioner - not the ideal setup for a magnetic conditioner to give optimum performance.
Several sites that I found quote all or part of this article which is claimed to come from the US Dept. of Energy, and which certainly seems to be technically accurate - but it specifically says “Devices intended for home use, as well as other non-chemical means for scale control, such as reverse osmosis, are not within the extended scope of this FTA.”
Also, this Skeptical Inquirer article indicates that magnetic systems, while they may work, are probably no more effective and perhaps less reliable than more conventional technologies for water softening.
FWIW, magnetic water conditioners have been sold for industrial use for 23 years that I know of.
Also, magnets attract or repel things based on more than what elements are there. It has to do with the structure or arrangements of the atoms too.
Magnets attract typical solid hunks of iron, cobalt, nickel, and aluminum well enough that you can play with them and observe it with your eyes.
Magnets also repel bismuth and water well enough to observe with your eyes. For example, you can hold a good sized neodymium iron boron magnet, which can give a field intensity of better than a tesla, low over the surface of water in a bowl, and observe that the water gets a dimple in it below the magnet as it is repelled.
I know there are other things you can observe magnets interacting with but don’t remember what they are at the moment.
Conductors moving through a magnetic field (vice versa) will have an electric current induced in them. This electric current, in turn, produces a magnetic field opposite in polarity to the inducing field, producing an attractive force. This effect is used practically in high-quality balances to damp the oscillations of the beam. An aluminum (a nonferromagnetic material) plate mounted on the end of the beam is placed between two magnets. The resulting interation damps the oscillations much faster than would occur otherwise. You can observe this effect yourself with couple strong magnets and a pendulum with an aluminum disk on the end. With the magents present, the pendulum stops after a very few cycles. Without them, it takes considerably longer to stop.
[Nitpick]
Very true, assuming the following:
Right. It doesn’t have to be a wire, though. It can be a solid hunk of metal, which has the property of having an infinite number of circuit loops in it.
Actually, I should correct my post above. The magnetic polarity is dependant upon the direction of the current loop AND the polarity of the inducing field and whether it is increasing or decreasing. The induced field will be opposite in polarity if the field is decreasing, and of the same polarity if it is increasing.
The most visually striking demonstration of this I’ve ever seen is a simple arrangement you can build yourself. Attach one of a pair of nonferrous (aluminum works well) metal loops to each end of a nonconductive rod (a wood dowel is perfect), so that they are oriented in the same direction. Cut one of the loops at some point to break the circuit, but leave the other intact. Balance the rod on a needle bearing, so that the loops are oriented vertically, and the whole is free to turn easily. If you bring a string magnet towards the closed loop, the arm will swing away from it. If you then reverse and pull the magnet away, the arm will follow, instead. Doing the same on the end with the cut loop will produce no result.