I live in an area where water hardness is high so water softening is important. On one of the local TV stations a commercial (EasyWater) has been airing about a water conditioning system that needs no salt. I have gone to the EasyWater website and found advertising hype but no information that convinces me they are marketing a legitimate water conditioning system. What about their claims? emproche
I watched their video, and I remain skeptical. You plug in a book-size box next to your water pipe, and run a single wire to a clamp on the pipe. By “sending an electronic signal to the water,” the box allegedly makes the minerals unable to stick to anything. :dubious: That’s right, you still have the minerals, but they are transformed by the amazing box (!) into spherical thingies that won’t stick to anything. Unbelievable! :dubious:
I did a quick look at the Easywater site.
It appears that they’re promoting an electrical system. But the details do seem to be sketchy about how it’s working.
Whoops, they’re trying to promote larger particle formation. I have no idea how well that works.
I’m a licensed professional engineer with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering.
You unequivocally cannot treat hardness with magnets or “electronic technology.” The company that makes this system used to sell magnetic systems. Now they’ve moved on to a different type of snake oil.
It’s complete B.S. Don’t waste your money on this type of system. If you have hard water, get a water softener installed. If you are concerned about sodium in your drinking water, use potassium chloride (KCl) instead of sodium chloride (NaCl) for your softener.
There’s a chemical engineer on this forum who agrees with me:
Not an engineer like you are, but before we built our house I did a lot of research. If you want soft water on a consumer level scale, a conventional water softener is the way to go. As for the Sodium, it amounts to about as much as you get from a slice or two of store bought white bread.
Research seems to indicate that on an industrial scale there were alternative softening methods. Any comments on these robby?
If for some reason you doubt Robby’s straight dope and want to read a bit from a somewhat independent expert on water treatment,Google “Gary Slusser”.
He does sell water softeners but he is foremost a water systems enthusiast and very knowledgeable.No,I am not a customer.
Gary is a respected poster on another message board where I’m a member (countrybynet.com) His opinions and answers are generally held in high regard.
It depends on how hard the water is. The harder the water, the more sodium ions are exchanged for hardness (calcium and magnesium) ions. Also, the medical folks state that people generally consume more sodium than is healthy, and especially for people prone to hypertension, any bit that can be reduced helps. FWIW, I use potassium chloride for my home water softener.
Large water treatment systems generally address hardness with the lime-soda ash treatment, which precipitates out the hardness ions as insoluble hydroxides and carbonates, then filters or settles out the precipitates. Because the addition of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) and soda ash (sodium carbonate) must be carefully metered, and the method requires large settling tanks or filtration units, it’s not very practical for home use. This method works fine for industrial/commercial use, and is usually more cost-effective than large-scale ion exchangers (the technology used for home water softeners).
Glancing at his website, he seems pretty sharp.
He appears to be selling conventional systems that work, as opposed to magic systems (like the one mentioned in the OP) that don’t work.