Hard Water and Limescale

The problems associated with hard water are the result of our natural water supply filtering through sedimentary rock (particularly limestone and chalk) and the water absorbing additional minerals. These minerals form chemical compounds which form layers of scale in plumbing and appliances.

Government research shows that just 6mm of limescale (an average of 4 years accumulation) reduces energy efficiency by 40%. For the average household that means nearly £200 per annum extra in fuel costs. Add to that extra cleaning products, chemicals to soften the water, reduced appliance life, increased maintenance and the true cost of hard water is revealed.

Traditional Water Softeners

These are designed to remove the compounds that cause hardness. Water passes through the softener containing resin beads which attract the compounds and are cleaned with chemicals.
Households fitted with a water softener must leave at least one tap connected to the rising main to provide safe drinking and cooking water. There is growing concern by environmentalists over this type of softener as the used chemicals become yet another 'waste' product disposed of into the Ecosystem.

Magnetic conditioning devices

The UK Drinking Water Inspectorate says

“Some of these devices have been shown to be effective in reducing the amount of fur or scale that actually sticks to pipes or heating elements. They do not soften water. However, not all products on the market give satisfactory performance. You are advised not to buy one of these devices unless the supplier will agree to a sale or return, subject to satisfactory performance.”

Cranfield University,UK, says

"The subject of Antiscale Magnetic Treatments  remain controversial and are still labelled as gadgetry in some scientific circles. The debate is understandable; for many years the positive effects well documented in trade literature resulting from industrial applications have been undermined by the apparent lack of good results from laboratory tests. In addition, some manufacturers continue to promote ineffective devices (with dubious literature) for applications where no real evidence exists, anecdotal or otherwise to show that they could ever, or have ever worked. However, many devices on the market have reasonably good track records, but even these have occasionally proven ineffective in certain situations.

One thing is for sure - there is an interaction between a magnetic field and crystallising matter which can, on occasions affect its scaling behaviour. As engineers we are primarily interested in deducing a satisfactory design basis and the conditions under which the process will repeatedly work, as scientists we want to know how it works."

Trinity College Dublin says

"This is a controversial subject. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of devices have been sold worldwide which purport to control limescale formation from hard water. Some involve steady magnetic fields, low-frequency or radio-frequency ac fields, others create electrostatic fields. Our work so far has been aimed at discovering whether or not there is anything to explain. In our experiments, water is passed through a magnetic field produced by permanent magnets. A first series of blind tests was conducted on well water drawn through a commercial magnetic device and a second series involved pouring out mineral water with a magnetic collar around the neck of the bottle. In every case there was a control where no magnetic field was applied. Limescale was produced by heating the water to 80 °C afer waiting for some time ti and the scale was examined by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Two structural polymorphs of CaCO3 - calcite and aragonite - were identified in the study conducted by Stephen Cass. Aragonite has the higher density, and it is less prone to form hard scale   The remarkable results are i) that at the 99.9 % probability level  the scale from treated water contained more aragonite than scale from untreated water, and ii) that the effect of magnetic treatment persists for more than 200 hours. " 

As you can see, there seems to be a consensus that something happens to reduce scale, but no-one yet knows the mechanism.  

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