Reducing water hardness

[snowbird]

Has anyone had problems with hard water at your house? What have you done about it?

The plumber suggested putting in a device to reduce the hardness (which I believe means high levels of calcium carbonate and magnesium) in the house water supply. It's not the traditional water softening approach based on adding salt to the water. Instead the device works by passing the water through magnetic fields and this is supposed to keep the calcium and magnesium suspended in the water, rather than forming deposits in the plumbing and appliances.

Any thoughts on if this alternative technology is plausible? I'm a little skeptical since the major retailers don't carry this kind of system and the big manufaturers like GE and Whirlpool seem to be sticking with the water softener approach, but if this alternative is credible it would be a lot easier than a water softening system.

I've attached a link to the manufacturer website. Thanks for any thoughts!

http://www.halowater.com/ION%20Detail.htm

[77T]

Whichever system you choose, it may be a good thing to use a water purifier for your drinking water (or go bottled).

[Demosthene]

Your right to be sceptical, magnetic hard water treatment is essentially a pseudoscience.
You can read in more detail about it here.
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/magscams.html

[snowbird]

Originally Posted by Demosthene

Your right to be sceptical, magnetic hard water treatment is essentially a pseudoscience.
You can read in more detail about it here.
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/magscams.html

Thanks. Not an encouraging report on this technology!

[xbox]

From my personal experience after installing a coil based device, there was a difference.

It was during a period when we boiled copious amounts of water to heat baby bottles and we noticed the presence of a powder that would settle at the bottom of jugs/pans that were left to sit. Seemed a good idea to use a jug filter after seeing this.

Water staining was also reduced, as were plug/tap build-ups.

Just my 2c.

[ducatidoc]

I found the old tried-and-true system to be the best. Suggest using potassium chloride as opposed to sodium chloride in the reservoir.

[snowbird]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. It seems like there's a lot more evidence for the traditional ion exchange/salt approach and no question that way works.

[looking to buy]

I use a soft water company from my local area. They do not use salt. They use what they call resin beads with sodium attached to the resin. Here is a excerpt from their web page.

"Filtering water involves separating mineral particles, like manganese, iron, hydrogen sulfide or other organic matter, from pure H2O. By passing water through a "filter bed," or "media bed," these granular particles are trapped - and clean, purified water passes through the bed.

Softening water involves something called "ion exchange" to remove dissolved minerals - like calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese - that can't be trapped in a filter bed.Softeners use fresh resin beads with sodium attached to the resin. As water enters the tank, dissolved calcium and magnesium are attracted to the resin. The resin passes up the sodium in exchange for the dissolved chemicals and the water is then rid of these impurities."