Do Electronic Water Descalers Work Or Are There Better Methods?

We did a write up on a great product recently, which can be found here.  When you have pipes becoming blocked up with scale, you need help. Your faucets, showerheads, and sinks suffer too. The producer of the Eddy Electronic water descaler offers a warranty of 12 months, so you may want to consider the product and give it a try. You also run the risk of damage to washing machines, dishwashers, and other appliances. Do they work?  In a word YES, they do.

Does an electronic water descaler do the job? Are they a waste of money?

In the home water purification world, it is not uncommon to see a lot of manufacturers touting their products as the solution to all water contamination problems.

But most of these products are not what they are said to be, nor are they backed by real science. For example, in the product description of ClearWave, a popular electronic water descaler, the manufacturer makes a claim that seems to be over the top.

They state that their device uses electromagnetic waves to change compounds responsible for the hardness of the water in such a way that they don’t stick to appliances and pipes anymore.

While industrial solutions may be strong enough to totally remove calcium from pipes, home models are not that strong.

How to know if your electric water descaler is working?

Let’s assume that you bought an electronic water descaler worth hundreds of dollars – how can you tell if the device is working?

Before you install the water descaler, you first need to remove all existing scale in your fixtures and pipes and note how frequent you normally clean them up.

After removing the scale, install the water descaler and allow it to operate. Under ideal conditions, you would realize that scale does not build up as quickly as it used to, and even when it does, it is much easier to remove.

Another great way to know whether your water descaler is working is by checking the dishes after you have washed them– how many white spots do you see on them?

You may see a lot of white spots if you reside in an area with hard water. But having fewer or smaller white spots shows that your electronic water descaler is working.

Managing expectations

You need to remember that the descaler only reduces the amount of new scale that becomes deposited. It does not clean up the existing scale on pipes and fixtures.

If you are residing in an area with very hard water, an electric descaler will not have much effect since descalers made for home use are just not powerful enough to handle a lot of dissolved minerals.

Moreover, a descaler won’t completely remove the scale. All it is going to do is lower the rate at which scale is deposited.

So, let us assume that you normally clean up your fixtures once every two months. You may only have to clean them once every six months after the electronic descaler is installed.

What electronic water descalers WON’T do?

We found that a lot of users were not satisfied with the electric water descaler they purchased because:

• It did not eliminate iron (Fe2+) from the water
• The presence of a lot of iron in water is going to interfere with the action of the electromagnetic field, causing the descaler not to work as expected.
• The part per million (ppm) of dissolved minerals remained unchanged even after using the descaler for a long time.
• Water fixtures with existing scale didn’t lose their scale.

First of all, water descalers are not going to remove iron. We recommend you stick to reverse osmosis system if you want to eliminate heavy metals, like iron, from your household water.

Descalers have ultra tiny filters that are excellent at removing nearly all contaminants, leaving only water molecules. On the downside, this leads to a wastage of a lot of water. Plus, the filtered water becomes somewhat dull and tasteless since some of the minerals that produce taste have been lost as well.

You should also note that the PPM won’t change even after you’ve been running the device for a long time. The reason is that an electronic descaler will only prevent the accumulation and sticking of ions on fixtures and appliances.

How to get soft water

Lastly, if these solutions do not cut it, we suggest that you get a salt-based water softener. Electric water descalers and soft-free softeners are not as good as original salt water softeners.

If you want to truly eliminate chemicals that cause scale from water, then you will need to use a water softener. While there are many salt-free water softeners on the market, they do not get rid of chemicals. They just prevent them from sticking to your pipes.

Conclusions about do electronic water descalers work

Sad to say, the science behind magnetic water treatment is not as strong as it needs to be, and there are just a few studies on it. Also, the variables (fe2+, total hardness, existing scale on appliances) in play are so many that it is hard to control them and find out the particular situation these products help solve.

If you look around, you will realize that many people are satisfied with the product, and approximately the same number of people are not.  However, after going through the reviews, we can say that those who are not happy with the descaler are usually people who expected it to do what it wasn’t made to do. Hopefully, we’ve covered what you wanted to know about do electronic water descalers work or are they a gimmick.