Scale Wizard (limescale inhibitor)

Yes. Pure unadulterated snake oil.

Many people have tried and used such devices.

It will not work.

Scale Wizards website states "that water remains chemically unchanged". So there you have the proof. £90 to do sod all.

Adam

Then you can get a magnet that goes on your cars gas line, and one on your head

The latter would never penetrate my alluminiun foil hat though....

Couldn't resist doing a Google Shopping search for snake oil :-)

Owain

Oh FFS.

Look there are two schools of thought on this. One is the rational, scientific view that such a device cannot produce the effects claimed. And the other is the view of f*****ts like Dr Drivel.

There should be an entry in the FAQ about this.

No, the rational scientific view is

1. the explanations given by the manufacturers are pure bullshit
2. It's difficult to come up with an explanation that fits with our otherwise very effective understanding of the physics and chemistry involved

and

1. Nearly all the respectable tests show no effect.

hence

1. They almost certainly¹ don't work.

Doesn't quite explain why similar systems are used in industrial applications. However, IIRC, for a magnet to be effective on the typical domestic mains supply it would need to be the size of a large fridge.

No, but funnily enough just the other day I was reading this:

Shortened:

I do happen to know someone who sells these things and swears blind that they really do work. But then, if I were selling them, I do the same ;)

Al.

As I've posted before, a building maanger in a place I worked at got tired of paying for water treatment chemicals. He installed several of these "scale inhibitors" and ceased to use the tried and tested methods of avoiding scale formation (water softener and phosphates). Within a couple of years of the chance the boiler for two industrial scale autoclaves suffered from severe scale build up. Energy costs rose and descaling and maintenance costs went through the roof. He was sacked.

The reason why these and similar systems are used in industrial applications are that there are individuals who believe in witchcraft and they purchase the systems in question. Not every business purchase is based on performing an objective evaluation of the system to be purchased.

Even then it's going to do precisely f*ck all.

I believe the industrial "successes" (if such they be) are those with permanent magnets rather than coils and where the systems are sealed (ie the same water passes the magnet many times), *entirely* different to a poxy little coil on a rising main, which will have no effect at all.

My missus bought one of these some years ago and I duly fitted it.

The kettle *seemed* to stay cleaner for a bit longer but still scaled up eventually.

A month or so after fitting, the head on our electric shower started to block regularly and needed cleaning twice a week or so. If I ran the shower on full flow without the head, bits of crap would come out for quite some time, and, upon closer inspection I could see that they were bits of limescale with a slight curve on them which indicated to me that they had come from the element.

I unplugged the scalewatcher a month ago and have not needed to clean the shower head since, the kettle looks the same.

My verdict: (A) They *do* something to the water in the system. (B) They are s*it.

No reason why snake oil can't be sold for industrial applications :-)

At half term we went to a show at the Peter Harrison Planetarium at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. It's covered in an 8mm phosphor bronze shell.

At the start of the show they asked us to turn off our mobile phones but commented that anyone who could get a signal must have quite a phone!

Recently having had to have the plate heat exchanger on my combi replaced, I was looking at the Cistermiser siliphos thing that someone mentioned in another thread. It seems to be ca £100 + a refill costing about £15 each year afterwards. The boiler had been there about six years before the replacement, so that would make 100+5*15 = £175 (and VAT on top). Having the exchanger replaced cost me £170.

If I'd had one fitted (instead of the stupid magnet that the installers insisted on fitting, and in which I never had the slightest confidence) at the start, I might be about to break even. If I fit one now, what are the chances that the rest of the boiler will still be going in six years?

Argh.

This man needs to be sectioned and tagged.

They have been sued to great effect on commercial systems for decades.

It appears it was doing its job and removing the scale on the pipes and element. If you left it longer the caked on scale may have been removed and the all clear after. You should have ran with it longer.

I bought one of those in '89, got it cheap after buying several from a company for industrial applications. First thing I noticed was all the crap coming out of the shower head, then a few weeping leaks from some of my pipework (Scale was plugging the leaks) The kettle now just has lime slush in the base which is easy to wash out. Prior to the unit being fitted I de scaled every month, now about every

My verdict: (A) they *do* something to the water in the system (B) Perfectly happy with the results