Snake Oil?

Customer has asked my opinion of these.

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like "The system operates quietly around the clock, increasing oxygen, reducing molecule size,

activating the metabolism, increasing alkali in the water and discharging beneficial negative ions

- all of which have known health benefits."

Make me thinks its a load of overpriced bollox.

What the lady wants to achieve is a reduction in limescale to reduce cleaning. Thats all. Very hard water area, so if anyone knows of a filter that removes it I'd like to know.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman
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Yup - it's called a water softener.

Reply to
Skipweasel

reducing molecule size,

beneficial negative ions

Thats all. Very hard water area, so if anyone

Well they can't spell. It mentions "Femail 1" BSP fitting" twice in the installation instructions.

Reply to
Graham.

Other than a water softener, no, but ICBW. Temporary hardness can be removed by heating the water above a critical temperature, which converts the vaguely soluble calcium salt into a non-soluble salt, which then deposits itself on the heating element.

As to the rest. It's a sealed unit, so how can it increase the oxygen without splitting the water? It's claimed to be a filter that will remove viruses and bacteria, but not protozoa from well water. Which are the same size or bigger.

It says it will soften water, but in the list of chemicals it claims to remove, there is no mention of calcium, and as hard` water is high in calcium compounds.....

On the good side, they do offer a three month "Like it or get your money back" offer. Though I doubt they'd refund the labour for fitting and removing it.

Reply to
John Williamson

It may well be a reasonable filter, filtering the stuff it claims to filter. But I don't see how increasing the alkali in the water can

*reduce* hardness.

There's a certain a mount of new-age b/s in there, IMO. "Reduced molecule size" would be one such.

Also this stuff about the body being too acidic is I suspect crap too. The body is, except maybe under extreme conditions, going to be the right pH, else you'd quickly be quite ill. Life hasn't spent millions of years evolving for nothing. It has quite efficient mechanisms already built in to ensure a proper pH balance, thank you very much. [1]

Oxygen is transported around the body by the haemoglobin in your red blood cells. Oxygen is a very corrosive and reactive element. To be safely delivered to the cells in your body requires that it be very safely packaged up for transport. It does *not* just make its way around the bloodstream on its own, waiting to be helped by all these negative ions.

So, in short, too much obvious cobblers making it hard to judge the rest.

[1] From which you can conclude that all this "detox regime" stuff is just another scam, given that we have a whole organ, called the liver, dedicated to the process.
Reply to
Tim Streater

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember The Medway Handyman saying something like:

Ditto that. Still, there's one born every minute.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

If this thing did half of what they appear to be claiming, it would be pretty miraculous and the surprise would be that we hadn't already heard about it.

"> Make me thinks its a load of overpriced bollox."

- gets my vote!

Reply to
GMM

+1

An awful lot of use of the weasel marketing term "up to" in the list of things it might remove as well.

Filter no, the lady needs a softener, ion exchange or reverse osmosis. I think the cheapest and most common type is ion exchange. The ion exchnage column needs "regenerating" at regular intervals but a decent one will do that automagically, though that does pour water straight down the drain. Not sure if it's enough to worry about if on a meter. It will need a supply of salt for the regeneration process as well, bit like a dishwasher needs salt.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I loved that as well. "Removes up to 98%". Like the hair colouring stuff which promises "up to 100% gray coverage".

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I recall a thread on this ng a while back (2-5yrs) where a water softener was referred to as a 'feel good' item. Has the consensus changed? My old Permutit still goes strong after about 30 years. It does feel good and reduces soap/detergent usage. No scale in kettle/washing machine/dishwasher etc. Presumably the DHW and CH are also benefiting. Boiler is of an inderterminate age but certainly more than 32 years. Alas, the poor old thing is now on its last legs.

Nick

Reply to
Nick

Sodium alert - the website said so

Reply to
geoff

Agreed but no one has ever explained why (to us, at least). Last year we tried to find out as we will be installing a water softener, and a filter jobby on the kitchen tap.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Bit about it down this page, though it looks like they're not sure why !

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C

Reply to
Andy Cap

I think this paragraph is the one to point at and laugh uproariously:

"When immersed in water these ?Active Ceramics? display physical properties of semi conductivity, magnetic properties and light emission (in the far infra red spectrum)."

Reply to
Scott M

Though it's the potential for picking up too much sodium that makes it unwise to drink water from a conventional softener.

Reply to
Skipweasel

Well, strictly it's not reacting with the charcoal, it's adsorbed onto the (very large) surface.

Reply to
Skipweasel

Because water softeners work by replacing the calcium salts in hard water with equivalent sodium salts, and it is known that too much sodium is bad for you. In people who are prone to it, excessive sodium in the diet can increase blood pressure.

Reply to
John Williamson

Same as the excess salt BS. The body copes very well in maintaining the correct balance and excreting the excess.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

water

process

Good point, an ion exchange softener swaps the calcium/magnesium ions in the water for sodium ones. Too much sodium is reckoned to be not that good for you.

I guess this is why the drinking supply in place with a ion exchnage softener is seperatly treated... the ion exchnage softened water being used to prolong the life of appliances heating water, like boilers, HW cylinders, dishwashers and washing machines by not clogging 'em up with scale.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Well I know all that and it sounds good, but it's only a hand-waving argument unless someone does the sums. If I use thus-softened water to make my tea/coffee/soft drinks on a daily basis, how much extra sodium is that giving me over and above what I'm getting anyway? If I know that, I can make a judgement.

Reply to
Tim Streater

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