Anyone have any experience with magnetic water treatment, expecially home built devices? I have done lots of reading on the subject and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but have done nothing practical with it, so would be interested in opinionns or information from people who have tried it. I suspect I may be interested in it partially because "authorities" say it doesn't (or shouldn't) work, and I have little trust in most "authorities".

Jim

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), July 04, 2001

Answers

Jim, what does the magnet treat the water for?

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 05, 2001.

I've had one for 6 months & can tell NO difference. It was a waste of money for us.

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), July 05, 2001.

Mitch, There are claims of reducing lime, making the water softer, reducing rust problems, and other reducing mineral related water problems by attaching the proper type (meaning: expensive, purchased from a dealer specializing in what appear to be "snake-oil" cures and pyramid marketing schemes) to your water lines. There is just enough possibility that it could work on certain situations, that I am very curious if anyone has actually had good results that they can verify through testing and/or careful observation. I also think that if the methods did work, that it should be possible to use inexpensive, readily available magnets to make your own device (tie magnets to your water lines?). One argument against them working is that this type of magnetic device was patented 100+ years ago and if it worked there wouldn't be a huge chemical water treatment industry. My response is that it is in the chemical treatment industry's best interests to deny that any other water treatment methods work. Why sell a magnet that works for decades when you can sell chemicals that need constant replenishment?

But, my real opinion is that magnetic water treatment is too good to be true, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Jim (in Wis)

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), July 05, 2001.

Remember you Mr. Wizard lectures, kiddies - magnets only affect ferrous metals (of which lime is not, nor are most water hardening agents). Tip of the day - if your fridgie magnet wouldn't stick to a lump of it in the outside world, the strongest magnet on the planet isn't going to pull it out of your water.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 05, 2001.

Jim, We have magnets from GMX and we got rid of our water softener over 2 years ago. We honestly feel the magnets are doing all that salt water softening did for us. We don't think that sticking magnets on the side of the pipe will work because you need to create a magnetic field that will change the polarity of the particles in the water. The lime that we have doesn't stick to our faucets and toilets like it used to. It easily cleans right off.

-- Joe Clemens (jdchmc@merr.com), July 05, 2001.

Can't work. And if it did, utilities companies around the world would be using it - they have no fondness for paying chemical companies, and they have competent scientists of their own. There are also a LOT of independent researchers who'd love to get their degree on this one if it did work, and perform a public service as well - heck, if it did work, someone would have had a Nobel prize out of it already.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 06, 2001.

http://www.bonaqua.com

go see what they have to say... I dont know a thing about it, except I can see a little why it just might work.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), July 06, 2001.

Hi Jim,

We had this discussion a while aback, see the thread

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004Px3

The bottom line is that magnets DON'T work. Think about, if you were attracting something inside the pipe by a magnet outside the pipe, it would stick to the inside of the pipe to the point where it would clog the pipe.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), July 06, 2001.