electronic water conditioners , the ones with wires coiled around pipe

george_42

Do they work or are they a scam.

delta T

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_water_treatment

delta T

I have never seen one work, nor have I ever read anything about conclusive proof that they work to any degree.

Mark Eatherton

I've had amazing results from the magnetic water conditioners, but not so much with the wired systems. I've used them (permanent magnetic type) all over the US, and the only place it didn't work was in Texas, where they have a condition called glass water, which is a silica based corrosion. It won't touch that, but works excellent on calcium based corrosion.

ME

jumper

Two possible answers. One is sometimes. Other is it depends.
First question about OP's question is is he asking about a closed system or an open one? In the former it is relatively doable to remove minerals and gases. But why not add magnets?

For open systems the "sometimes" part holds. Sometimes magnets soften hard scale. Sometimes they don't.

Worst situations are evaporative systems with raw feed and too little bleeding. Too nasty for any gizmo.

Jamie Hall

Working on theory here, not any practical observations... magnets will hold small particles of magnetite, which is a product of the reaction of steel or iron and the oxygen in the water.

Provided that they aren't shielded effectively by the pipe. Therefore, I don't see that they would work on iron or steel pipe, except for some of the odder stainless steel or austenitic alloys.

They should trap magnetite if they are on a copper or plastic pipe, and the velocity is low enough.

I honestly can't envision a scenario where a coil of wire, unless it were fed with DC, not AC, would do much.