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Thoughts on catalytic water conditioners

dko
dko Member Posts: 668
Catalytic water conditioners
aka:
Ion Polarization Scale Reduction
Salt-Free Water Softener
Turbulent galvanic polarization system (TGP)
Template Assisted Crystalization (TAC)



IAPMO testing procedure attached

Then there are sites like https://www.chem1.com/CQ/catscams.html

Bringing this up here because these kind of units are pushed very hard by the manufacturers. Namely Zilmet with their rebranded ActivFlo, American Valve with ScaleRX, Watts OneFlow, etc.. They are actively promoting it and forcing sales by tying its purchases with other goods and giving total invoice discounts.

This will end up with many supply houses actively trying to sell these.

They recommend this as the be all scale reduction device for your water heaters and high efficiency boilers.

Looking for your thoughts and experience.

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,882
    The site linked is pretty good. First, in most locations the scale problem is wildly exaggerated. Second, it occurs at hardness levels well below what these widgets purport to address.

    However, if you like the stuff, there used to be some really good carburetors which got 99 miles per gallon in a stock V8...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,882
    MikeAmann said:

    .... there used to be some really good carburetors which got 99 miles per gallon in a stock V8...

    Simple concept - boil the gasoline and burn the vapor. Much like an oil nozzle, a carburetor's job is to atomize the fuel - the finer the droplets, the better. Vaporization is the ultimate atomization. Think about it.
    OMG. Boil the gasoline??? Why not let it vapourize on its own? It will, you know... Well, If you can figure out how to take that simple concept, which I've been working with off and on for about seventy years now, and get 99 mpg from an otherwise stock car, congratulations.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,385
    Oddly perhaps but sometimes those gizmo s work. Especially on closed systems.
    How? Nobody really knows.
    An easy experiment is to place a magnet in bottom of toilet tank and check in a few months. If there's some new stuff at the bottom then.....