Hydropath Water Softener Alternative?

[Dan F]

Hi,

 

Wondering if anyone has any experience with https://hydropath.com/

 

I'd typically be wary of non-salt based softeners as I thought they were mostly gimmicks. But this one comes recommended by Sunamp, and looks a bit more serious than some of the simple magnets you sometimes find.

 

Thoughts?

 

[Jeremy Harris]

It looks like yet another of the many devices that claim that creating an electromagnetic field around a water pipe changes the chemistry.  There's very limited evidence that these scale reducing devices may have some, hard to measure, effect, but they cannot actually soften the water at all.  The water that comes out of one of these has to have exactly the same concentration of calcium ions (and every other element/compound dissolved in the water) as the water that went in, as there's no way that this can be changed by such a device.

 

The only way to truly soften water, as in remove calcium ions and replace them with sodium ions, is by using an ion exchange softener.  You can change the properties of hard water to make it less likely to form hard scale, by using something like phosphate dosing, which many find works well enough.  You can go the whole hog and remove all the extraneous stuff dissolved in water by using reverse osmosis, but it's expensive, both in terms of initial cost and ongoing replacement of membranes and pre-filters.

 

There's a long thread here somewhere with some pretty heated discussions about some of these devices that claim to soften water.  Might be worth digging it out and having a read.

[Dan F]

Exactly my understanding and thoughts.  Which was why I was suprised Sunamp seemed to be recommended them.

 

I did search forum for "Hydropath" without luck, will search a bit harder for the thread you mentioned.

 

Thanks!

Edited November 1, 2019 by Dan Feist

[ProDave]

Decisions made by SunAmp have gone down in my estimation knowing the heating company they have now teamed up with.

[Mr Punter]

@Dan Feist other topc:

 

 

[richi]

On 01/11/2019 at 12:54, Mr Punter said:

@Dan Feist other topc:

 

 

A couple of years on, and we're still happy with the Combimate. As @Jeremy Harris rightly says, it doesn't soften the water, but it does seem to stop scale sticking to taps, etc.

[Temp]

Combimate doses the water with Polyphosphate. There are several similar devices that also use Polyphosphate so shop around for cheapest and cheapest refills.

 

They get a mention in Southern Waters note on water softeners..

 

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/Media/Default/PDFs/2835b_WaterSofteners_A4Notes_Nov12.pdf

 

Apparently Polyphosphate makes the Calcium "less available to form deposits".

 

Worth a read.

 

 

 

[richi]

Oh yes, good point, @Temp. Don't pay full price for the Combimate unit, nor the refills! FleaBay and Amazin' are your friends.