limescaleinhibitors.html

The best limescale inhibitor?

An admittedly rather biased look at the types of water ‘conditioners’ and limescale inhibitors available, from the smoke’n’mirrors stuff to what really works. Rule number one is DO NOT buy any limescale inhibitor where the ad/website says “water softener” when it clearly isn’t actually an ion-exchange water softener. That alone tells you everything about the company selling it...that porky pies are evident!

You may also be aware that many websites (when you do a search) show ‘Guarantee’ in their blurb. What is their guarantee - is it stated on their website? A particular limescale inhibitor was brought to our attention by a reader with their ‘10 year guarantee’...except they don’t tell you what that guarantee is!

Remember, when we say “in our experience” it really is in 40 years experience...

So lesson 1 is ‘What is hard water’?

Rain droplets absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and become a very weak acid...

When this water hits rock, like limestone, it becomes super saturated in metal ions like calcium and magnesium. This stays in the water in solution - ‘temporary hardness’ (that will come out again) and ‘permanent hardness’ (that won’t - it stays in the water). When water is heated, or even warmed, the limestone particles will precipitate out and form a solid again. This occurs at fairly low temperatures, but becomes a serious problem at anything over 63 degrees C.

This is a problem for ‘boilers’ and water heaters in areas of the country where limescale forms...

Hard water is a serious problem because it’s a great insulator of heat - it stops heat transferring, hence you have to heat the limescale in order to heat the water. A build-up of just a few millimetres will add a significant part to your energy bill.

It will also cause the failure of expensive water heating equipment in homes and commercial properties. So it’s a serious, costly problem. Many years ago, a man called Emmett Culligan was credited with inventing the first practical use of a water softener. Water softeners really do work, they take limescale out. However, their disadvantage is that they are bulky, expensive, use lots of water when backflushing (every week), and obviously use quite a lot of salt (which used to be cheap, but is no longer!).

Therefore, a different approach is needed. What if we don’t soften the water (because actually hard water is good for your health), but just stop the calcium from sticking?

We are plumbers. We have been doing ‘plumbing’ for over 40 years, and right in the middle of a hard water area, the Thames Valley. We’ve seen LOTS of limescale. We have chiselled it out of boilers at Reading Football Club back in 1976! We have vacuumed it out of industrial water heaters in hotels. We have dissolved tons of it in acid for three decades now.

However, we did spot that whenever we came across a plumbing installation that had no limescale, a ‘water conditioner’ was present that was using silicate-polyphosphate (Siliphos). It was obvious, right from the first two instances we witnessed that Siliphos was having a remarkable effect on limescale. So in 2003 we invented our own range of Siliphos-based limescale inhibitors.

Over the years, we have heard about every idea for stopping limescale, from magnets to fancy new ways. But we haven’t found that ANY OF THEM work. We’re not saying they don’t work (well, perhaps we are) but we are saying that we have absolutely no evidence of any of them working...none. Yes, we’ve read all the claims, but still no evidence.

‘Limescale inhibitors’ are split into two groups:

Chemical devices - non-chemical devices

The definitions sound obvious, but we’ll go there anyway. A chemical device uses a material to dose the water, or do something to the water, physically - it uses a ‘chemical’. Now don’t be put off from that word on health grounds, as sodium chloride and acetic acid is just salt’n’vinegar, remember! No one is going to sell you anything that is harmful in any way, as they would get prosecuted for doing so. Even we have to advise that a non-return valve is fitted whenever you install one of our devices - because the water companies insist on the water being the exact same ‘quality’ that they produce at their treatment plant as at your taps. So if you add any ‘chemical’ device to the water mains, you have to install a valve which stops anything in that device from allowing the water to back-feed back to the mains supply. Silicate-polyphosphate is a harmless, food-grade material, yet any device housing it still has to have a non-return valve fitted...even though silicate-polyphosphate is approved for drinking water both with the EU and the World Health Organisation!

Again, don’t think that adding chemicals is a bad thing, as the water companies have added enough of them, anyway!

So, there are also non-chemical devices. These use a way of affecting the water (or rather, are supposed to!) instead of a chemical. They could be magnets on the outside of the pipe, or zinc inside the pipe, or electronic waves, or even a combination of things.

LET’S BE CLEAR: If we found a non-chemical device (NCD) that worked to even reduce limescale, let alone stop it completely, then we would be selling it. Why wouldn’t we? But the fact is that we’ve been attending to hot water systems for over 40 years, and we’ve never found a single device (that isn’t chemical-based) that works. It’s THAT simple. If you think you have found such a device, then just read the box to the right at the top. Will the manufacturer of that device give you your money back in 10 years’ time if you found it wasn’t working?

The answer is NO. No manufacturer of a NCD will give you your money back.

Now, to us, that says everything. Why on earth would you buy it? Lots of claims are made, and manufacturers of such devices give you an impressive list of their customers, such as giant retail outlets, or even NASA. But when you contact these companies, they can’t verify the claims made. We heard of one limescale device company claiming that Coca Cola were one of their customers. So we phoned Coca Cola, and they didn’t know what we were talking about. The operator stated that the company is vast and employs almost 62,000 people, she didn’t have a clue where to start asking.

So what about chemical devices - will the makers of these give you your money back? Again, NO, they won’t - except us. Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) companies producing phosphate limescale inhibitors won’t provide a performance guarantee like ours. The reason may be because of our picture to the right here. Phosphate limescale inhibitors stop themselves from working (if they ever did) by blocking themselves just a few months after installation.

We’re not scientists, we’re plumbers. As we said, all we can give you is the benefit of our 40 years of experience of seeing hot water equipment right smack in the middle of a limescale hotspot of the UK. We have only ever found two things that really do work at stopping limescale: water softeners and silicate-polyphosphate (Siliphos) dosers.

Now, it is true that from time to time we hear of the claims of new devices, and we check them out, maybe even trial them. Still, after all these years, we haven’t found any that work. It would make our job of selling such things much easier if we did!

So, a look at the various methods of halting limescale - and if they work, or not!...

Magnetic

Most magnetic water conditioners simply have a mild magnetic field close to the water supply pipe. This is said (by manufacturers of these units) to induce a molecular change to the calcium salts. Such units are reasonably inexpensive, easy to fit, and require no electrical supply. Some types use a very cheap ceramic magnet. However, it is obviously clear that a weak magnetic field would NOT be effective. The magnetic field on passing water would have to be very strong, even extreme.