During the time that I looked over water softeners and water conditioners to reduce or eliminate minerals and scale in your home, a type of product kept coming up in my research: water descalers. Widely used at large industrial sites, they are also known as electronic water softeners or magnetic water conditioners.
There is a lot of misinformation available about water descalers and from what I can tell, the folks who sell water softener or conditioner systems have the most to say about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of descalers. That sent up a red flag for me so I looked into it some more. When used correctly, and especially in conjunction with other filtration equipment, water descalers can have a decidedly positive effect on your home’s plumbing system.
The Yarna CWD48 Capacitive Water Descaler utilizes a full 48 Volts to provide an entire house with electromagnetically treated water. Electric impulses are generated in the electronic unit, then the current is transmitted through the ultra-flat copper ribbon cables. These are wrapped around an incoming water pipe.
The electromagnetic field charges mineral ions in the water as they flow by. The theory is that minerals will then not stick one to another to form the scale that clogs pipes and ruins appliances. To install the CWD48, you’ll need access to a length of ten inches of pipe free of obstacles, but if you have 24 inches, you’ll be saving yourself a headache. You won’t need any special tools or a professional installer. The unit will work with pipes made of any type of material including iron, copper, stainless steel, PVC, and Pex up to four inches in diameter.
Once installed, the CWD48 will get to work generating an electrical field that will charge mineral ions and make them flow along instead of hanging on to your pipes and fixtures. Even if you have the worst type of hard water in the country that has really made your plumbing go south, Yarna claims that you should see a significant improvement within three months.
Yarna provides a full year for the user to evaluate performance and will refund your purchase price at any time for any reason during that time. Register your CWD48 online and they’ll give you a full 10-year warranty. Online reviews for this gadget are overwhelmingly positive so even if the Yarna CWD48 doesn’t work for you, there’s little to lose from giving it a try.
iSpring is a water treatment company that makes all sorts of softeners, conditioners, and even electronic devices like this ED2000 water descaler. It helps to solve the problems that hard water causes without using chemicals, filters, or a complicated installation. The ED2000 is designed for areas that experience 10 to 19 grains per gallon.
The water descaler hosts an onboard computer chip that emits an electromagnetic field that causes water molecules to better bind with hard minerals. This carries the magnesium and calcium ions further downstream without clinging to your plumbing and less likely to cause hard water stains.
Keep in mind that the ED2000 will be more effective when used with an iron removal filter if the levels in your water are over 0.3 ppm. The effect that the descaler provides works for about 50 feet away before the ions begin reforming naturally. If you live in a large house, you may want to team up two units to make sure the water remains treated before it reaches your taps.
Maybe the best thing that I found out about the Eddy Electronic Water Descaler is the number of customers that installed the unit in their homes and returned to glowingly review the product as well as discuss what the product is truly intended for. This was refreshing in our current world of tribal consumerism. It’s okay for a product to simply do what it’s intended to do and no more than that.
In short, the Eddy Electronic Water Descaler is meant to prevent minerals in your water from sticking to the inside of plumbing, showerheads, faucet aerators, appliances, and so on. It won’t remove chemicals, sediment, or minerals from your water supply. Rather, it will assist in carrying the material down your drain.
One reviewer actually gave it a one-star review for the express purpose of making sure that people actually read the review. They would then discover the client gave it five stars in the copy. Another reviewer went so far as to give a real account of how he went from cleaning scale off his fixtures every 30 days to six months. Not bad.
Another client wrote that he owns a coffee shop with expensive espresso pressing equipment. Before installing the Eddy, this person was forced to descale his appliances every two years to the tune of a couple of days and several thousand dollars. But even though he still has to service his equipment, the process is much, much faster with no service trips.
The CWD30 Capacitive Water Descaler from Yarna is meant for pipes of any material up to two inches in diameter. This version uses a full 30 Volts to power the magnetic field with all of its equipment housed in a container made from carbon fiber. It may be installed directly to the pipe that is being serviced as well.
The Yarna CWD30 features a longer cord (six and a half versus five feet) and is rated for both indoor and outdoor use. Yarna seems to be the only producer of water descalers that provide a copper ribbon cable covered in plastic sheeting rather than the more traditional insulated wire. This may be a reason why their products are highly rated but I can’t be sure.
As with their other descalers, Yarna recommends a minimum of three months to see some serious improvement with your plumbing system once installed. They claim that the CWD30 is good for an entire household however keep in mind that if your house is larger than, say, 2,000 square feet that you may want to consider getting an additional unit to tag-team your pipes.
I was wrong about Yarna offering up the only water descalers with copper ribbon leads. The HQUA 5000E Electronic Water Descaler isn’t as modern cool as those Yarna units but they feature the same fan service. Environmentally friendly without the need for hundreds of pounds of salt per year, this magnetic water conditioner does what the company claims.
Best used in a house with no more than three bathrooms and water hardness of more than 25 grains per gallon, the unit will work with any sort of pipe material including metal or plastic. Make sure your plumbing is no larger than 1-1/2-inches. The power draw is only around four Watts so the electricity cost is far less than most any other water conditioning system.
I included this whole house descaler from AO Smith in my list of Best Water Conditioners but because they market this as a “descaler”, I decided to feature the product here as well. While not an electronic item, this filtration device does indeed help to prevent minerals from causing scale issues throughout your house.
The system uses activated carbon as a filtration media which hones down the sharp bits of the minerals floating along so they have less of a chance to attach to pipes. The tank naturally reduces scale build-up in pipes and plumbing using a salt and chemical-free system. There won’t be any cleaning, backwashing, bags of salt, or electricity required.
What there will be, however, is a semi-complicated installation to get it working. You’ll need to attach the descaler inline with your plumbing system. A shut-off valve, hose adapter, and nipple are included, at least. The AO Smith descaler is good for households of up to four people.
Once installed, there’s nothing else for you to do; the scale will be reduced for up to six years or 600,000 gallons of water. The product also comes with a six-year warranty so if at any time you’re unsatisfied, call them up and their customer support folks will take care of things.
The setup for the H2OEliteLabs EWC-MAX-i Electronic Water Conditioner is slightly different than other units on the list. The heavy, insulated gauge wire that wraps around your existing water supply pipe is done in one piece before attaching both leads to the housing. Everything else about the model is similar to other electronic water descalers, however.
The EWC-MAX-i uses 20 Watts to handle up to 35 grains per gallon of minerality. 35 GPG equals around 598 parts per million which is fairly hard water. The machine is also rated for houses up to 5,000 square feet and with plumbing made of copper, PVC, CPVC, and Pex.
One thing about this water descaler that I haven’t read about with other models is that along with the pleasant blue light when plugged in, the EWC-MAX-i emits a soft humming sound. In most environments, it will be difficult to notice but in a quiet room, it’s apparent. Also keep in mind that, once activated, the descaler may take up to three months to have a noticeable effect.
This version, the CWD24, of Yarna’s line of electronic water descalers, is their entry-level product. Good for standard plumbing of up to one inch in diameter, the housing is made of plastic and lights up when plugged in and operational. It may be this sort of theatric effort that makes some people hesitate before giving an electronic water descaler a chance.
Other than an indicator that the power is on, I’m not sure what the point of such a bright orange light would be.
That said, installation is as simple as Yarna’s other products. While you can certainly mount the unit to the wall, it may also be zip-tied to the pipe in question to make things much easier.
Yarna offers a full year to try the unit out and suggests a three-month period before passing too much judgment on its effectiveness. The company also goes to great lengths to explain what the CWD24 does and does not do. That sort of proactive verbiage calms my skepticism down by a lot.
Most of the clients using the CWD24 are quite happy with the descaler and understand what the point of a unit like this is: cut down on scale production enough so that it’s not eliminated but much, much easier to deal with.
When I first starting writing about water softening and conditioning systems, I heard of the Scalewatcher brand. Their electronic descaling machines were some of the first on the market and patented in 1991. They’re made in the United States as well.
The Scalewatcher 4 is the fourth generation of their water descaler. It comes with mounting hardware and enough wire to adequately take care of a home’s water intake system. Unlike other electronic water conditioners, Scalewatcher 4 is rated to accommodate any diameter of household plumbing. That said, retailers list a maximum of 1-1/2-inches.
A couple of points that I should point out here: first, the unit is powered with a 12V adapter which seems to be underpowered compared to the rest of the water descalers I looked at. Scalewatcher claims that this unit is their most powerful non-industrial descaler available and that it should take care of three miles (!) of plumbing. That’s a big difference from the 50 feet that other descalers with a higher voltage state.
So, what to do? The Scalemaster 4 is more expensive than some of the other units on our list but there are a few important specifics to keep in mind. It’s made in the USA, the company has been around for 30 years, and the testimonials about their products are pretty great.
This water descaler is made in Germany by the Calmat company. It runs on 24 Volts with two traditional wire leads but they’re only insulated by a plastic sleeve like a speaker wire rather than a traditional protective coating. I’m guessing that this was an effort to reduce resistance to signal strength but I could be wrong.
Once the wires have been wrapped tightly around the intended water pipe, the leads are then connected to the main housing unit. The box is made of thick plastic and should be mounted to a vertical surface, although zip-tied to a pipe will work as well. A digital LCD readout panel and a small green LED indicator light provide a visual clue that the machine is powered on.
The Calmat water descaler is good for a house’s water hardness level up to 59 grains per gallon. Once installed, the machine will ask which language you’d like to use and how large the pipe being treated is. Again, these electronic water conditioners aren’t meant to be a replacement for a full-on water softener but if you live in an area that isn’t significantly high with hard water, the Calmat Electronic Anti-Scale Water Treatment System might be right for you.
Some points of order are necessary to review before I begin to write about the Superior Model RX Inline Water Conditioner System. First, it’s not electronic. It uses magnets or, rather, one very large magnet. Second, this water descaler will require either a handy homeowner or some professional assistance to install since the unit is meant to run inline with your plumbing system. And, finally, it’s a bit expensive compared to the other water descalers on our list.
That said, the Superior Model RX comes with a decent pedigree. Superior Water Conditioners produce some seriously industrial filtration and conditioning systems meant for high-impact facilities. This inline water conditioner is a residential product fabricated for larger homes of up to four to five bathrooms.
It doesn’t plug in and it doesn’t require any salt, chemicals, or flushing of any kind. So, how does it work? According to Superior, the Model RX functions in the same way their large commercial units do, by using seriously strong magnets to alter the bonding process of calcium ions to each other instead of your plumbing and fixtures. Instead of forming as calcite, the minerals instead form an amorphous powder that doesn’t attach to surfaces.
Superior has manufactured water conditioning systems for over 50 years in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The testimonials about their products are impressive, including several written by facility managers of hospitals, municipal swimming pools, and car wash businesses.
