If your water is loaded with minerals, the chances are that it’s leaving nasty film in your dishes. Have you also noticed that the annoying residue doesn’t fade away even after cleaning your countertops? This is because you only have hard water flowing from your taps.
But do you know that a water descaler might be of great help? These units claim to reduce scaling and alter the effect of hard water on fixtures and surfaces.
Are water descalers better than water softeners? How do they work? How can you tell that the descaler is indeed working? This post carries all the answers to these questions; therefore, tag along.
What is Hard Water?
Hard water is the excessive presence of magnesium and calcium in the water. The higher the presence of these 2 naturally occurring minerals in your water, the higher the water hardness rate.
And although calcium and magnesium are essential to your health, they don’t offer the best results when dissolved in the water. In fact, they can have detrimental effects.
Hard water can damage your appliances like the dishwasher or washing machine and cause scale buildup in your plumbing. It can also make your hands more dry.
What is a Water Descaler?
A water descaler/conditioner, is a system that helps reduce the effects of hard water in terms of scale buildup or deposits left on the surfaces this water comes into contact with.
The descalers use a magnetic field that charges the water’s mineral particles. This process makes the minerals stay in the water instead of getting transferred to your shower wall, bathtub, or sink.
Water descalers can use different technologies to reduce water hardness. They include:
- Magnetic devices to change the structure of magnesium and calcium in the water making them less likely to deposit.
- Low voltage current to cause an electronic charge in the water that holds the minerals making them less likely to block your pipes.
- Template-assisted crystallization which helps create mineral crystals before the formation of scales on surfaces.
Descaled water isn’t soft water. It still has mineral particles only that they don’t deposit on the insides of the pipes. And therefore, even if your plumbing and appliances work well, you’ll still experience the effects of hard water on your dishes, laundry, hair, and skin.
Do Water Descalers Work?
Manufacturers of water descalers offer strong support for their effectiveness. And although supporters of these products claim that they work, there are still people who argue that they don’t work at all(1).
The biggest challenge in evaluating the effectiveness of water descalers is the lack of existing scientific records of the same. While there have been pre-reviewed articles examining the effectiveness of specific water descalers, the conclusions don’t provide a consensus view.
Actually, some research has found the products to have an impact on scaling, while others demonstrated no impact at all.
Although some water descalers provide the benefits of softened water, they don’t actually soften water. The water descaling system does this with the help of a material referred to as template-assisted crystallization (TAC) media.
When hard water runs over TAC media, some amount of minerals in the hard water are changed into small crystals. The remaining minerals attach to the crystalline mineral structures instead of other surfaces such as your bathroom walls or pipes.
In search of the best water descaler? How about trying the system listed below?
YARNA CWD24 Capacitive Electronic Water Descaler, Price on Amazon
YARNA CWD24 is a whole house patented water descaler that treats water with electric impulses. The impulses are directed in the electronic unit and controlled by a computerized micro-chip.
The system’s ultra-flat impulse bands wrapped around the pipe transmit the signal frequencies that crystals of the water as it flows by. As a result, the crystals don’t stick together to form limescale that damages your appliances.
YARNA CWD24 takes about 15 minutes to install, is easy to clean, and works with any pipe up to 1-inch thick, including copper, iron, stainless steel, PVC, plastic, among others.
The unit comes with a 365 days-100 money-back guarantee. You have a whole year to return and get a full refund if unsatisfied with the product.
How to Tell Whether Your Water Descaler is Working
Before installing the descaler, remove any existing scale from the pipes and fixtures. Also, take note of how often you need to clean the pipes.
After removing the scale, install your descaler and let it run. Ideally, the scale should build up much slower than usual. And when it builds up, it should be easier to remove.
You’ll know whether the descaler is effective after checking your dishes after they’ve been washed in your dishwasher. How many white spots can you see?
If living in localities with very hard water, your dishes will have a lot of white spots. If the white spots become less, your descaler is working.
What Water Descalers Will Not Do
If looking for a system to help you remove heavy metals like iron from your water, don’t go for a water descaler because it won’t solve your problem. Get a good water purification system (Reverse osmosis system) instead.
A water descaler will also not soften your water. To soften your hard water, you need to use a water softener. And luckily enough, water softeners are reasonably priced hence worth checking out.
Conclusion
A water descaler holds a small amount of the minerals in hard water to lessen its impact on your plumbing. This means that the system works for what it’s designed to do. If you feel that the descaler you purchased doesn’t work, it’s most likely because you expect it to soften your hard water.
Therefore, before purchasing a water descaler for your home, you need to think about what you really want. If looking forward to getting a device to reduce scale buildup, go for the descaler.
If interested in a system that will help you soften hard water for your home, go for a water softener; otherwise, you’ll be disappointed.