Hard Water Treatment Methods

Hard water treatment methods are grouped into four categories depending on what they work. Each of them reduce, inhibit or eliminate limescale and each method has a unique advantages and disadvantages. Below is a synopsis of how each of the four categories work, what they do, how they do it, and their advantages and disadvantages.

1) Physical Water Conditioners
Physical Water Conditioners, so called simply because they physically alter the properties of hard water to reduce or eliminate limescale formation, can be found in three various sorts – electronic, electrolytic and magnetic.
1a) Electronic water conditioners, also know as electronic descalers or limescale inhibitors, generally comprise of a small box of electronics and a number of coils wrapped around the pipework.

What they do: Electronic conditioners work by transmitting an audio frequency or radio frequency signal to the water via induction coils wrapped around the pipework. This inhibits the build up of limescale inside water pipes and through time, reduces existing scale. A softer scale can always form on shower heads, taps and other surfaces, but is a lot simpler to clean.

Advantages: Electronic descalers are relatively cheap when compared with other hard water treatment methods and offer a affordable means to fix limescale problems. No plumbing is necessary, making Power Ark Engineering them super easy to install. And because nothing is removed or added to the water, healthy minerals are retained and the water remains safe to drink.

Disadvantages: Although sometimes never as effective as other treatment methods, most manufacturers offer a full cash back guarantee if the device doesn’t work along with expected.
1b) Electrolytic water conditioners are inline devices that must be plumbed to the water system. They can be bought with 15mm, 22mm, or 28mm end connectors to accommodate the pipework.

What they do: In a electrolytic conditioner are two dissimilar metals, normally copper and zinc, which behave as a cathode and an anode. The electrolytic current that flows from the cathode to the anode causes small quantities of metal ions to dissolve to the water. The metal ions then disrupt the positively charged scale forming particles so that they don’t clump together and form scale.