I have been looking for a salt free system for my home - city water, septic system. There has been discussion on this forum about a particular salt-free system working well. I found the following article from the Feb'07 edition of "Water Conditioning & Purification" which explains how no-salt systems work. http://www.wcponline.com/PDF/0702Tech%20Talk.pdf

Below is an article referenced in the one above that explains other no-salt alternatives. http://www.wcponline.com/pdf/0610Seccombe.pdf

While these articles may be a bit dated, hopefully the techonology has only improved and the prices dropped.

- Dan

They don't remove hardness. They are not water softeners.

They are supposed to make the water act like softened water. It's questionable if they do. I've been testing one for the last two months and there's little comparison to soft water.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

Which device are you testing? Is it removing existing scale?

The argument has nothing to do with scale removal, build-up or sequestering. The point is, it is being billed, marketed, posted, advertised and pawned as a water SOFTENER, which it is not!

That is false advertising at best and fraud at worst.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

I don't care how they market it; that can be someone else's class action. All I want to know is if it stops and the reduces scale buildup.

Thus, which device and does it reduce scale?

I can't get inside my water heater so I don't know what it is doing to the scale I suspect is in there but... living in a motorhome means we use very little water, like maybe only 10 gals/day for two of uss. So water marks and the 'feel' of the water are the only means I can use to decide "if" it is doing anything.

We think it is but, we go from one water source to the next very frequently so it's difficult to tell but... nothing like softened water would.

The problem is a house uses much more water, so a house would require a much a larger unit than I have tested, and the prices are absolutely ridiculous for the very small amount of the 'media' and an in-out head and a tank. I'm told my wholsale price per cuft is $7600.00!! IIRC I asked if that was a typo and IIRC I was told NO. A 10" x 54" 1.5 cuft tank would have roughly less than a 1/3rd cuft IIRC. And the unit would have a SFR of 5 gpm. That is barely enough for one person in a 1 bathroom house. And they retail for like $1400-1600 ONLINE! The 'media' is said to have a 5 yr life.... You can buy a high quality water softener online for $700-1200 including shipping. And if you bought from me the salt use would be like 4-9 lbs every 8 days.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

My problem is that I have no place to dispose of the salt water. And while I cannot see inside my tank either, the shower head and sink sprayer are definitely clogging and the heating coil on my dishwasher is lime coated.

Fortunately (?!?!) my daughter takes long enough showers to COMPLETELY flush the water heater. Not the same as draining it, but the rationalization that she is doing some good keeps me from...wiring a remote sensor to a soleniod valve in the hot water line.

Again, I just want to keep my plumbing, appliances, dishes and shower surfaces from getting even more lime coated w/o having a brine solution to dispose of. So any de-liming / de-calcification processes catches my interest.

...remember, if your not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate...

You can put the discharge water in a number of places and the only thing it will harm is vegetation. Millions of softeners have been used for decades without problems.

Using hot water isn't helping the water heater and scale build up. The scale forms when the water is heated and the 90% of the scale adheres to the inside of the tank and on elements.

To remove hardness and the problems it causes you need a softener or nanofiltration or an RO.

Gary
Quality Water Associates