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-   -   Any Guidance on the Easy Water Product for treating hard water? (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showthread.php?t=256473)

  • Sep 4, 2008, 06:30 AM
    Dogwoods666
    Any Guidance on the Easy Water Product for treating hard water?
    Can anyone give me any insight into the EASY WATER solution for treating hard water? It appears to be a simple to implement solution, but does it really work as advertised? I have well water service... coming into the house through PVC pipes into a collection tank and then copper pipes distributing the water throughout the house. Would this have any impact on the viability and/or installation of this product? Thanks!
  • Sep 4, 2008, 08:04 AM
    ballengerb1
    Before laying down $1K I sure hope you can get some testimonials. I have not installed one of these. Installation appears simple and you do have a limited money back guarantee.
  • Sep 4, 2008, 11:09 AM
    speedball1
    This reminds me of the old scam of magnets that clamp on water pipes and are touted to remove minerals. I looked for a disclaimer but all they said was that it wouldn't remove all minerals . That, alone, should send up red flags and start bells ringing.
    Their #1000 unit will run you $849.00 and their next larger model#2000 will suck $1299.00 out of your bank account. They have a #3500 Model that I haven't found a price for yet. Personally, I don'[t have a lot of faith in these "whiz-bang" products that guarantee miracles until they're on the market for a while and prove themselves. Bottom line? Buyer beware!!
    Good luck, Tom
  • Sep 4, 2008, 04:34 PM
    albinfla
    Personal experience with a similar product... I had a commercial customer that spent $14,000 on a ion generator, which is what this product is. Here is the technology scoop.. By generating ions electronically, it is supposed to work like an ion exchange water softener. But, the problem is there is only a small chamber for those ions to attach to. Unlike a water softener that has 30,000 or so beads to cling to. True that softeners use salt to wash the bed so the negatively charged particles in the water will cling to the positively salt charged resin.

    Bottom line is that the customer made numerous attempts to get the product working as advertised. After several service calls, etc. The customer told the installer that their product was a complete piece of junk! They called me in and asked me to put in a traditional softener. I put in rather large twin units in this commercial facility. It cost the customer about 20% more for 2 traditional softeners. But, guess what? They worked, and have worked flawlessly for 3 years now.

    There are some innovative new technologies that come out which are good. I certainly can't vouch for this one. Keep your money in your pocket. If you want a softener, call some local companies and get a couple of written estimates. You'll spend a little more than $1000. But, you won't have to do the installation. And, if it is something malfunctions, you won't be trying to figure out how to get service on it.
    Al
  • Sep 4, 2008, 08:55 PM
    truck 41
    Its important to understand that the easywater system does not soften your water going into your house, nor does it reduce the hardness, but it does help slow down rust, and mineral build up in the piping system. And like the others have mentioned it is a fairly new system on the market and testimonies are minimal. If you are on a well system you may need a prefiltering system before running through a softener and into your home. Goodluck ---Zeke---
  • Sep 5, 2008, 08:07 AM
    ballengerb1
    When something is too good to be true it usually isn't true. The lack of testimonials says a lot. They may be new but I'm sure they have had some customers. 5 or 10 testimonials would be helpful, surely they have sold that many units. Maybe they are still waiting until they have 10 happy customers. Maybe Billy May can try to sell these on his infomercials.
  • Sep 5, 2008, 10:02 AM
    albinfla
    Good one, Bob! They are advertising here on television frequently. You would certainly think they could have come up with some testimonials. I guarantee that Billy Mays could have found some people to vouch for it!
    Al
  • Sep 17, 2008, 08:14 AM
    H2O Doctor
    I have been in the water treatment industry for over 25 years. There is nothing I would like more than to be able to provide my customers, bith residential and commercial, with a "no salt" solution to our hard water problems. The "ionic" treatment has been around for longer than I have been in the industry and has always failed to preform as advertised. Weather it is magnets or "electric wires" wrapped around pipes, there is no scientific explanation for how they work, only theory. How convient!
  • Mar 10, 2010, 08:50 AM
    blkjeeptj
    The reality of products like this one is that they provide no extraction of contaminants. To "soften" water, is to remove the minerals and other contaminants that are dissoved in the water. There is no way to magically convert calcium, iron, bacteria, or other dissoved solids into fresh, clean water. Those elements MUST be REMOVED from the water through filtration or molecular exchange with another substance such as salt. The problem with salt based systems is that, the harder your water, the more salt it takes to remove the higher percentage of dissoved solids from the water. This means, more salt will enter your water through molecular exchange. Salt based softeners do nothing to remove organic contaminants such as bacteria unless they are installed in concert with a very good filtration system. While products like Easy Water may be somewhat effective at keeping dissoved minerals from depositing inside copper pipes, they cannot remove any percentage of dissoved solids from the water that flows out of the fixtures.
  • Jun 3, 2010, 03:43 PM
    guyparvion
    I am a level 6 certified water specialist with the WQA, I was a VP of sales for a national water treatment equipment supplier and have over 22 years of experience, I give this for credability not gloating. I have studied Scalewatcher, Scaleban, and Genesis, these all have wire wrapped around the pipe with similar claims and promotional information. Read the material carefully: they are sold by testimonials and incoherant scientific words put together to try to impress potential buyers. If these worked it would be great! It would make water treatment system sales easier, with snap installations and no maintenance. They offer very high profit margins since they only cost about $ 15 - $20 to manufacture and package, I could make a lot more $. The bottom line is that anyone with morals, ethics or intelligence would not have anything to do with these worthless products. If something can only be sold on testimonials, stay away!
  • Jul 28, 2010, 04:00 PM
    mhuppertz
    I put the magnets on my water lines because I kept clogging my shower head. I put them on, and the head started clearing itself and has stayed clear. I took them off at one point just to make sure I wasn't willing it to work, and sure enough within a week the shower head started clogging again. Put them back on the head cleared again.
    I can't vouch for the electronic versions, but I think somehow the idea is sound.
  • Jul 28, 2010, 04:54 PM
    speedball1

    Quote:

    I put the magnets on my water lines because I kept clogging my shower head.
    Just to make sure I understand, What, exactly was clogging your shower head? Iron oxicd,(rust)? Calcium carbonate? Suffer? What?
    Now tell me where the minerals go after the magnet kicks their a$$. If it's rust it seems to me that if it worked at all it would attract the iron up next to where the magnet was attached to the pipe.
    In all of my . Over 50 years , as a plumber I've heard the story about magnets treating your water right along with the scam of using your house wiring as a huge TV antenna.
    In all that time you're the first person to ever say that it works.
    Cheers, Tom
  • Sep 28, 2010, 07:17 AM
    Plotterman
    I am going to add my five cents worth to this blog. I am not a water expert. I have no experience in water technology. I am just a thinking person who likes to try things. My wife has been bugging me to put in a water softener for years! I hate these things! Do softeners work, yes. Are they a pain to maintain, yes. Where does all the salt go, down the drain. They use extra water to regenerate. They are expensive. And communities, especially in Calif. Are banning installation of new ones because of the wasting of water.

    So I tried a 100% money back guaranteed Scalewatcher. Its patented since 1992. (Easy Water is a copy of Scalewatcher) I installed it May 17, 2010 and we are absolutely amazed at the results! And here are our observations we have seen (we live in southern NM w/ water hardness varies between 32 and 55 grains of hardness):
    First thing was the water smelled clean within a few minutes. (Subjective)
    Our drip irrigation emitters have not plugged up, not once since installing the device. I am at least once every two weeks cleaning the heads. (I keep a piece of stainless steel wire on the garden fence to clean the tips. Haven't used it over 3 months). There is some scale around the openings of the emitters, but the opening has been clear.
    Second observation, our electric water heater slowly got quieter to the point you have to put your ear right next to the heater to hear when it is heating water. Did really notice it till about one month later, I just didn't hear it come on; and haven't since. It was always "gurgling".
    Third thing we saw, the scale deposits on all our bathroom fixtures started flaking off. My wife notice some occasional "chunks" of scale in the sink or toilet. And little by little, it has decreased. I wasn't sure till one month later I took pictures to compare, and sure enough, it is almost gone. Pictures don't lie!
    About the same time, we had this "scum" in our shower my wife just could never get off. It was right underneath the shower head caddy we place all our soaps and shampoos. It was an area shaped like a teardrop that was about 6 inches wide by 12 inches long. She tried scrubbing with "Scrubbing Bubbles", "Windex", "CLR", "LimeAway". Nothing she used would remove it. Then I noticed seemed to be getting smaller. I told not to clean the shower; I will just use the squeegy to swipe the water off the walls. "Lets see what happens". Now, its almost gone. This is unbelieveable!
    The really, really not contest proof is our evaporative coolers. We have two MasterCools which were installed in 1995. Most of your are not familiar with these but let me tell you, they require so much work to maintain. Let me just say that this is the first year I have had NO PROBLEMS at all!! I have always had to clean them during the cooling season. This year I have done NOTHING. I had to keep checking them and the pump screens have been clear ALL SUMMER. This has never happened before. As a matter of fact, I was supposed to change that $100 pad this year because it had mineralized up so much. Now, in Sept. it's pad looks just like the other one that I replaced 2 years ago.
    I have dozens of other observations.
    And here is the best evidence, my WIFE loves it!! She says her skin is soft, she uses less shampoo and soap, the fixtures are easy to clean, and our water tastes good!

    I know the company says it works by the "Lorentz Force Law" that was discovered back in the late 1800. I don't care. I see and feel and taste the difference in the water. Maybe its magic! Maybe its Voodoo! I don't care if it's the "Placebo Effect"! It works and myself and my wife are happy.

    So to all you engineers, scientists, water quality experts, college professors with all your head knowledge... don't knock it until you've tried it. Just think of how many times men have been wrong in the past. I just heard on the history channel that some guy hundreds of years ago was burned at the stake as a heretic because he said the earth was not the center of the universe. He stated the earth revolves around the sun. WOW and he was burned.

    Sorry about talking so much but I know what we have experienced. I don't have to prove it to anyone but myself, but I have the pictures.
  • Jan 26, 2011, 12:54 PM
    jesussaves314
    It's funny that the people that have posted on this forum talk about how this system can't work but they do NOT have one and have never tried it. How can they say if it works or not?

    Salt softening companies are losing big to the NO-SALT systems. When someone is on here and they are so expressive in the comment against these systems, they almost sound mad in their post, they are a competitor. Don't knock it until you try it. If there is a trial period, what do you have to lose? You can give ma all the credentials in the world in a post on a blog. I could tell you that I'm a rocket scientist for pete's sake how would you know any different?

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