On Jul 8, 10:17*am, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article , justalurker justalurker wrote:

On Jul 7, 7:57=A0pm, Denrael wrote:
I've been looking at the NuvoH2O Saltless Water Softener as an
alternative to a larger brine based system. =A0Does anyone here have any
experience with them? Thoughts?

To "soften" water is to remove calcium (among other things like iron)
from water, not calcium deposits from pipes, and that is commonly done
by one of two methods.

Please note that "commonly done by one of two methods" is not the same as
"cannot be done except by those two methods". Ion-exchange and RO are not the
only ways of softening water. A third method that is known to work is
distillation -- obviously impractical for a whole-house water softener, but it
*does* work.





One method is ion exchange as done by a water softener. A water
softener exchanges either sodium ions (if using NaCl) or potassium
ions (if using KCl as a SALT SUBSTITUTE) for calcium (and other) ions
in the hard water. That's it, no ifs, no ands, no buts, and no sales
double talk. Simple chemistry and physics. Softening water is not
black magic. It is physics and chemistry with a side of mechanics. No
matter how hard sales people try (and want) to they can not violate
the laws of physics or change the nature of chemical actions and
reactions.

The other is by a filter and/or membrane technology or distillation,
but no simple filter will remove calcium. You would need a reverse
osmosis unit large enough to service your entire house. You would not
want to pay for that big an RO nor pay for the service and routine
maintenance it would require and RO water would be very aggressive in
your plumbing and it would waste a lot of water.

NO magnet(ic) gizmo or electronic gizmo or "conditioner" will soften
water but people waste their money on them EVERYDAY.

NuvoH2O does not claim to use electronics or magnetism. They claim it works by
chelation, and their explanation at least passes a first-order sanity check.
Hopefully, a chemist or ChemE will join the thread at some point to offer
opinions more informed than mine, but, having had two years of college
chemistry, I believe that the chelation explanation is at least plausible..

Doug,

If you'll re-read my post please note the line "The other is by a
filter and/or membrane technology or distillation" and the word
DISTILLATION.

Softening water by definition is removing the material in the water
that causes it to be hard.

No reputable third party chemist or physicist has, to my knowledge,
released a detailed study of the "conditioning" process in actual use
in a residential installation where the "conditioned" water has
provided ANY, let alone ALL, of the positive effects that soft water
provides.

When that happens I'll be interested in reading those studies but,
even then, water "conditioning" is not softening water and Merlin
never figured out how to turn lead into gold.