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You may see a number of advertisements for "magnetic water softeners" or maintenance FREE water softeners. They just plain don't work as implied by most of these sites, in our opinion. Some refer to ANCIENT government articles that no longer apply. They rarely seem to put the date it was written on the site. Most articles referred that we have seen are over 30 years old! Remember if a government article was written over a year ago it is probably out of date. If it were written 20-30 years ago it is obsolete. The entire industry has made great advancements since those times. Don't fall for gimmicks and "slick willy" miracle promises. Magnets just plain don't work well! Certainly not as well as even the cheapest and most low quality conventional water softeners! We haven't seen one yet that makes any noticeable difference at all. When we say magnets we also mean, alloys, electronic gizmos and gimmicks, SWC devices, Beotron, GMX, Nano technology and any other non-conventional water softener. Don't be fooled when they tell you these units soften the water. The only way to truly get your water soft is to use a conventional water softener. If you have an environmental concern about sodium you may want to switch to a water softener substitute called potassium chloride. Also remember it is normally a bad idea to drink water directly from the softener. It is best to drink bottled water or add a Reverse Osmosis ($199) drinking water filter to the kitchen sink to remove sodium and other unwanted contaminants. You can also run up to two full sized water using appliances, such a a water using refrigerator or ices maker, from one Reverse Osmosis unit. The vast majority of people who have water softeners that do not have reverse osmosis are drinking water that is not fit for human consumption. Especially if they have a private well, as private wells generally tend to have much harder water than most city water supplies. Although there are places like Midland-Odessa Texas, State College PA, Las Vegas Nevada and numerous other communities around the country who have extremely hard water. What a conventional softener does is take out the hardness and replace it with an equal or greater amount of sodium. If you add reverse osmosis this is not an issue at all and the water will be wonderful to drink and cook with. Some sites go so far as to say that magnets have been used in government and military applications for many years. What they failed to mention is is that those magnets "were" used entirely to keep scale buildup from the incoming pipes. That is pretty much all that they do. They are not residential houses. They are primarily cooling water treatment, boiler water treatment and heating surface applications. They were designed for a time when there were no alternatives, mainly in wartime on ships without accommodations for conventional methods from what we have read. They had to "make do" with what they had. That is not the case in residential applications in the United States today. If you have any current and pertinent information or proof to the contrary we strongly encourage you to share that with us. Every single test we have done behind magnets and other "Miracle Technology" shows virtually no change in the hardness content or in the total dissolved solids levels. Some customers say that they notice a slight difference in the water, but that everything else seems the same. Skin is still dry and the suds just doesn't lather like it does with a real water softener that actually softens the water. Out of all the customers who have contacted us about these units, we have never seen a single one that claims to have gotten the water to 0 hardness. Period! We have never seen one that has even cut it in half. They just plain don't work well. Don't be fooled by gimmicks and slick wording. ALL of our water softeners are capable of 0 hardness in most residential applications! They reduce the amount of energy it takes to heat the water as well, resulting in lower heating bills. Magnets don't and gimmicks don't. We feel that the reason for some minor change, if it did actually occur, in the water pipes could be that there is an ionic response in the pipes immediately after the magnets regarding the calcium's (or mineral hardness) ability to stick to the pipe. However, anytime the pipe "tees" off or splits, the effect, if any, seems diminished. It seems that most of the calcium, or mineral hardness that doesn't stick to the pipe initially is usually caught in the nearest reservoir such as a hot water heater or the toilets. Some magnet makers reinforce this theory by admitting you need many different magnets throughout the dwelling. Namely: after the hot water heaters and other appliances. Most of these companies don't seem to tell you that. What NONE of them seem tell you is that you will NEVER get to "zero hardness" as you will with just about any "real" water softener. If you do see any that claim to give you zero hardness we would greatly appreciate you letting us know who they are and where they are. Just like we would like to hear your comments if you have used these products and are in no way associated with one of these companies. We have never tested any of these devices and found ANY difference at all. The additional hardness and minerals that collect in the hot water heater actually can increase the amount of solids in the hot water heater, plus causing the water to be far more difficult to heat. It's like actually heating through a brick before you heat the water. It can make your energy costs significantly higher. We get the most complaints on these magnets on city water. They say they don't work well at all. Well water users say they sometimes notice a slight difference but always seem to admit that it might be because they want it to work so desperately. If magnets truly worked we would offer them on this site. Think about it. Keep in mind we are just saying what ordinary people have told us. Please feel free to contact these companies and ask them yourself.
(1) They never work when iron is present.
(2) Low pH water seems to retard any benefits.
(3) Virtually no difference on city water.
(4) No difference on chlorinated water of any type.
(5) Skin is very itchy with the magnets on the water line especially with
water that has chlorine, chloramines or chemicals.
(6) Energy bills do not decrease the way they do with
conventional water softening methods. Hardness makes the water heavier and
harder to heat.
(7) Inaccurate information on the site that sold it to me.
(8) Won't give me my money back unless I take them to court.
(9) Didn't work in water with sediment.
(10) Doesn't work on water that contains sulfur, iron or manganese.
MOST complaints by brand name: #1: CLEARWAVE
#2:
GMX
Others
that don't seem to work well:
GMX Clearwater Clearwave Magnapak Never scale Magnawrap PLEASE NOTE: We were recently threatened by a company that
sells magnets. They are trying to "bully" us into taking this page
down. Of course their attorney does not return our calls and they REFUSE to let
us test their equipment. Our position is simply this: If you have a magnet that
makes the water soft you are welcome to prove it by sending us one. We will take
it to a reputable independent testing agency such as Microbac Laboratories and
have them test it. If it truly does make the water soft we will be happy to
retract some of our statements here. WE have never seen a magnet that works. We
have tested a number of them. Short of giving us the ability to have it
independently tested we have no way to know if it works. It is every American's
free speech right to state their opinion. Our opinion is, and will be until
PROVEN otherwise, that we have never seen a magnet that truly softens water.
Anything short of letting us test their equipment makes their complaints
frivolous in our opinion. Magnets/ Maintenance free units just
plain don't work in our opinion when compared to real water softeners! If you just have to try them
we would recommend one of the really cheap ones! We know you were alive
yesterday, we just hope you weren't born yesterday. More
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WARNING:
When it comes to water treatment equipment you should NEVER do business with ANY
company who does not have the same certifications as we do. It is just plain
crazy. There are so many "Fly by night" companies out there that it should be
the very FIRST rule in your decision making process. It is your first, and some
times ONLY, line of defense. Just look at our home page
to see our many appropriate certifications. You will find them all in the top
third of the page. Budget Water USA: 1.800.701.9914 email: budgetwater@budgetwater.com NOTE: Purchasing anything from this site means you have read, and agree to, all of the conditions of our: " terms- of- service" page. Culligan® is a registered trademark of Culligan®, Inc., RainSoft® is a registered trademark of RainSoft Water Conditioning company, Kinetico® is a registered trademark of Kinetico Incorporated, Hague® is a registered trademark of Wm. R. Hague, Inc., Cuno® is a registered trademark of Cuno Incorporated, Rayne® is a registered trademark of Rayne Corporation, Ionics® is a registered trademark of Ionics, Incorporated, Ecowater® is a registered trademark of Ecodyne Corporation. Budget Water International, Inc. is not affiliated with Culligan®, Inc., RainSoft® Water Conditioning Co., Kinetico® Incorporated, Wm. R. Hague®, Inc., Cuno® Incorporated, Rayne® Corporation, or Ecodyne Corporation.
Related Resources (1)(2)(3) *We manufacture most of our equipment from scratch. We use only premium national name brand components on all equipment that we sell. The same people that make equipment for many other national PREMIUM brand companies make them for us as well. Three of the top control valve makers are Fleck, Autotrol and Clack; we carry all three types and many of the other top brands as well. Send mail to
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