Scale Blaster, Anyone have one?

[bobdog2o02]

I have done a little research on this product, http://www.scaleblaster.com/sb-175.html . Does anyone here have one of these units from clearwater tech? What are your results?

We ditched our dead water softener when we bought our house and have since been fighting the scale buildup. I found a promo for $222 for this model at home depot for today only.

 

[matt1@]

Wow never heard of that product but it would pay for itself over having to buy bags of salt pellets year after year. I too would be interested in hearing if it works as stated in the video.

 

[Ashful]

I've researched similar products, although not this specific make/model. They work by ionization, in that they're not physically removing the "hard" minerals from your water, but ionizing them such that they do not continue to cause mineral buildup on your fixtures. The water coming off them will also feel soft, despite still containing all of the hard water minerals.

However, there is one problem with all such products, which is never mentioned in the marketing. There is a relatively short window of time in which the minerals remain ionized, after passing thru the field coil, and after that the water goes back to its initial state. So, if these are installed at the point of use, they work fairly well. If they're installed before your hot water tank, where the water is going to sit for a long period, then they're pretty much useless.

There is a reason that resin catalyst systems (with salt brine rejuvenation) remain the primary method after 40 years. It is the most affordable system that is really effective at removing hard water minerals. If you want to use a product such as the Scale Blaster, it would be best to install two separate systems, one for cold water, and a second downstream of your hot water tank. Just plan on replacing that hot water heater fairly frequently.

edit: Those with on-demand hot water systems can ignore my comments. It might actually work pretty well for those applications.

 

[matt1@]

Ok thanks for the great info. I have a tankless water heater and thought this would save my back having to hump the bags down to the basement but I'll keep doing it this way since the system is already there.

 

[Ashful]

Might be a reasonable choice for you, with the tankless system. We've been crossing posts, read my edit above.

I used to buy 100 lb. bags of salt, so I understand the comment about your back. However, now I buy 40 or 50 lb. bags. Not much trouble to dump a few of those into the hopper 3x per year.

 

[matt1@]

True

 

[bobdog2o02]

Thanks for the input Joful,I think we might go for it simply for the reduced house work for the wife. I can replace a water heater in about as long as it takes to drain it and i'd rather not have the salt.

 

[Ashful]

Thanks for the input Joful,I think we might go for it simply for the reduced house work for the wife. I can replace a water heater in about as long as it takes to drain it and i'd rather not have the salt.

Fine by me! But just to be sure we're on the same page, the salt brine is only used for flushing the minerals out of the the resin catalyst tank once every 7 - 14 days, and does not go into your drinking water. In fact, there is a fresh water rinse cycle after the salt rinse, and your system goes into a bypass mode while this is all happening, to keep the salt water separated from the water you use. There may be a very small amount of sodium (not significant) that does remain in the resin, which may make it into your water, but this is a very small residual level.

When I first had to deal with this problem (prior house), I looked at what the pro's use, and there really are only two brands: Autotrol and Fleck. My prior house came with an old mechanical Autotrol, and when that needed replacement (~20 years old), I replaced it with an electronic unit from Fleck. This house came with another Autotrol, but since it was in good shape, I just ended up re-using it when I re-plumbed this house. They really are the way to go, if you want to actually remove the hard water minerals. Folks who make alternative (read "not as effective") systems like to make a big deal about handling salt, but I have no problem spending $11 twice per year, and dumping two 50 lb. bags into the hopper. No sweat.

 

[bobdog2o02]

Thanks for taking the time to put up the post, I didn't realize that's how the salt units work. What do you think of this one,

http://m.homedepot.com/p/GE-30-400-Grain-Water-Softener-GXSF30V/203219771/

My house is 1100 sf and its just me and my wife. Our budget is tight, hence the wood burning. I need to do something but I don't know what the pricing on your referenced models would cost.

 

[Ashful]

Hi Bob,

I don't really know anything about the GE units, but suspect they probably work as advertised, given that GE isn't a fly-by-night operation. I had called around to the various water quality companies in my area years ago, and after finding they all used either Fleck or Autotrol, went that route. I think I paid $500 for my Fleck 5600SE 24k, which was the latest and greatest unit at the time, and my total installed costs were about $600 (I do my own plumbing). I was also on a pretty limited budget at that time, and it was a significant expense for me. I didn't look at the consumer-level units at the time, so I really don't know if they're good or garbage.

Your first step is a water test, which you'll need to set up the system properly, anyway. It will tell you how many grains of hardness you're dealing with, which will tell you how often you'll have to re-generate a given system. You typically want to choose a system with capacity such that you're regenerating every 10 days, with your typical water usage. For the water test, you can either collect your own sample and drop it off at your local analytical lab (call any realtor or home inspector, if you can't find one on your own), or you can buy your own water hardness testing strips:

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Trutest-Strips-50-Count-NP208/203414630/

 

[bobdog2o02]

Thanks for the crash course. Looks like I need to read up. I'm a contractor/handyman and I do plumbing. Looks like this might be an opportunity to learn and offer my customers more services.