INDIANA WATER QUALITY ASSOCIATION (IWQA)                      February 2008

 

 

Position on “No-Salt” Physical Water Conditioners

 

There has recently been resurgence in the marketing of products labeled as “Salt Free Water Conditioners”.  Some marketers celebrate their products in promotional materials as “New Break-Through” technology.  Some have gone as far as making suggestions that “now you can condition your water without salt”.  If you examine their words carefully you will find that, although they give the impression you can get soft water from these systems, they actually don’t say it.  So what are these “No Salt Conditioners”?

 

The technologies that are heavily marketed today are often in the category of “physical water conditioners” (PWC).  PWC devices include magnetic, electromagnetic, electrical frequency and crystallization of polymer beads.  All of these techniques claim to achieve the same result of creating an effect on the dissolved salts that are the source of scaling in water.  PWC’s do not stop all scale from forming, they only claim to make scale form in such a way that it doesn’t stick. PWC’s do not produce “soft water”.

 

 

Many of these companies are marketing their systems as an alternative to salt based softening.  The technique they use might help with scaling in hot water (although that performance is not validated or demonstrated to be consistent) but none of these devices produces soft water.   If consumers want hard water that might not scale as badly as un-treated water, then these products might have a place in the market.  If consumers are expecting soft water, these products will more than likely disappoint anyone who buys it with this expectation.

 

The Indiana Water Quality Association, an Indiana registered Not-for-Profit trade association of water treatment professionals, recognizes products that provide verifiable results which usually means products with independent third party performance tested technologies.  The professional water treatment industry embraces new technologies.  If a specific product or technology works, the industry would be excited to be a part of it.  It is our belief that integrity must not be compromised under the allure of selling products that sound good to consumers.  The products must perform as promoted and should adhere to testing standards that substantiate such performance.

 

For those who want to understand this phenomenon on PWC’s you can read articles, written by people who support PWC.  You can conclude from these articles that the product advertisements filling our various media channels are not for new or break-through inventions.  Supporting information can be found in the following articles:

 

http://www.wcponline.com/pdf/0610Seccombe.pdf

 

http://www.wcponline.com/pdf/0702Tech%20Talk.pdf

 

The national Water Quality Association (WQA) website also has an extensive library to which you may link for additional articles on this topic:

 

http://www.wqa.org/landing.cfm?section=3