Voodoo Stick?

[jmaglott]

Is anyone familiar with Fluid Dynamics (

http://www.fluiddynamicsna.com)

products? We are considering a "Scaletron" to serve an industrial heat exchanger (less than 10 gpm continuous use). They boast that the product is effective for 25 years, but they have only been selling in the US for 2.5 years. Sounds like a great product (no electricity, chemicals, or maintenance), but is it too good to be true?

 

[gr2vessels]

Selling What? Snake oil? Gremlins in the tubes? Please buy the Scaletron and let us know...

 

[GenB]

please do not use other than treated, filtered softened water on my boilers period. These other devises may be good for cooling towers or other ambient temp. Water devices maybe on heating hot water boilers below boiling temp. I have seen boilers go down in one year that how quick these devices will kill the boilers. Good loruck anyways'

 

[MJCronin]

Hhmmmmmm......

From the Fluid Dynamics Website:

"How does Scaletron work?

Water is passed in a turbulent state over a special metal alloy which alters the composition of the water near the alloy surface. This action changes the supersaturation ratio of the water and ensures that lime does not form hard lime scale"

Aha...! Its the "special metal alloy" that does it !

That's the same alloy used with the perpetual motion machines, 600 mpg spark plugs and the 30 day Viagra pills (all available over the internet !)

 

[steris]

This product is a copy cat of the Descal-A-Matic and just another in the long line of magnetic water treatment options. The science behind it is a mystery to me but we have lots of customers/service technician who use it on electric steam boilers and swear by the Descale-A-Matic. My understanding of the principle of operation is that there are a bunch of very strong magnets that are placed in series with north against north and south against south. This produces a strong alternating magnetic field and when ions pass through this "something" happens and then hardness that precipitates out forms more of a soft mud than a hard scale. There is a bunch of literature available on magnetic water treatment which is nicely summarized here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_water_treatment

. If you Google "magnetic water treatment" you will have enough reading for a day.

Basically, I am conflicted because of the amount of published papers that state this technology doesn't work however I personally have seen lots evidence of it working. On that note, we have tested out electrical magnetic water treatment options (as opposed to permanent magnets) and found that there was no measurable scale reduction. Additionally, we have seen that some hard scale does form in the magnetic tube and that needs to be cleaned out 1-2/year. How critical is your application? Can you risk experimentation or failure?