New hard water treatment-any good?

[the boy raymond]

We have very hard water where I live and I am always having to add a scale preventer to it. I came across a new thing being advertised called 'Pure-stream filter' by a European company called Darlly. Apparently you attach it to your garden hose when filling your spa. It is cheap and according to the manafacturer's web site works on the process of de-ionising the water. On the face of it it looks like a godsend. However- I had an electronic magnetic coil de-ioniser on my cold water pipe for some time. It was supposed to descale the water but did not work judging by the scale build-up in my kettle. This thing is clearly not electric and I do not know how it would work. Has anyone else heard of it or have any experience of it? It seems a bit of a risk to take as you would only know if it worked by taking a risk with the water. Here is one supplier and there are others in the UK: http://hottubchemicalsireland.weebly.com/pure-stream-spa-filter.html

[chem geek]

See this link for more on the pseudoscience of magnetic water treatment for preventing scale, etc.

The product you linked to is completely different.  It is an ion exchange resin, basically what most water softeners use.  It exchanges calcium and magnesium with sodium.  It is very likely to work and is a reasonable way to reduce the hardness of water.  Just note that in a spa you usually do want SOME water hardness to reduce foaming.  Usually 120-150 ppm CH is sufficient for that purpose.  You don't want much more since you want to reduce the risk of scaling.