EasyWater system - real deal or snake oil?

[Jwarren]

Rinnai, Inc is the largest gas appliances and tankless water heater manufacturer in the world.
2+ years ago they tested Freije (EW parent co) Descaling Technology in a private lab against 24 other "no salt" water conditioners from all over the world and a salt water softener. After the testing they chose to work exclusively with Freije and wanted to to do further testing at existing hard water sites where they were having (scaling) issues.
They chose 3 locations in San Angelo, Texas which is one of the hardest water areas in the country (25-35 gpg/ 500+ppm). The heat exchangers in the three locations were failing due to scale in the approximately 3-6 months due to the high hardness of the water and the 160 to 185 degree heater temps (commercial). After testing for 6 months Rinnai cut the heat exchangers open to find no scale present at all.
Rinnai only recommends Easy Water and Freije descaling technology to eliminate scaling issues in their tankless water heaters.
Please note that at no time did I state that Freije EW system will soften your water if that is what is most important to you go with salt softener. I will tell you that tankless water heaters are "very prone" to scaling and failures due to it. Please feel free to contact me if you are still looking for more info on Freijes' EW treatment system.

 

[reb]

Pardon my skepticism, Jwarren. Your post sounds to me like an advertisement. Can you offer some documentation of the Rinnai tests? I find no mention of EasyWater on the Rinnai website.

 

[Dargo]

I can't tell you if EasyWater real or snake oil myself. There simply was not enough quantifiable proof available for me to convince me that it actually worked, so I ended up going with a conventional (tried and true) water softener. Heck, after a bit of an issue with a contracted plumber, I even got to install it myself.

 

[MicroPilot]

I looked into the "easy Water" system after seeing an ad on the TV. I was looking to answer one question, "how does it work". I failed in answering that question.

My opinion is it's bunk.

 

[ghendric]

I find it hard to believe that wrapping some wire around a pipe is going to change hard water to not be hard.. How does that work? What does that do to you're health if the chemicals that make the water hard are changed in some way? What changes them? an electric current? That doesn't make sense..

 

[MossRoad]

I find it hard to believe that wrapping some wire around a pipe is going to change hard water to not be hard.. How does that work? What does that do to you're health if the chemicals that make the water hard are changed in some way? What changes them? an electric current? That doesn't make sense..

Passing water over plates with electricity running through them can do all kinds of stuff, depending on the current, the type of metal in the plate, etc...

For example, I have a swimming pool with fresh clean water in it. I added several hundred pounds of salt to the water. Regular old solar salt, 99.8% pure. I then use the swimming pool pump to push it through a little device that has some plates in it with electric current on them. I converts the salt to chlorine. The chlorine sanitizes the pool, dissipates and returns to its form of salt. Then the process starts over again.

In an electric water heater there is an anode. A rod with current on it. It attracts minerals to it.

In a water softener there is media, salt water, electricity, etc...

All kinds of stuff that uses electricity to modify water.

 

[The Dougster]

the anode has no current in it... it is made up of a soft material, usually magnesium. As the process of electrolisis (sp?) takes place, rather than erode metal from the tank's surface, material is removed from the anode rod, thus saving the metal tank..
There are magnetic systems that allegedly serve to treat the water... GMX is the one brand I am familiar with..

 

[Dargo]

I just saw this thread again and thought I'd give an update since I've had the unit in use for about 8 months now. The softener I ended up going with was a Kenmore Elite 420 Kenmore Elite 420 Series Water Softener. They had it on sale at the time and I had a "customer appreciation" (or some other silly name) coupon for 10% off any purchase and they gave me another 10% off if I applied for a Sears credit card. After all was said and done I think I paid just over $500 for it including tax.

I'd like to mention something I used for the first time that I was concerned about but has proven to be great, and that's the solderless connections called ProBite. Copper Pipe Quick Connect Fittings - No Soldering or Compression I have about 65 psi of water pressure and like that pressure because we have no problems with water even if we have 4 showers going and two or 3 commodes flush at once. Anyway, I'd always sweated copper together before. That's what I did when I built my home. Adding this water softener was going to require me to solder several joints up against walls and also require me to remove quite a bit of insulation. A plumber I know and trust suggested this method and this brand to me, so I thought I'd try it.

Man, does that stuff work great! Not only have I not had a single leak, but when I was finishing my install it was about 3am and I was tired. Apparently I neglected to finish all the hangers on the copper pipe on one long run. I discovered this oversight when I opened the valves and pressurized the system. The weight of the water in the pipes caused about a 30' section drop down. To my surprise and delight, not only did the fittings hold, but they allowed a surprising amount of flex and none of them ever leaked! After my panic of seeing the pipe drop, I quickly installed the proper hangers and none of the pipes had moved. I'd marked each pipe with a Sharpie marker to know how far I needed to insert it in the connector and each joint was still flush with the Sharpie marks.

Anyway, even with my large family I don't think I've used but maybe 3/4 of a bag of salt per month. The Culligan system I used to have (when my family was not as large and my home was 1/3 the size) seemed to go through a couple bags of salt a month. So far I'm very pleased with the aforementioned water softener as well as the solderless connections (which include 3 valves to allow me to bypass the system if need be).

 

[whistlepig]

I just saw this thread again and thought I'd give an update since I've had the unit in use for about 8 months now. The softener I ended up going with was a Kenmore Elite 420 Kenmore Elite 420 Series Water Softener. They had it on sale at the time and I had a "customer appreciation" (or some other silly name) coupon for 10% off any purchase and they gave me another 10% off if I applied for a Sears credit card. After all was said and done I think I paid just over $500 for it including tax.

I'd like to mention something I used for the first time that I was concerned about but has proven to be great, and that's the solderless connections called ProBite. Copper Pipe Quick Connect Fittings - No Soldering or Compression I have about 65 psi of water pressure and like that pressure because we have no problems with water even if we have 4 showers going and two or 3 commodes flush at once. Anyway, I'd always sweated copper together before. That's what I did when I built my home. Adding this water softener was going to require me to solder several joints up against walls and also require me to remove quite a bit of insulation. A plumber I know and trust suggested this method and this brand to me, so I thought I'd try it.

Man, does that stuff work great! Not only have I not had a single leak, but when I was finishing my install it was about 3am and I was tired. Apparently I neglected to finish all the hangers on the copper pipe on one long run. I discovered this oversight when I opened the valves and pressurized the system. The weight of the water in the pipes caused about a 30' section drop down. To my surprise and delight, not only did the fittings hold, but they allowed a surprising amount of flex and none of them ever leaked! After my panic of seeing the pipe drop, I quickly installed the proper hangers and none of the pipes had moved. I'd marked each pipe with a Sharpie marker to know how far I needed to insert it in the connector and each joint was still flush with the Sharpie marks.

Anyway, even with my large family I don't think I've used but maybe 3/4 of a bag of salt per month. The Culligan system I used to have (when my family was not as large and my home was 1/3 the size) seemed to go through a couple bags of salt a month. So far I'm very pleased with the aforementioned water softener as well as the solderless connections (which include 3 valves to allow me to bypass the system if need be).

We did the Culligan thing once. Two bags of salt a month and it was eating our plumbing away. When we moved here two years ago this place had an old Water Refining softener and it uses a half bag of salt a month. The plumbing is still like brand new here and it conditions the water much better than the Culligan system. I think Culligan is in the salt business. I'll not do Culligan again. We have a great water guy out here. He installed a $2500 filtering system for our well water. It back flushes just like a water softener. No rust, no hard water deposits, and reverse osmosis drinking water. A gallon of reverse osmosis water an hour. Best water we have ever drank. Much better than bottled water and a lot cheaper. It's every bit as good as spring water. Makes an awesome cup of coffee.

 

[slimbond]

From the research I did on GMX, which supposedly does the same thing as Easywater (but uses magnets instead of electric wire), in my opinion, run away from this product! It's junk science. You're being sold a bill of goods.