Hard lime and
scale forms where ever tap water
evaporates or is heated. While it may not
be noticeable for a long time, there are
commercial appliances that show a white
deposit after only a few days of use.
Steam
cleaners, for instance, may become
inoperable after two weeks due to heavy
scale deposits. They have to be washed
often with acid in order to avoid filter
clogs. Also, dishwashers in restaurants
need to be freed from the white scale
deposits regularly. In the average
residential home, it may take a couple of
years until a layer of hard scale reduces
the cross section of water pipes
significantly. And in swimming pools a
rough band of sediment often develops
along the waterline, which may require
mechanical grinding to be removed.
In many
cases where the water has a high iron
content, the scale deposits develop
brownish tint. They may even acquire a
deep brown color, as is often evident in
toilet tanks. In dairy operations, fatty
substances often mix with the sediment
and create "butter stone." In
regards to cooling towers, circulating
water may mix with algaecides, and the
ensuing deposits may be toxic.
These
examples indicate that lime scale may
contain more then calcium carbonate.
Other minerals dissolved in the water
solidify, as well, and can produce
unsightly or even dangerous substances.
USING
MAGNETS
Fortunately,
a well designed magnetic treatment device
will prevent such deposits from
developing, as long as it is sized for
the maximum water flow capability of the
particular plumbing system. Safety
inspections may be required, but in most
cases inspection reveals nothing more
than and accumulation of sludge, which
can be removed easily.
Recently,
a pool builder inspected my 30 -year-old
pool, which has been fitted with simple
magnetic water treatment device that is
clamped on one of the lines between the
pump and the filter. He was astonished to
feel not a trace of roughness on the
waterline tiles, and he could hardly
believe that we did nothing to clean the
tiles since last summer.
During the
resurfacing of my driveway, a small
bulldozer happened to rip one of the feed
lines for the lawn sprinklers out of the
ground. A young plumber replaced the old
galvanized iron piping with new PVC
tubing. The next day he returned and
asked my permission to saw off a little
piece of the old pipe. The reason: He
wanted to show his father, a long time
plumber, that it was possible for the
outside of a water pipe to accumulate a
thick crust of rust deposits while the
inside of the 30-year-old pipe was
without any substantial deposits.
But how
could the old water tubes of my sprinkler
systems be free of the interior deposits?
After all, these tubes had been in the
ground for 18 years before I had magnetic
water treatment device attached to the
house's water supply line. At that time
lumpy hard deposits of reddish brown
stones had already reduced the inner
diameter of the 1-inch piping to less
than 3/4 inch.
The
removal of these hard deposits was rather
dramatic. On Feb. 28 1982, when the
magnetic device was installed on my house,
I had opened all the faucets, toilet
flushers, drains and garden hose outlets.
Soon I found it necessary to remove all
faucet strainer heads because the brown
water emerging carried lumps of brown
matter with it. It took about 4 hours
until the emerging water had become
colorless and ran steadily.
This event
can be explained using the same facts
about crystallization in water that were
detailed in part one of this column. The
only difference between magnetically
treated water and untreated water is that
magnetically treated water enables
minerals to crystallize in the water
instead of on the surface of some pipe or
container. As a result we have converted
the water formerly saturated with
dissolved minerals into a mixture of
solid microcrystals and clean water. When
this purified water flows past other
minerals it is capable of dissolving a
new load of minerals.
In large
industrial installations, like cooling
towers, this process is evident as large
chunks of old lime scale break off the
walls. The treated water does not
dissolve the old scale only from the
outer surface: it penetrates between the
scale and the wall. This area is the
weakest part of the scale, so the water
can split the crystalline matter from the
container wall. The dramatic speed of
this process made some precautions
necessary. In order to avoid clogs,
filters and strainers should be
temporarily taken out of the circulation
system.
Clamp-on
magnetic units typically have an
efficiency rating off 20 to 40 percent
although they are capable of removing old
lime scale, this may take several weeks.
But because they also prevent the
formation of new scale, the units are
always producing some benefit.
Corrosion
prevention is another benefit of magnetic
water treatment. Periodic acid washing of
a pool is one of the reasons for the
metal corrosion. In some cases, after
long periods between acid washings, the
hard deposits may cover up some weak
spots, which turn into leaks when the
deposits are dissolved by the next acid
wash. Because magnetic water treatment
makes acid washes unnecessary, a major
cause of corrosive damage is eliminated.
Also after
a long period of magnetic water treatment,
the interior of pipes becomes covered
with a thin continuous coating. This
layer does not change over the years.
Analyzed by a number of scientific
institutes, it has been determined to be
a corrosion preventing inert substance.
In one case, it was found to be aluminum
silicate.
The
Steinbeis Institute in Reutlingen,
Germany, has devoted years of research to
the study of corrosion and has published
numerous articles outlining the corrosion
reduction experienced with water systems
treated with magnetic devices.
IMPROVING
WATER'S IMAGE
Effectively
treated water looks sparkling clear, even
if the water supply is murky. Some water
experts claim they can recognize a
specific silky appearance of magnetically
treated water. This might be due to the
multitude of microcrystals, which can
reflect sunlight. The developing
microcrystals, however are so small that
they are visible only with high
magnification.
In regards
to smell, water that comes with a slight
sulfur odor loses this smell after being
treated with magnetic devices. Of
significant interest to this industry,
the chlorine odor of chlorinated water is
greatly reduced by effective magnetic
treatment. In fact, slight chlorination
may become unnoticeable to the average
user.
For
aromatic brews such as teas or coffees,
the desired aromas can be achieved with
fewer ingredients if the water is
effectively treated. The ensuing aromas
appear cleaner to perceptive noses. It is
said that in some eastern countries --
China for instance -- many people heat
their tea water in a pot containing a
magnet.
OTHER
EFFECTS
One of the
most obvious effects of magnetic water
treatment is the enhanced ability of most
cleaning chemicals and detergents.
Magnetically treated water increases
their effectiveness to the point where
just one-third or even one-fourth of the
cleaning agent is needed. In the cases of
naturally contaminated water from lakes,
an intense magnetic treatment has made
the lake water fit for human consumption.
Magnetically
treated water runs off a cleaned surface
faster and in thinner sheets because
surface tension is reduced. As a result
one sees fewer water spots from drying.
This has been applied successfully for
the watering of decorative plants by
sprinklers.
Surface
tension in water is critical to
biological life. Surface tension makes
water rise in the fibers of the plants.
It fills the capillaries in your body and
it determines water's ability to
penetrate soil and other materials.
Therefore it is not surprising that
wherever magnetic water treatment has
been practiced, growth patterns have
changed. Experiments with groups of
growing farm animals and agricultural
plants have been conducted at
universities and federal institutions
with stunning results. Some were hard to
believe, so the scientists were reluctant
to publish them immediately, pending
confirmation. Following are some of the
results of scientific research:
At a
California university, two control groups
of piglets of 24 piglets each with normal
feeding were compared with two groups of
24 piglets that were getting their water
from a magnetic treatment device. The
latter groups consumed twice as much
water and grew an average 12.5 percent
faster.
Cotton
plantings with various irrigation were
compared in California. The cotton plants
irrigated with magnetically treated water
grew to larger sizes with larger and
denser foliage. However, they produced
one-third less cotton than the control
plantings.
A
Washington navel orange tree watered with
the magnetically treated water carried
less fruit, but each orange became
unusually thick and juicy, weighing 20
ounces on average. Similarly, a Eureka
lemon tree fed magnetically treated water
carries lemons that grow up to one pound
each.
One
biologist suggests that the slightly
reduced surface tension of the
magnetically treated water may facilitate
its penetration of cell walls. This could
accelerate the normal dividing of the
cells in growing parts of living
individuals. This would account for the
faster vegetative growth and the reduced
reproductive cell division responsible
for the number of flowers and fruit.
The
accelerated growth of plants by the use
of magnetically treated water is possible
because the root tips secrete enzymes
that dissolve crystals in the ground,
enabling the roots to ingest the
dissolved minerals. This is not the case
for one-cell organisms that pollute pool
water. Algae and bacteria have to ingest
their food directly through their cell
wall. They get plenty of water through it,
but they cannot receive any nourishment
in the form of crystallized minerals,
which cannot penetrate the cell walls.
Thus, bacteria in magnetically treated
water starve.
Observations
on swimming pools confirm this effect.
The normal chlorine content of treated of
swimming pools can be reduced by at least
half if the water is efficiently
magnetically treated. Even without any
chlorination , no algae growth can be
detected for about 36 hours. This is the
normal duration of the affectivity of the
magnetic treatment. After one to two days,
the microcrystals formed by the treatment
start to redissolve. After this time, a
vigorous growth of algae occurs in the
non-chlorinated pool if it is not
replenished with treated water.
In short a
swimming pool benefits by the application
of magnetic water treatment for a number
of reasons: Because the pool already has
a circulation system, installing a
magnetic clamp-on device is simple.
Chlorine
content can be reduced by at least half,
and chlorine odor is further reduced
because much of the chlorine is
incorporated into the microcrystals,which
we cannot smell.
The
treated water does not produce sediments
on the pool's waterline.
No hard
lime scale develops in the circulation
system -- neither in the filter nor in
the heater.
Dr.
Klaus J. Kronenberg is a world-renowned
physicist specializing in the study of
permanent magnets.
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