Woo in my loo ?

[The Don]

Okay, it's not my loo but it's part of a bathroom installation. My contractor has suggested, nay insisted that we install a limescale prevention devicew which conists of a blue box about 12cm square and 3 cm deep with a green LED which flashes slowly, this plugs into the mains. Out of the bottom of the device (or top if you install it upside down) are two insulated wires. You coil these wires around metal pipes and it's supposed to stop limescale.

He doesn't know about physics, and I've forgotten much of what I ever learned but I'm puzzled how this could both prevent new limescale forming and remove existing limescale from devices.

To add insult to (potential) injury, I've actually fitted the thing because he "doesn't do electrics".

The guy is a great contractor, so a few quid to keep him sweet is neither here nor there but I'm just wondering.

It's not the same but looks a bit like the device here:

http://www.scalewizard.co.uk/howitworks.htm

[Psiload]

http://www.allfunpics.com/data/media/5/********3.jpg

Oops. I can't use potty mouth words. Not even in a URL.

Oh well.

[jstro]

It's a wooful waste of money.

Here's an article from Skeptical Inquirer:

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n1_v22/ai_20577445

[CaveDave]

It's a wooful waste of money.

Here's an article from Skeptical Inquirer:

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n1_v22/ai_20577445
Here it is as a usable link:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n1_v22/ai_20577445

Probably a worthless device, but I'd like to test one sometime.

Cheers,
Dave

[Yuri Nalyssus]

...a blue box about 12cm square and 3 cm deep with a green LED which flashes slowly, this plugs into the mains. Out of the bottom of the device (or top if you install it upside down) are two insulated wires...
A blue box with flashing lights and wires - that's got to work, surely, otherwise the principles underlying radionics (http://www.radionics.org/#top) would be meaningless.

Yuri

[Hawk one]

And let's not forget the 60s Batcomputer. Clearly, it was all those flashing lights that made it so advanced. It probably prevented limescale from forming in the Batcave as well.

[CaveDave]

And let's not forget the 60s Batcomputer. Clearly, it was all those flashing lights that made it so advanced. It probably prevented limescale from forming in the Batcave as well.
Did the BatCave have no stalactites or stalagmites?

Those are "limescale", too.

Dave

[articulett]

And let's not forget the 60s Batcomputer. Clearly, it was all those flashing lights that made it so advanced. It probably prevented limescale from forming in the Batcave as well.

If It's attractive, I say keep it--spruce it up with a little crochet cozy if you want--or maybe a diorama. Do you know how to decopage?

[articulett]

Did the BatCave have no stalactites or stalagmites?

Those are "limescale", too.

Dave

But guano isn't, right? Or is it? I hear it's hard to remove as well.

[The Don]

Probably a worthless device,

Not to the people selling them ;)

Here's a picture of the thing

http://www.toolstation.com/images/library/stock/webtables/35822.jpg

[Meffy]

But guano isn't, right? Or is it? I hear it's hard to remove as well.
With enough ingenuity it can be done. :-( The phosphate rock of which the island of Nauru is/was made was originally bird guano.

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

[edit] Is a batloo anything like a quatloo?

[Cynric]

My plumber fitted something similar to our boiler, which was furring up with scale very quickly.
For a couple of weeks afterwards we got flakes of scale coming out of the taps, and so I wondered if it was working. Being inquisitive, I took out the heat exchanger, but it was still totally caked in scale. If the magic magnet did have an effect, it wasn't very profound.

We're fitting a water softener soon. Ion exchange is a technology I'm confident of.