Ted,
This is a scam.  If we are talking about pure elements at room temperature
then only iron, nickel and cobalt in elemental form exhibit what we normally
refer to as natural magnetism.  In technical terms we are referring here to
ferromagnetism, which is quite strong.  Most materials are only weakly
affected by magnetic fields, either attracted - paramagenetic or weakly
repelled - diamagnetic.  Most compounds are the latter as this property is
due to there only being paired electrons in the material of interest.
Relatively few have unpaired electrons.

The majority of water hardness is due to dissolved calcium, magnesium and
iron.  These first two metals will be present in the +2 oxidation state,
that is Ca+2 and Mg+2.  Both of these ions have only paired electrons and
thus would only be very weakly repelled by a magnetic field.  So, if you
have water flowing through a pipe and filter and even supposing you had a
magnet as big as your house around the pipe, pray tell where would these
ions supposedly go?  But seeing as we are talking about your garden variety
size magnets and a pretty good flow of water in household water pipes there
is no way in the world that the magnet is going to make one particle of
difference in where the calcium/magnesium ions will flow in the water pipe
or "filter".  Iron as Fe+2 and Fe+3 have 4 and 5 unpaired electrons,
respectively, so they are paramagnetic, but paramagnetism is so weak that
even if a filter was magnetic it would not have the power necessary to hold
back the iron ions against the flow of the water in the pipe.

Either buy softened water or buy/rent a legitimate ion exchange water
softener, reverse osmosis or distillation unit.  Good luck.

regards,
Bev Christian
Nortel Networks

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ted Wiktorowicz [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 1999 3:11 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      [TN] Removing calcium from water
>
> Has anybody heard of, or used a device that is basically a magnetic type
> filter (so I'm told) that is used in line to soften water.
>
> If so I would appreciate any info:
>                 - approx cost compared to typical water softner
>                 - maintenance
>                 - life expectancy
>                 - efficiency
>
> Ted
>
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