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 > > ################################################################ > TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c > ################################################################ > To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with > following text in the body: > To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> > To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet > ################################################################ > Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" > section for additional information. > For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or > 847-509-9700 ext.312 > ################################################################ > ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################