What is Reddit's opinion of iSpring ED2000 Whole House Water Descaler, Alternative Electronic Salt-Free Hard Water Conditioner, Reduces Limescale Prevent Deposits Build-up, Different from a Water Softener?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Throwing this out there as preventative maintenance, I have a water descaling device on my main water line. I believe it is working as there’s no scale buildup on any of my faucets after 8 months of having it installed. It’s by iSpring and here’s an Amazon link. Note, it’s NOT a softener, water still has minerals. It just prevents scale buildup.

I'm considering a water conditioner vs. softener. Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/iSpring-ED2000-Electronic-Descaler-Conditioner/dp/B0744TC3PW/

Not sure how it performs in comparison, but the difference is $3k for a softener vs. $300 for an electric conditioner. Plus no need for salt which seems like a plus.

These: iSpring ED2000 Whole House Electronic Descaler Water Conditioner, Alternative Water Softener or equivalent will eliminate the white dust that tap water in an ultrasonic humidifier creates.

A few years ago I didn’t believe in this technology.. a relative however convinced me, and after installing I can in fact say “it works”.

This thing works great. It doesn't remove old lime and calcium buildup, but it prevents new build up. I started using it when I got my new water heater. Faucets and dishwasher have stayed lime free for a year now.

iSpring ED2000 Whole House Electronic Descaler Water Conditioner, Silver https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0744TC3PW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_PwIFBbF7R8G4V

I'm busy right now but to reiterate my main point, individual accounts from people are not reliable sources of information.

My background is a Geologist. Acecdotally I have had people tell me that their "euhedral crystals" healed their asthma, or that an electric current in their plumbing system softened their water (removed dissolved calcium and magnesium). Literally neither of these things are possible. Regardless, if you were to look up electric current descalers on Amazon you see almost 100 4+ star reviews insisting these work when the scientific evidence is that they don't. These people are deciding themselves into seeing a difference.

And for an extra point, read the reviews for these healing crystals. Hundreds of reviews exclaiming they work. Euhedral minerals literally do nothing. They don't heal you. They don't help with fertility or whatever else. Regardless healing crystals have become obnoxiously popular.

An example with dogs would be overweight dogs in the United States. The average person percieves overweight dogs as healthy and underweight dogs as unhealthy, despite what their vet tells them. For my anecdote, I have my dogs at a healthy weight but I am constantly harassed by people insisting they were underweight. They're not, I've had 4 different vets confirm so, and note that it's due to the perception a dog needs to be overweight to look healthy. The average person just doesn't know what a healthy weight looks like on a dog anymore.

Why the disparity? People are simply not experts on several matters. Personal bias also plays a huge role. There was a vegan woman I recall that insisted eating a vegan diet cured her of cancer - she died of cancer because she was so stubborn in her ideology. Steve Jobs went the same way. People will see what they want to see. And laymen are not going to be "experts" on every topic to realize when someone is wrong.

You're right that it's possible people who have cats surviving a vegan diet may have them going outdoors. I have a whole rant about why that's significantly worse in terms of cruelty, environment, and well being of the cat doing that... But I don't have time right now. The other possibility is that they're being very selective in how they present their pet and you can't tell how well off the animal actually is. People peddling oil and healing crystals do this all the time, in part to convince themselves they're doing the right thing.

Non-salt based system work in one of two ways. Traditional salt based water softeners work as you described through the ion exchange process and actually remove the calcium and magnesium. The other two ways do not remove the minerals, but treat them.

The first way is through coating the minerals basically making them "not sticky". This is done through the use of a phosphate material. This phosphate, usually a polyphosphate, binds with the minerals and does not allow them to create a scale buildup.

The second way is through electrical means (something like this) https://www.amazon.com/iSpring-ED2000-Electronic-Descaler-Conditioner/dp/B0744TC3PW I need to do a little more reading on this, but my basic understanding is that it basically removing the ion that causes the mineral buildup.

The biggest key to understand in both of these two alternate methods is nether of these actually soften the water. They prevent scale buildup, but the minerals still exist. So they will not help the "feel" of your water, and do not aid in cases like laundry and dishwashing. Only ion exchange will do that.

Have been reading up on these and have been tempted to try one at least one section of the plumbing needs to be copper.

https://www.amazon.com/iSpring-ED2000-Electronic-Descaler-Conditioner/dp/B0744TC3PW/ref=asc\_df\_B0744TC3PW