I'm getting a lot of calcium/scale from my gas water heater.  I was thinking of installing a water softener on the input side.
I think it's doubtful that the magnetic type would work (my pipes are plastic anyway) and the salt type appear to be expensive to buy and require regular regenerating with salt.
Any experiences to share would be appreciated.

Hi, we have plastic pipes on our water as well. When it was installed we put a ring of small powerful magnets (found in a UK 99p shop as a toy) on the water inlet pipe.

Never moved it, but someone said that it does something to the alignment of the water or calcium molecules ….

Don’t understand or believe, but for 99p worth the experiment. Touch wood; don’t seem to be getting much scale.

We also use a reverse osmosis filter for drinking water from same supply. No scale in kettle.

Sue
;D

Hi Sue,
Sorry for the late reply.  There doesn't appear to be much confidence in the magnet route from what I read on the net but I'll look further at the reverse osmosis approach.