Before diving into the contentious topic of whether these devices reduce scaling, let’s take a moment to break down what an electronic water conditioner is. These water filtration devices claim to use electricity to create a magnetic field around water as it is piped into your home. While this sounds complicated, in reality, the device is fairly simple.

The most common Electronic water descaler are a box with two cables or wires coming out. The device is installed shortly after the main water lining entering your home, making this a point-of-entry (POE) system like most other hard water solutions on the market. The device is usually installed above the water pipe, and each of the wires or cables is wrapped multiple times around the water pipe. After wrapping these two cables around the water pipe they resemble coils, usually with 4-5 wraps each. Other types of electronic water conditioners are simply a clamp that is placed around your incoming water supply line.

The water conditioner unit passes electricity through the wires that have been formed into coils around the water pipe. These coils then generate a small magnetic field your tap water passes through. The magnetic field these devices create is the mechanism through which they claim to alter the chemistry of the water in your pipes.