I have seen quite a bit of build up of scale on my water components; shower head, kitchen faucet head, water connections here and there, etc.. But it sort of got away from me. It got so bad it ruined my Black & Decker undercounter coffee maker. Cost me $80 for a used one. The heater tube was just choked with deposits…choked! So choked that water would barely flow though. And I’d done the vinegar treatment quite often. I would have tried to drill it out to gain some more life from it but see that red rubber seal? It split when I attempted to remove it and it’s not available as a repair part. So the entire coffee maker ended up in the trash, unfortunately. It’s high temp silicon but had hardened from years of use. Anyway, something had to be done about scaling from mineral deposits! So that’s the point of this article.
First thing I did was buy a newer Waterdrop 10UA undersink filter that is purported to both filter out harmful things AND reduce solids. I installed it under the sink and use it only for cooking and coffee water. So I was looking for another method for the whole RV. Something like a water softener or such.
And the easiest way I found, and the lowest cost too, is to buy and install this electronic device that’s supposed to help neutralize the lime & calcium deposits in such a way that they don’t stick to plumbing or body internals and it supposed to slowly clean them out off the plumbing and the faucets as well as preventing any new deposits.
If that device doesn’t do the job, my next plan is to get another of the Waterdrops and use it for the whole house as it’s cartridges are rated for 8,000 gallons (the Culligan only 3,000). But it’s kinda difficult to install it in that tight water compartment so I’ll just start with this electronic circuit. If I do end up installing another Waterdrop on the incoming water line I can get 8-9 months for each $20 filter for the whole house.
The next potential solution is this RV water softener. I find that solution problematic as there’s periodic need to add salt and to recharge, and I remember my dad bitching about that chore decades ago. However, this is in a small RV with one occupant not a whole house with a family of six. That particular link is the product mentioned by one of my readers and it’s small enough that I should be able to find a space for it in one of the basement bays if the electronic softener doesn’t work well down in Pahrump and the SW area I tend to stay in during the winter. That’s where I pick up a lot of the scale I’m seeing. The softener is 19.5″ X 7.5″ X 7″ and there’s no room for it in my water bay that I can see atm, as I only have 5″ depth and 18″ floor to ceiling…and the plumbing is in the way in much of the space. Plus the water hose is coiled up and stored there while traveling. And since the softeners have been known to grow legs and walk away, it’s best if it’s inside a compartment. I may need to remodel the wet bay or find some clever place to install it that’s easily accessible for salting & recharging.
A reverse osmosis device is also not only large but relatively expensive and the consumables are expensive as well plus it’s really made to help with cleaning up drinking water (located under the sink) only, not prevent scale on the rest of the house’s plumbing.
I’m hoping this electronic device helps eliminate the need for buying new faucet or shower heads though but at this point I don’t know if it’ll work. I did get it installed in the water compartment on Sept. 24th, 2021 and it’s supposed to change the mineral’s crystal structure so the scale does not attaching to things in the plumbing stream. I don’t know if it really works but it’s been sold for many decades so I have hopes. I have noticed some improvement since installation starting a week afterwards…I’m using four times less shampoo to wash my hair AND it stays fluffy longer. And my coffee just tastes, I dunno, softer. Probably my imagination but maybe not? What the device is supposed to do is create an electrical field that as the water passes any crystal molecules are broken apart, and then reform into a less ‘hard’ shape.
Here is what my kitchen faucet that I installed on Jan. 2nd, 2021 looked like on Sept 2nd, 2021…I’ll be comparing in a year to see if there’s any improvement with that electronic device or if it’s a bust. This shows how quickly lime and calcium deposits accumulate on the plumbing devices.
Back to installation. Here’s where I wrapped the required coil around the incoming cold water supply PEX pipe. The coil is that blue wire. I wrapped that coil after installation with electrical tape to hold it in place. I tried to make a beautiful spiral with the blue coil but it would have been a real chore to try to get better access plus my track record with plumbing leaks after repairs wasn’t a confidence builder so I didn’t want to disconnect a bunch of pipes. This picture is shows the plumbing rats nest behind the fresh water panel, which was the only logical place to install the coil.
After wrapping the coil, I snaked the two end wires through an existing opening where the pipes go over to the onboard pump, and temporarily mounted the circuit inside a plastic bag to protect it while I try to find a box for it.
And then I needed power for the power cube for the device so drilled a small hole into the cover of the power distribution (shore power/generator power input) box, added a grommet, socket, a fuse, and wired it up to the terminals used by L1 and NEU so it’ll work if I’m hooked to 20-30 amp shore power or 50 amp.
So that’s it for this installation for now. In a couple years, if it’s doing a good job, I’ll make the power cube situation a tad more attractive, if it’s not doing the job, I’ll just toss it and get another of the Waterdrop 10UA devices and install it on the incoming water line so it filters the whole RV.
Soon I’ll be back down in the hard water area of the SW for the winter. Maybe even down into Mexico so I’ll have a good test of the scale reducer going on for a year…until I get back up here to the PNW where the water is naturally soft in most places where I stay. If I still have problems, I will install that RV On the go softener linked above.
Edit – Winter 2021 to Aug. 2022
I left the PNW in November of 2021 and headed for Pahrump…which has hard water. Then went to Tucson and one park I asked about the water I was told it was so hard you could walk on it. I don’t know about that, but I was back in hard water areas so I watched for any mineral buildup on my faucets and shower head now that the device was installed. And in February, just before I planned on heading into Mexico, I woke up one morning with a torn retina. So I stayed in Tucson for medical treatment until mid-June. Then I traveled up here to Milton Freewater after a couple weeks in Pahrump, and a week in Mojave, CA. All hard water areas.
One thing I noticed with this device right away is that the water felt softer. Those who have installed a whole house water softener in a hard water area know what I mean. It tastes and feels softer. And with this electronic device, that is what I was feeling. When washing my hair, I now use half the shampoo I did before and my hair is softer.
And then I noticed that the white crust that forms on items in my RV, like the coffee maker, the shower head, and the kitchen faucet, seem to have gone from hard crusty, to soft crusty or powdery. So now I can easily scratch it off with my thumbnail or brush it off whereas before I couldn’t.
Not saying this will cure all my hard water issues, but it sure does seem to help. And inexpensively too. My big worry is the coffee maker. I love its form and function and they don’t make them anymore so I didn’t want to lose another one to scale…but, I went into a thrift store in Walla Walla recently and found what appears to be a brand new one for $10. Yep, $10…so now I have a backup. Tested fine.
The B&D under counter coffee maker I am currently using cost me $80 off of eBay and it was to replace one ruined by deposits (see above). I have two now, one over my desk that I use every day and one in storage, so I’m good and can test this device as long as I wish as the coffee makers will last for years before plugging up. It’s possible that the one I’m using now won’t ever plug up with this circuit, but if it does, I’ll just replace it with the spare, and then consider installing a water softener for the RV.