About Aqua Rex

The Water Quality Association, the body set up to protect the softener industry, now admits that it is possible for an “anti-scaling device” to soften water.

The WQA website now reads as follows:

“Anti-scaling treatment devices aim to reduce or prevent certain scale deposits that are normal to hard water behavior. This includes technologies such as physical water treatment devices, as well as sacrificial media.  These technologies may provide a measurable reduction in hardness depending on the measurement method applied by conversion of calcium and magnesium ions to a precipitate form, but do not provide a reduction of total calcium or magnesium content of the treated stream nor are they proven to achieve soft water (less than 1.0 grain per gallon/<17.1 milligrams per Liter or parts per million of total hardness).”

What the WQA now acknowledge is that some devices are capable of reducing the level of dissolved ions by stimulating them to precipitate in suspension in the water. The calcium, now in particulate form in suspension in the water, does not react with soaps and detergents in the same way as the dissolved minerals (ions) which are the cause of reduced lathering. The water is therefore softer and provides the same benefits of conventionally softened water which removes the calcium minerals entirely.

What that softener guy should have said is, “You can’t soften water without removing the Calcium ions”. You can have as much suspended calcium in the water as you like, and it can still be soft water. Let’s put that in another context. If you put a spoonful of sugar into a cup of cold water most of it will form a little pile at the bottom of the cup and the water won’t be sweet yet. But the water contains sugar. Now stir the cup and heat the water and the sugar dissolves and the water is sweet. Aqua-Rex does the opposite to hard water. As the water is heated the calcium comes out of solution into suspension and will eventually settle to the bottom of the cup. The water is soft but still contains the same amount of calcium. The only thing Aqua-Rex doesn’t do is to put the calcium back into the spoon.

Now the problem arrives, how do you measure true hardness? The typical hardness test kit is not actually measuring hardness, it is measuring both dissolved and suspended minerals and calls it “Total Hardness”. This is commonly the same as true hardness but in the case of Aqua-Rex it is not the same at all. To measure true hardness, you need to filter out as much of the particulate as you can and measure the total hardness remaining.

Aqua-Rex has demonstrated that it can reduce true hardness from 170 ppm to less than 50 ppm which is generally accepted as the being soft water. A total hardness test will show no reduction at all and the softener guy will triumphantly point out that Aqua-Rex has done nothing. However, if you use that water to wash your hair or take a shower you will see a huge difference in the hardness because soap will lather better. This is a much more accurate test of true hardness than using a “Total Hardness Test Kit”.