Commercial ESF Unit

Magnetic Water Softener

Enviro-Safe, Scale Free System

NO Salt – NO Chemicals

Prevent Costly Hard Water Scale

ESF Commercial Water Descaler
ESF-3000. MPT Inlet FPT outlet. Brass/Bronze.

Specifications

MODEL SIZE-IN. MAX FLOW-GPM CONNECTION LENGTH-IN WEIGHT-LBS
ESF-1250 1-1/4 30 NPT THREAD 28 15
ESF-1500 1-1/2 50 NPT THREAD 36 18
ESF-2000 2 100 NPT THREAD 36 22
ESF-3000 3 200 NPT THREAD 44 38
ESF-3000-F 3 200 ANSI-150 FLANGE 48 45
All units designed for 100 PSI and 100 Deg. F Max. Wetted parts SS, PVC, LF Brass, Bronze, PTFE.
Custom sizes and connections provided upon request

WHAT THEY DO
Scale forming calcium exists in water as an invisible compound called calcium bicarbonate which is Ca(HCO3)2. When the water is warmed, the balance of this compound is altered as carbon dioxide is expelled from the water changing it to calcium carbonate which is CaCO3 also known as limestone. The limestone as it forms attaches to metal surfaces as unsightly, energy robbing and flow restricting scale.
The ESF simply creates the limestone in microscopic sized particles BEFORE they reach your metal surfaces and they wash through your water system and cling to nothing.

HOW IS THIS ACCOMPLISHED
Very simply in a patented process that first lowers the water pressure slightly (<5 PSI) to drive off carbon dioxide in lieu of heat to begin the formation of small “seeds” of hardness followed by a catalytic chamber to promote the growth of more crystals and 8 permanent neodymium magnetic fields to cause clustering of the crystals for longer life before being re-dissolved. No salt, no chemicals, no electricity, no drain water, and no valuable space wasted.

WHERE CAN THEY BE USED
Just about anywhere. To name a few: Schools, Hotels/Motels, Restaurants, Apartment/Condo Structures, Hospitals, Nursing homes, Reverse Osmosis pretreatment, Office Buildings, Shopping Malls, and Factories. Applicable to virtually all municipal water sources and most private well waters.

IS THIS A NEW PRODUCT?
No. Many thousands in a variety of iterations have been placed in service since 1996 with an extraordinarily high level of performance saving millions of pounds of salt from the environment and millions of gallons of wasted water.

More information: Magnetic Scale Prevention Lab Test, Calcium Carbonate Particle Formation Test, ESF Comparison, ESF Q&A, ESF Commercial Comparison, Commercial ESF Units for Hotels and Motels Article

LABORATORY TEST OF DIME WATER
CATALYTIC/MAGNETIC SCALE PREVENTION DEVICE
DIME WATER, INC

2575 FORTUNE WAY STE. JVISTA, CA 92081Phone 760-734-5787   Fax 760-734-5798  e-mail [email protected]

 PRELIMINARY INFORMATION

The use of catalytic and or magnetic water treatment for scale reduction/elimination has been going on for many years. Contact with professional water treatment dealers, engineers in the industry, and plumbers indicates that all of the currently available systems and technologies work to some degree in scale prevention but a common comment is that sometimes the systems perform quite well and sometimes the results are minimal at best.

Dime Water conducted an exhaustive search of patents, literature, and technical papers to try and find the effects that these devices had on water and why there was such an inconsistency in their effectiveness. The company was driven by a need to have a product to pre-treat large R.O. units to prevent element failure without the use of traditional softeners or chemical feeds. Much of the work the company does is in areas where salt discharge is prohibited or salt and chemicals are not readily available. This search led to some interesting findings

  1. Magnetic devices work best on water the have colloidal size particles present prior to being exposed to a magnetic field.
  2. Magnetic devices work best in re-circulation type systems.
  3. There are many testimonials available but absent are controlled test results.
  4. The effect on water is one where the hardness remains in the water but in a form that does not readily collect on hot metal surfaces and does not interfere with the normally used soaps, detergents, and shampoos as much as does the untreated water.
  5. The most comprehensive lines of products are from European firms.
  6. No patents were found that utilized similar technologies or were initiated by or assigned to companies.
  7. Catalytic devices employ solid surfaces that tend to collect scale and require periodic cleaning.

 

With the above findings in-hand the company decided to embark on a new product design program to overcome the application limitation of the existing available products, develop application guidelines for the newly developed product, and perform a meaningful test that would establish the efficacy of the newly designed product when it was tested concurrently with the same water at the same time with that water being untreated.

DESIGN CONCEPT OF ESF (catalytic/magnetic)TEST UNIT

It was decided that to best create a single pass (no need for re-circulation) non-chemical scale prevention device, it would be necessary to:

  1. Provide the colloidal type particles going into a magnetic device and/or—
  2. Create a catalytic device that was not flow sensitive and did not have a catalytic surface that would cause scale to form on it.

Data on the Spiractor Process as detailed in Water Treatment for Industrial and Other Uses by Eskel Nordell of the Permutit Company led us to the need for a variable orifice that would change (increase) as water flow increased to give a constant pressure drop (approx. 3 psi) regardless of the flow rate. This pressure drop causes release of some dissolved Carbon Dioxide and the beginning of the formation of insoluble calcium carbonate particles from the dissolved state of calcium bicarbonate hardness. Creation of the necessary colloidal particles begins.

To prevent the scaling of the catalytic surface, a material based on the properties of stainless steel was employed. To further eliminate the possibility of this scale formation, the surface was constructed of a wool like material that flexes with even minor changes in flow to break free any collection of scale that could form. Colloidal particles should propagate in the presence of a catalytic surface.

With particles now available for magnetic fields to act upon, a chamber was designed to (a) increase the speed of the water in ft./sec., (b) separate the water from the high flux rare earth magnets without reducing the magnetic flux, and (c) create the necessary number of fields and polarity to cause agglomeration of the formed particles.

The entire assembly consists of PVC and stainless steel components to prevent the formation of any corrosion or galvanic cells that could cause aberration of test or field results.

 

 TEST METHOD

The test was conducted on a municipal water supply provided by the city of Escondido, CA (the location of Dime Water when the testing was conducted). The water chemistry was:

  1. Calcium Hardness: 290mg/L as CaCO3
  2. pH: 8.2
  3. Total alkalinity: 150mg/L as CaCO3
  4. P alkalinity: 0
  5. Total dissolved solids: 651 mg/L
  6. Iron: less than 0.1 mg/L during entire test run
  7. LSI (Langelier’s Saturation Index): +1.6 at 140 Deg. F

All water was passed through a one cubic foot bed of acid washed carbon to remove chlorine/chloramines from the test water supply.

All water passed through a 5 micron cartridge filter to minimize the effects if any of existing turbidity in the water.

Water was split into two streams. One stream as treated above and the other through the previously described ESF unit which is the active scale prevention component in Dime Water Aquafer and Maxi-Cure systems.

Each stream of water was fed to its own 6 gallon electric water heater (with both heaters being of the same size, wattage and manufacturer. All piping after the 5 micron filter was PVC or braided Tygon tubing.

The outlet of each heater consisted of ½ inch galvanized pipe and ½ inch copper tubing separated by a galvanic union and the flow controlled by a solenoid valve wired to a common timer.

Pressure to the inlet of the test station was controlled by a Watts pressure regulator.

 

TEST PARAMETERS

  1. Inlet Water Temperature: Range 54 to 91 deg. F.
  2. Hot Water Temperature: Range 134 to 141 deg. F.
  3. Water flow from heaters: Range 1.86 to 2.10 GPM
  4. Duration of water flow from heaters: 91 seconds per on cycle.
  5. Daily Number of cycles fro heater to drain: 6. Water heating 4 hours, drain 91 seconds(approx. 3 gallons or half of heater volume), heat 4 hours etc.
  6. Parameter checks. Once daily Monday through Saturday for duration of test. Three periods of 4 days each when test was not observed but heating and automatic draining continued without interruption. Logs maintained.
  7. Test interruptions: There were no observed power outages or water shut-off periods during the duration of the testing that exceeded more than 10 minutes. Timer confirmed the electrical continuity.
  8. Duration of test: 9:45 a.m. April 11, 1996 to 10:30 a.m. March 1, 1997. This is 324 days. At above flows and cycle frequency and times this measures out to 5,830 gallons per heater.

Based on a daily water consumption of 60 gallons per person and that heated water accounts for an average of 60% of water used within a home, then a family of 4 will use 144 gallons of heated water daily. The above water used by each heater will amount to 40 days of use or in the range of 1.5 months.

Dime Water elected to use heater and pipes rather than hot water on test coupons to more closely replicate actual water usage. This enables us to extrapolate data more readily to actual anticipated applications.

 

 TEST RESULTS

At the end of the 324th day, 5,832 gallon test, the outlet piping was dismantled, heaters were drained, and the heating elements removed. This was done in the presence of a number of impartial observers who were neither paid by nor offered any other form of compensation to view the results. The entire disassembly was video taped.

The most dramatic difference between the two test heaters was observed in the 1/2 inch galvanized pipe fittings and pipes where they exited the two heaters. The pipe on the heater that received untreated water was heavily scaled and the same fitting and pipe from the treated water heater showed virtually no scale at all. These two pipe sections were allowed to dry and then were weighed with the following result:

  1. Hard water galvanized fitting: Original dry weight was 609.5 grams. After exposure to 5,830 gallons of untreated water, the dry weight was 646.4 grams. A total of 36.9 grams of calcium hardness scale was deposited in a length of pipe 12 inches in length.
  2. Treated water galvanized fitting: Original dry weight was 595.4 grams. After exposure to the same test conditions as the other except that the water passed through the catalytic/magnetic ESF device, the new dry weight was 598.2 grams. An increase of 2.8 grams.

The untreated water put 13 times as much scale in the pipe as the treated water. This represents a 92% reduction in scale forming by the ESF device.

As of this writing the other components of the test units are being dried for eventual weight comparison.

 

 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE ACTIVITY

It is demonstrated that the use of a catalytic/magnetic device under controlled conditions can significantly reduce the formation of hardness scale in pipes as caused by the heating of water to a level typical of that found bathing, clothes washing, and dish washing applications.

By applying the test flows and temperatures along with the water test results to a simplified Langelier Index, it is probably safe to assume that at a Index number of plus 1.6 or less the ESF process will significantly reduce scale formation. As of this writing there are many field test devices utilizing this process protecting R.O. elements on equipment with daily flux from 150 to 10,000 gallons. We estimate that in actual field application we have treated 500 million gallons of water going to a variety of element materials with no reported failures. There are additional test units that have been applied to car washes, homes, hotels, motels and agricultural irrigation projects; again with no reported failures.

The most important contribution that Dime Water can make is to continue its testing and broaden the flow rate and Langelier envelope so that more applications and test sight can be included. Simply put, we must add more points to the curve.

There have been numerous reports of ESF treated water increasing water penetration into plants, reduced use of soaps and detergents, and a generally improved “feel” to the water. We are currently exploring ways to validate these comments in a scientific manner using controlled testing as we have for scale formation.

Hardness is not removed by this process. The form of the hardness in the water is altered. It is intuitive that the hardness will return to its dissolved state over a period of time. The exact time is unknown, but contact with people field testing units indicates a “life” of this water in the range of 48 hours. We thus consider this a transient treatment. Understanding that an average home uses 140 gallons daily of hot water and an average heater is in the 40 to 50 gallon range, water resides in a heater for less than 12 hours or well under the 48 hour effective time. Traditional methods that remove hardness with the use of chemicals should be employed where the water must have softened properties for a prolonged period of time such as in a product or when in application the positive Langelier’s Saturation Index exceeds plus 1.6.

ESF / TRADITIONAL WATER SOFTENER COMPARISON

ESF SOFTENER
CAPITAL COST   (CAPEX) 30% 100%
INSTALLATION COST 10% 100%
HARDNESS SCALE PREVENTION 100% 100%
SPACE REQUIRED 1% 100%
OPERATING EXPENSE (OPEX) 0 100%
DIETARY SODIUM INCREASE 0 80% AVGE.
SLIPPERY FEEL NO YES
CORROSIVE DRAIN WATER NO YES
WASTED WATER 0 5%
MAINTENANCE FREQUENCY NEVER 2 YEARS AVGE.
SYSTEM LIFE 20+ YEARS 15 YEARS TYPICAL
ADVENT OF PRODUCT 1995 1939

Enviro Scale Free (ESF) Questions & Answers

 

By using a 3-step process, the ESF removes the harmful effects of Hard Water without the use of chemicals or sodium.

  • The incoming water passes through a spring-loaded chamber, this creates a small pressure drop. This pressure drop initiates the formation of calcium hardness crystals.
  • The calcium hardness crystals pass through a catalytic surface whichgreatly multiplies the number of crystals. It is the last two steps (pressure drop & catalytic surface) that sets our patented process apart from similar  products.
  • The multitude of calcium crystals pass through a strong magnetic
    field which serves to hold the crystals in suspended form for 24 to 72
    hours in duration.

The entire process binds calcium particles to each other rather than to your plumbing and plumbing fixtures. All that is needed is a damp cloth to remove any residual mineral deposits that may occur rather than usual abrasives normally required. It also results in less soap usage and also creates a lower surface tension in the water, which is excellent for plants and your personal health.

Most water hardness treatment systems rely on sodium ion exchange, which can be harmful to both people and the environment. While ion exchange systems substitute salt (sodium) for calcium, the ESF system transforms calcium from a dissolved state to a solid state. Calcium, in the solid state, provides all the beneficial effects to the human body but eliminates all the harmful economic effects in terms of scaled plumbing and increased soap usage.

The ESF has several uses. It is primarily used for residential applications where superior water is desired. It is also used for commercial applications where scale prevention is required.

The ESF is sold exclusively through professional water treatment dealers. We work closely with our dealers to ensure that the application of the system is done correctly and that it will work without fail.

Aside from our patented catalytic/magnetic process, the ESF is unique in the following ways:

  1. The existence of local bans on soft water equipment is not an issue with this system. No objectionable chlorides are dispensed into the waste water system.
  2. No chemicals or sodium are introduced into the water.
  3. The ESF is NOT a “clamp-on” magnet. It is much more effective than the mass-merchandised, under-engineered systems of its type.
  1. You’re not spending money on them.
  2. You’re not ingesting them in part or in whole.
  3. You’re not adding to the pollution of the water supplies.

Just water! The ESF creates an alternate state of the water – it does not add anything to it.

No. Remember that the calcium is still present but in solid form. Probably the best way to describe it is to make the analogy of a bathtub full of water and in the corner are solid crystals of calcium, which are present but not interfering with the benefits of bathing in virtual soft water.

Again, the calcium crystals will remain suspended for approximately 24 to 72 hours.
Normal water usage indicates that a typical household will turn the hot water over in a correctly sized water heater at least once per day. This means that the suspended calcium crystals will be washed down the drain before they have the chance to revert back to a dissolved state.

Other companies are selling magnetic devices that strap onto the main line supply to your home. These systems are rarely effective and lack the ingenuity of the
ESF which also incorporates a pressure drop and a catalytic chamber. Patent law also protects the ESF process.

LABORATORY TEST OF ESF
TO DETERMINE CALCIUM CARBONATE PARTICLE FORMATION

Date of test: March 7, 1997
Water source chemistry:

  • Calcium Hardness    305 mg/l
  • pH                                  8.2
  • M alkalinity                155 mg/l
  • P alkalinity                    0
  • Water temperature   64 Deg. F.

Water Treatment device:  ESF unit from “Product Test Report Dime Water ESF” including carbon filtration and 5 micron cartridge.

Water Testing equipment: From above mentioned test report for ESF

Test Concept:  If indeed particles are formed in the catalytic/magnetic treatment of water in the ESF unit, then there should be a way to test for them. The thought is that an Ultra Filtration (UF) membrane may be able to remove some or all of these particles.

Basic protocol:

  • Test untreated water through the UF membrane for calcium hardness. Be certain that there is no unintended/unexpected hardness rejection or quantify if there is.
  • Test ESF treated water for calcium hardness. Be certain that there is no unintended/unexpected filtering of particles or release of particles from previous testing. Quantify if there is a change.
  • Test ESF water as permeate water from a UF element.

UF information:

  • Purchased 3-7-97 from Purification Products Company  Subsidiary of Sybron Chemicals, Inc.
  • Their PPCM-2012  UF PES10-1.  2” x 12” residential size element. Serial No. 859947.
  • Stated molecular weight cut off (unconfirmed in our testing) is between 50,000 and 100,000.  This equates to 0.007 to 0.01 micron porosity.

Test apparatus:

  • Standard residential molded plastic membrane housing
  • Supply pressure regulated to 40 PSI
  • Brass needle valve on the concentrate port
  • Operated at 80% recovery with permeate measured flow of 0.3 GPM—432 GPD.

Results:

  • No calcium hardness reduction untreated water through the UF element
  • No increase/decrease of calcium hardness through ESF
  • Calcium hardness of ESF water through UF element measured 110 mg/l representing a 64% “trapping” of calcium hardness particles.

Conclusion: Some calcium hardness definitely is being removed. With an undocumented molecular weight cut off and a flow through test, further testing should be done to determine particle life and exactly what size particles are being produced. Perhaps an ESF/UF large scale device can be produced to deliver a test soft non-chemical softener.

COMMERCIAL ESF UNIT
AS WATER SOFTENER ALTERNATIVE

WHAT IS HARD WATER

As natural rain water which is very acidic in nature percolates through layers of the Earths rock it slowly dissolves the rock that it contacts.  Much of rock that it contacts is composed of calcium and magnesium (limestone) which readily dissolves and becomes part of the chemistry of the water residing in the aquifers that feed the wells that supply many of our cities.

The resulting water contains varying quantities of dissolved calcium and magnesium.  As little as 45 milligrams of calcium and magnesium in a liter of water (same as a 5 pound rock in a residential swimming pool) begins to cause problems.  This would be called 7 grain hard water.  Some cities have water much harder than this.  Las Vegas, Nevada as an example has water that is 5 times as hard.

 

WHAT PROBLEMS ARE CREATED BY HARD WATER

To name a few:

  • Interferes with soaps and detergents adding to laundry and grooming costs.
  • Creates hard to remove scale on glass and metallic surfaces. Difficult to clean
  • Scale plugs pipes causing restricted flow
  • Scale in water heaters shortens their life and causes excess fuel use.
  • Scale destroys valves and faucets.

HOW IS HARD WATER TREATED TO ELIMINATE THE PROBLEMS

There are four basic processes that have survived the test of time:

  • Chemical feed. Separate metal surfaces from the water by adding chemicals that cling to the metal (primarily pipe and heater tank) surfaces. One popular chemical is sodiumhexametaphosphate or polyphosphate.
  • Softening. Calcium and magnesium are exchanged for either sodium or potassium (salts) through a process called ion exchange.  The sodium and/or potassium do not exhibit the scaling properties of calcium and magnesium.
  • Membranes.  Water can be forced through thin membranes at high pressures.  These membranes (Reverse Osmosis or NANO) reject the calcium and magnesium and flush it to drain
  • Physical treatment. Temporarily convert the dissolved calcium (the real problem maker) into a suspended solid that washes through the plumbing system without clinging to metal or glass surfaces and does not interfere with soaps and detergents.  Dime Water, Inc. has a catalytic/magnetic process to do this called our ESF – Enviro Scale Free —  unit.

 

HOW DO THESE PROCESSES COMPARE WITH ONE ANOTHER

CHEMICAL SOFTENING MEMBRANE ESF 
CAPITAL COST*    $2,500.00 $25,000.00 $40,000.00 $6,000.00
ELECTRICAL COST* $150.00 $100.00 $ 4,000.00 -0-
INSTALLATION COST* $600.00  $4,500.00 $ 6,000.00 $800.00
CHEMICAL COST* $2,500.00  $5,000.00   $2,500.00 -0-
WATER WASTE GALLONS* -0-   1/2 MILLION 7.5 MILLION -0-
CHEMICALS ADDED TO WATER YES YES  NO  NO
FOOT PRINT- INCHES 24 X 30 220 X 48   200 X 100  9 X 9

 

PLEASE NOTE THAT DIME WATER, INCORPORATED BUILDS AND SELLS ALL OF THE ABOVE SYTEMS AND THE ESF IS HANDS DOWN IS THE WINNER FOR THE CUSTOMER.

  * BASED ON A 3” SYSTEM TO DELIVER 20,000 GALLONS OF TREATED WATER DAILY AT A PEAK FLOW RATE OF 200 GPM .  COSTS AND WATER WASTE ARE ANNUAL. THESE USES AND FLOW RATES REPRESENT APPROXIMATE USE AND FLOW RATES FOR A 200 ROOM FULL SERVICE RESORT HOTEL WITH LAUNDRY, BARS AND FOOD SERVICE.