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Below are pictures documenting University of California at Davis Student Housing 6 month experiment with magnetic water treatment on a commercial low pressure steam domestic hot water system in our Tercero South dormitories.

A bit of background....

Two identical brand new dorms with 200 occupants each with separate but identical hot water systems went on line at UC Davis in September 2005. In December 2005, after almost 3 months of operation with no water treatment whatsoever on either system, the tube bundles were removed from the tank sand photographed. At that point (Dec 05)GMX International magnets were installed on building 2's system as designed by GMX engineer Larry Brown. No magnets were put on building 1's system. In June 2006, after six months of parallel operation with no magnets on building 1's system, and the GMX International magnets on building 2's system, the tube bundles were removed and photographed again.
* CLICK ON ANY IMAGE BELOW FOR ENLARGEMENT *
Building One (before / without GMX)

001-001_Bldg_1_12-05

002-005_Bldg_1_6-06

 003-006_Bldg_1_6-06 004-010_Bldg_1_6-06
Non treated tube bundle from building 1 in 12/05 after 3 months of operation. Scale was just beginning to form. Above, the same tube bundle 6 months later in June 2006, again with no treatment. Scale continued to form and got thicker and crustier.
005-007_Bldg_1_6-06
Above, (sorry it is so blurry) shows the same bundle as above in June 2006 after we tried to scrape it with a steel brush. It is hard to see, but scale was severely etched onto the copper and would only partially brush off.
Building 2 (after / with GMX)
007-003_Bldg_2_12-05 008-004_Bldg_2_12-05
Above, shows the non treated tube bundle from building 2 in 12/05 after 3 months of operation.
009-008_Bldg_2_6-06 010-009_Bldg_2_6-06

Above shows building 2's tube bundle in 6/06 after 6 months of operation with magnetic water treatment.

(These can be directly compared to images at top of page after 6 months with no treatment.)

After 6 months of magnetic water treatment we found the following:

  1. Scale build-up was less than on the non treated bundle.
  2. Scale build-up was less than 6 months earlier. (Magnets dissolved some of the scale from 6 months earlier.)
  3. Scale build-up was more "powdery" on the magnetically treated bundle than on the non treated bundle.
  4. Scale build-up etched onto the tube bundle of the non treated system, but did not etch onto the magnetically treated tube bundle.
  5. Scale build-up easily scraped off of the magnetically treated bundle, but would not scrape off of the non treated bundle to the same degree, even with very aggressive scraping.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

UCD Student Housing found the magnetic water treatment to be beneficial, helpful and worthwhile. It reduced scale build up and changed the chemical nature of the scale so that it is easily removable.

UCD Student Housing is continuing its test and will evaluate the tube bundles again in December 2006, after another 6 months of parallel operation of one system with magnets and the other system without.

Clyde W. Froehlich
Asst. Director - Facilities
Student Housing
University of California
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616-8712

(530) 752-2495
(530) 681-7405 cell
(530) 752-4345 fax
cwfroehlich@ucdavis.edu

* CLICK ON ANY IMAGE ABOVE FOR ENLARGEMENT *