Clearwave Electronic Water Softener System

Review by Ashley Mason for Clearwave Electronic Water Softener System
Rating:
The Background

If you want to know how this works technically, please read elsewhere, you can download the manual on the internet and there are plenty of resources about the technology. Same goes for Soft Water, read about it elsewhere for details. If you are interested in my experience with the Clearwave, read on!

So I had a Culligan water softener in my old house and although we paid way too much for it, I loved the soft water, no more hard water to deal with.

Then we moved and decided not to take the softener with us so I got a water boss from Lowes and installed it myself. Again a happy camper for 4 years, then the water pressure started dropping due to gunk coming through the system and blocking all the aerators in the taps and showers. A quick checked proved that it was the softener by bypassing the unit, and a call to water boss confirmed I would need to either replace the unit or have it repaired. This was just before Christmas and funds were low so we did without soft water for a while. Now I shave my head which is actually my benchmark. Hard water makes it very difficult, I nick my skin and it takes me a lot longer to do. Soft water by comparison makes it quick and easy. After a month of hard water showers I was getting itchy to replace the softener, but still had no money.

Then we went to visit my parents in Spain…. They live in a small village and last time I visited they had hard water. But imagine my surprise when I jumped in the shower and noticed right away that the water was soft. I mentioned it to my Dad and he immediately confirmed that a friend had recommended an electronic softener, it was relatively inexpensive and although skeptical he gave it a go. He has had it for quite some time and all the hard water deposits that had built up had gone away so he was happy. Now I have seen these before but must have drunk too much Culligan cool-Aid when I was sold my original unit, I mean how can something like this work? So I had ignored it, but here was evidence! Dad’s unit was not a clearwave, but hey the US was bound to have something.

The Clearwave

On getting home to California I checked on the internet and there is a huge variety out there with big price differences. Then up popped the Clearwave that was similar in price to Dad’s unit and seemed to have the same function, and given the price it seemed worth the risk. Ordering was easy as it always is at Amazon and it arrived promptly and I was excited to get it going.

Unfortunately the builder for our home piped the water in to the opposite side of the house from the boiler, so if I was going to mount it in the boiler room area out of the elements I would only get soft hot water. I had already done some custom plumbing to put my salt based softener outside the house where the mains entered and now this caused me a problem because ideally you need room on the pipes to mount the device and my pipe work was full of valves and bends I was doubly challenged because I had to protect it from the elements. To cut a long story short I ended up doing some re piping to remove the bypass valves for the old unit and add in some straigh piping. Also until I can build a wooden box to cover the pipes I went to Lowes and got myself a small plastic storage box which with a few cuts slipped over the pipe work easily enough and allowed me to mount the Clearwave inside it and close the lid. Interestingly enough I ended up wrapping the coils around a bend in the pipe and although I was worried this would affect the performance, it does not seem to.

End result, I can see the red led’s pulsing inside my plastic box and sure enough it has become much easier to shave my head again. So all in all this does what it says it will, does not add salt to the wate, and at just over $100 it costs way less that a traditional softener right out of the gate. The Clearwave is easy to install, though it will depend on your house plumbing and may need some prep work, once I had everything in place it took me about 30 mins, and that was only because of the plastic box getting the the way. If it was inside my boiler room it would have taken no more than 10 mins. My plastic box solution has already stood up to heavy rains and while it is not exactly pretty it gets the job done. The unit itself appears well built, it feels a little but lightweight but then its just an electronic gizmo so that’s to be expected.

This solution to me is a minor miracle, go buy one!

In Summary

1. Cheap to purchase

2. No maintenance required

3. Keeps your piping healthy from the inside

4. Melts away existing hard water deposits and keeps them gone

5. Reduces household costs because soft water uses less soap

6. Makes shaving in the shower very easy

One final note, my parents did in fact see an increase in water pressure once the existing hard water deposits went away, as verified by a slight increase in the water bill!

Review by FD3SR1 for Clearwave Electronic Water Softener System
Rating:
Installed 6 months ago.

My water: Tested the house water and determined that we have water hardness of 225 (used a pool test kit). The hardness fell within the parameters that the local water department stated. No significant iron in the water.

The CW1 has prevented scaling. In the past we would get scaling within 2 weeks. The hard water spots in the stainless steel kitchen sink are completely gone with no cleaning effort on our part. We do get white water spots but these wipe away with a damp sponge. It slows soap residue in the showers but does not prevent residue build up. Shower heads still show no signs of any scale build up and are flowing the same as when they were new.

Spouse says the water does not dry her hands as much anymore. I noticed a significant decrease in water spots when washing cars. Those water spots that do appear are easily wiped away with a damp chamois. Before, the water spots needed to be waxed away.