The answer is that scale reducers do and don't work...which is probably not all that helpful.
What the electric/electronic devices try to do is the same as an in-line magnetic scale reducer..they impart a magnetic field to the water which changes the polarity of the ions in the calcium carbonate (scale). This has the temporary effect of changing the calcium carbonate from scale to a powder.. which can then pass through a combi plate to plate without scaling it up. Its no use for hot water storage cylinders as the polarity of the ions changes back after a very short time, and you are back where you started.
This part of lincs has very hard water and our in line scalemasters on combis seem to do the trick. We very rarely replace plate to plates for scaling these days, and we are five years into this contract, so they must do some good. On a conventional system scale is deposited when water temp exceeds 60c so we tend to keep cylinder stats below this figure..say 55c..which is enough to kill any bugs. Scale reducers are no good on this sort of application.
The only complete answer is a water softener..I have a Liff 2000..which very good..except it guzzles salt so is not cheap to run, but you soon know when the salt has run out and the recharge doesn't work properly.
I was assured by the technical guys at Glow Worm on our last visit that their tests showed that scale reducers do work, and most boiler manufacturers insist on one being installed with a combi.
Alfredo
