I just purchased the Descaler to see if it works without buying the rest of the system.

We have very hard water with a PH of 8.2. We live in Florida in a brand new built home. The directions advise to also buy the pre-filter by the same company at Lowes. Look online for the PDF directions so you know what I mean, search ao-wh-dsclr_ownersmanual.pdf online. If I knew that I would have purchase the pre-filter as well but I did not install the pre-filter and figured I can install that later if I feel I still need it.

This was just a test to see if it works or not and now that it is installed and I have tested it... I may go back and install the pre-filter to see if that gets me to 100% No watermarks instead of 90%.

First impression after it was installed:

PROS
"¢ Water feels GREAT! My son has sensitive skin and noticed his skin feels better after a shower and he is not itchy anymore. Great! it solved my sons skin problems.

"¢ Washing my crystal glasses shines like it never did before
"¢ Water has no odor

"¢ Water PH dropped to 7 range from 8 range. I was very happy to realize that after testing PH. My aquarium fish like lower ph and I have been trying to get the PH to drop for a long time with chemicals or Reverse Osmosis but neither was great long term). I was hoping the Descaler would drop the PH and it DID. My fish are happier and yes I can tell when my babies are happier.

CONS
"¢ not easy to install if you have yellow pipes instead of PVC white pipes
"¢ Water has a weird taste - We don't care since we don't drink faucet water and only drink bottled water.

"¢ Not a 100% cure for hard-water and build up but helps about 90%.

For the price It's good for now. It does not cure the water-spots 100%. If water sits on the granite too long it still drys with minimal water rings. Maybe nothing cures water-spots and rings, or maybe a full expensive system would cure 100% water spots and rings. idk.

Installation was not easy. We had to configure pipes with elbows and two types of piping sizes. Our house was built with the yellow/creme color pipes which withstands heat better then the white pvc pipes. The problem was our builder put the inline pipes for the water-softer at the bottom by the floor and so we had to configure it going up and then into the tank. It was a puzzle to figure out LOL!

Even though the yellow and white pipes state the same size they do not fit together and are off size, that was so frustrating and took a lot of trial and error in buying all sorts of pipping before we figured out what will fit together and how to do it.

The directions are very vague and terrible!! No help to figure out what type of adhesive to use or how to fit the yellow pipes to the tank. Also the yellow pipes use a different adhesive than the white pipes. If you have the yellow pipes you need to make sure the adhesive you buy supports both pipes or it won't bond the pipes.

Making sure the water coming into my home faucets, showers, hoses, and sprinklers is as pure as possible is very important to me. All city and well water has either chemicals for treatment and/or minerals that can reduce the life of appliances like dishwashers, water heaters, washing machines, and these chemicals and minerals are not good for your skin, hair, sinks, showers, and clothes.

I originally called 5 different plumbers to quote me to install a whole house system that could address these issues. Prices ranged from $3000 to $10,000 installed. I did EXTENSIVE research including talking to my city water department to determine exactly which chemicals were added to treat my water. I also had the water tested to determine the amount of chemicals, minerals, and sediment that I was trying to remove from the water.

After a week of research I found this product on Amazon that would filter most of my concerns for only $329. Because I have brand new appliances including two tankless water heaters, I wanted extra purification features. For this I bought separately the GOLDEN ICEPURE 3 Stage Whole House Water Filter System for $299.

I'm fairly handy but was not comfortable installing on my own. I hired a plumber, and for $600 and they installed both units for me in about 4 hours. So, out the door I only spent $1200 for a great system!

My family immediately noticed a difference in the shower. Everybody noticed their skin was softer and not irritated, soap and shampoo washed off easier, and clothes came out cleaner and softer. I like to wash/detail my cars at home and I noticed the water spotting was much less and easier to clean than before I had the system installed.

PROS:
1. MUCH CHEAPER than a whole house water filtration system even when adding on additional filtration system.
2. Low profile for space saving installation
3. Works great and water tested showing chloramine, sediment, and water hardness removed
4. Saves money up front and long term by extending life of appliances that use water and are normally damaged due to mineral deposits
5. Skin feels better and not irritated
6. No salt to refill
7. If the power fails the system will still function as apposed to electric descalers
8. My wife is happy!

CONS:
1. I would not attempt to install this on my own. Its not really supposed to be a DIY for the average home owner. My plumber said it was easy to install and I'm happy with that.

This has been installed for 9 months without any issues. I will update the review if something changes.

I combined this descaled with a 3 stage filter and the water tastes great and tested as very soft water. I was impressed that it came with the fittings you would need to flush it before installing. Well built unit.

2 year Update (June 2022)
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It has been working satisfactorily but one problem has cropped up. It started leaking at the white circular flange where my finger points to. It is very minor drip, maybe an ounce a day and you can see the dampness on the floor around the base in the picture. Not a deal breaker but not happy either.

3 month Update (Sep 2021)
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I am writing this review three and a half months after installing enough time to get a good idea. The water is 17-18 GPG hardness from my city water supply I can definitely see a significant reduction in hard water scale formation. It does not completely eliminate but reduces it by 80-85% which is good enough for me. It forms light white smudges (not caked on scale like untreated hard water does) and the smudges are easily wiped out with damp cloth , no. CLR needed.

Installation
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This entirely depends on your water inlet pipe situation and plumbing skills. For my house the city water pipe was outside the garage (about 8 inches away and 6 inches underground ) and went under the foundation to surface at the faucets and appliances. So there was no section running inside the garage along the wall to install the descaler. The only way to do it was cut the pipe outside the grarage just before it went under the foundation, pull a loop from there into the garage through the filter + descaler and connect it back out. This was way beyond my plumbing skills and had a plumber do it, it cost me $600 but was well worth it. He did an excellent job and there has not been a drop of water leak.

If you have the water inlet pipe easily accessible in your garage or basement and have medium level plumbing skills it can be installed easily.

The media could not be loaded. It dropped my water immediately from a water hardness of 250 to 50. I'm surprised only one other reviewer mentioned tiny white and blue balls forming in the outflow. I'm getting them, and hopefully the post filter I installed is capturing all of them. I can see this clogging fixtures if you don't have one installed. It's extra money and a more complicated system but I highly recommend doing this.