3M Aqua-Pure Whole House Scale Inhibition Inline Water System AP430SS, Prevents Scale Build Up On Hot Water Heaters and Boilers

I hardly ever post reviews, but I must review this item. I purchased this in lieu of a water softener. I have very hard water and really didn't want to deal with salt delivery, so I gave this a shot out of desperation...with low expectations. Over the years, I've tried gimmicks on the market with 0.00% results (electrical coil thing comes to mind). After two months of use, I can say that this in fact does seem to prevent about 75% of hard scale build-up. Instead of hard to remove scale and large sediment chunks in my faucet aerators, I'm seeing more of a white dust. In removal of all my aerators for inspection, I'm seeing about 75% less hard clogging scale. My dish-washer also appears to have a white dust coating inside as opposed to hard scale all over the place. My wife says that the glassware is coming out of the washer much cleaner also. So far, so good. Not sure how long this "filter" will last, but I'm fine with the cost of replacement every couple of months if that's what it takes. Might last longer, not sure yet. Btw...I installed this filter right before water enters my tank-less water heater. Installation is simple...use Sharkbite PTC fittings, tubing and make sure to add a SharkBite ball valve before and after the filter. Pretty simple installation.

***EDIT*** July 25 Been using this on my swamp cooler now for 7 years. My cooler still has the original pads, (10 years old). I’ve replaced the cartridge every other year. I recently learned about water treatment with Citric acid. I'm not sure if this cartridge has Citric acid in it but I wanted to try it on my Swamp Cooler. I rigged up the fittings to supply water to my cooler. I ran it this year from May to the end of October. My cooler is 3 years old. We have extremely hard water here in the Mojave. I cleaned the pads and wet side of my cooler the best I could this spring. I still had scale buildup left over from the previous two years of use. When I started using my cooler this year I considered my pads to be 30% plugged up with hard water deposits. I just winterized my cooler yesterday, (Halloween) and now my pads are 95% clean. Also the wet side of my cooler is 100% clean. My cooler does have a purge pump that dumps all the water out of my cooler once a day. All that did for me before this year was water my lawn in one spot. This year with this setup and the purge pump, it helped keep my cooler clean. I've already recommended this setup to all my friends for next year.

Love the filter for the house, just know that if you have a swimming pool and test for calcium hardness, you liquid test kits and even the pool store tests will be way off and show low calcium hardness even though your CH in the pool is fine.

Easy install. Hopefully will eliminate complicated cleaning of tankless hot water heater. Just ordered a second one.

Be sure to flush the filter with something that doesn’t have a fine filters for 5-10 mins or so after installation. I have those electric smart toilets and it filled the bowls with little pieces black plastic and clogged their inline filters. Game changer in water quality. My showers and appliances are as grateful as I am. ZERO spots on the shower doors or sinks.

This turned out to be a simple, effective solution to two problems associated with my well water. At 12.86 gpg of CaCo3 (Calcium Carbonate) or 2.36 gpg above the "Very Hard" threshold, I had problems with calcium deposits in my boiler from the boiler feed water inflow and problems from my hot water throughout the house. Since all the water going to my dishwasher came from a hot water line, water spots on glassware were unsightly. I installed the Aqua-Pure AP430SS just before both the boiler feed and the supply to the indirect hot water tank. The water spots are gone and there are more soap bubbles when showering. A note to those who think the shiny silver thing on the top assembly is an overpriced ¾" SS tee. . . it's more than that. It is a machined casting with a scoop diverter to cause some of the water flowing through it to flow downward into the canister where it mixes with the food-grade poly phosphate in the replaceable canister before it returns through small holes drilled inside the tee to the pipe above where it ties up the CaCo3 as it flows on its merry way unable to plate our as scale. Time will tell, but, I prefer it over a water softener because it is sodium free which seems like a good thing in this stressful world of high blood pressure. Also, it won't kill the beneficial bugs in my septic system. Whew – enough said!

This is a supreme solution for those with tankless hot water heaters without a water softener installed. My plumber had been discouraging people from buying tankless hot water heaters in my location (Austin, TX) due to the extremely high levels of calcium in the water that comes from the aquifers serving San Antonio and Austin (The Trinity and Edwards Aquifers). When I showed him this solution in person, he completely changed his tune and made sure to take down the brand and model of it as this is the only thing of its kind on the market. Now cleaning out my tankless hot water heater will become a once a year job instead of every 4 to 6 months. This also stops the limescale buildup in showers, dishwashers and washing machines. Make sure you buy two and keep a replacement on hand for when it stops removing the calcium from the water, it can vary vastly on the TDS concentration in your municipal water system. While this is perfect for tankless hot water systems where cold water pressure is not pushed against by a tank of hot water that often fills from the bottom, this filter will not work for tank based hot water heaters, you will end up having hot water backing up into the activated filter ruining its effectiveness. This was shown to me by my plumber and it is good to know before buying it for that purpose. Only buy this for a tankless hot water heater.

Installation was easy enough, but . . . . if this is installed in the crawlspace, as would be common for most exterior tankless units, the replacement frequency means a trip under the house every 6 months. For a young guy, that might not be too bad, but could be pretty rough as I get older. Even in a convenient location, too easy to forget. Unit should be scaled to last a year. The actual attachment of the replacement canister is too small, and is plastic, so it would be easy to cross thread and ruin the canister. It felt more than a little sketchy to me. For something that will cause major damage if it fails, it should be more robust. To replace, you will have to turn off the water. I installed a valve immediately before this unit, so minimize the downpour when replacing. The price is right, but I think the design could have used a lot more thought.

Este producto de 3M, en un par de semanas, me libro de las escamas de carbonato de calcio que se forma, al calentar en agua en el boiler. Una maravilla. Ahora aver cuanto me dura, porque dice que solo dura por un año... Espero que sea mas!

Perfect quick delivery and does its job so far no issues with the manufacturer or quality

It really works. Effective to the extent of 75% in removing calcification.

I live in a place with fairly hard well water, a septic system and no storm sewer. I've struggled with hard water scale build up for years. I can't put in a tradition salt-based water softener as I can't back flush. My research (as a chemical engineer) brought me to opt for a polyphosphate system. They are very affordable and super easy to install and manage. I have high hopes for this unit from 3M. It's downsides: 1) It seems very expensive for what you get. There's a metal Tee junction pictured above; it has some very fancy internals. There's a cartridge that you screw onto it. That's it; that's everything in the package. You can buy replacement cartridges for ~$40, so you're paying at least $60 for this metal Tee. 2) The price is highly variable, depending on when you look at it on Amazon. I've seen it as high as $130 and as low as $90 from this supplier. 3) The supplier ships via UPS and half the time, UPS can't find my house (they couldn't for this one). If you reliably get deliveries from UPS, this shouldn't be an issue for you. It was for me. 4) Polyphosphate systems aren't supposed to be able to handle "really hard" water. But there's no indication what the maximum hardness is to install this particular system (and I don't know how to measure the hardness of my water) The benefits, so far: 1) On day 1, there was a minor odour in my well water, but that went away by day 3. 2) I find softened water "slimy" somehow. This has not affected how soapy my showers are, or how the water feels. 3) In my short time using it, there appears to be a lot less scale forming on things like kettles. But it is early. Scale takes time to deposit and build up. I know how much I have been descaling various things in my house. Call me in 6 months. 4) It's super easy to install (or retrofit). Just make sure you have isolation valves on each side and a drain valve, too, as you need to shut water off around it and depressurize the line to replace the cartridges. 5) It's super quick and simple to change out a cartridge; 6) Replacement cartridges are widely available, and you can even get them from different manufactures, for about $30. I'm happy to spend $60 a year to get rid of scale. There are other copycat systems available (that use identical cartridges) that are cheaper. Given that what you're really paying for is the metal Tee, maybe they could be considered.

Su instalación ayudó a que no se tapen los monomándos de las regaderas, con lo que no pasaba el agua caliente. Lo uso con un calentador eléctrico y mejora mucho la generación de depósitos.