What is the Residue?

In this article we’ll be taking a closer look at what to expect with your Halcyan installed in regard to the residue we mention on our website. In short the easy to clean residue on surfaces is the treated minerals being left behind when the water evaporates. So with the Halcyan and any conditioner you should expect to see this residue in areas such as your taps, showerheads and Shower Screens.

It’s all well and good describing this but much better to show you!

The video below is a montage of different areas of the bathroom and the residue that has accumulated and then this residue being cleaned. This residue has been left on these surfaces for 2 weeks, which tends to be a bit longer than most people wait to clean their bathrooms! Furthermore no descaling chemicals such as Viacal were used in the cleaning of this residue.

How, why and where it forms

So what is this residue? As a conditioner Halcyan doesn’t remove the hard water minerals from the water it instead alters their structure changing the way they behave.

Because the minerals are still in the water, when it evaporates e.g. on a shower door, anything in the water will be left behind. With untreated water these minerals will chemically bond to the surfaces leaving you with the familiar hard and difficult to remove limescale, but with Halcyan the minerals are simply left resting on the surfaces, as a non-bonded residue, ready to be wiped away as part of your normal cleaning process and without the need for stronger anti-limescale chemicals.

This change lasts around 21 days (far longer than other conditioner systems on the market which usually do so for between 24-72 hours). After these 21 days the minerals will start to revert back to their original structure, meaning that any residue if left uncleaned, will begin to harden into back regular scale.

What about the Kettle?

The kettle is a different beast. Due to the high temperatures on the heating element the reaction is undone, and a thin layer of hard scale will build on the heating element.

To dig down a little further, since the Halcyan doesn’t remove the minerals they are still present in the water you use to make tea. The thin layer you’re seeing is the calcium carbonate precipitating onto the surface, due to the very high temperatures on the heating element or hot plate, which temporarily reverses our process, but then that layer is being dissolved by the treated water surrounding it.

This process of ‘deposition’ and ‘removal’ happens on a continuous basis when the element is heating. The important thing is not to empty your kettle each time you use it or there will be no surrounding water left to dissolve any bonded particles. From time to time, this thin hard layer will break up and need swilling out. The layer has no detrimental effect on any heating elements,

What the Residue looks like

So what exactly does this residue look like? It should appear as a white or yellowish, almost crystalline substance. Mostly it will be soft and easy to wipe away, simply with a damp cloth or your hand. In some areas it may be a little harder to remove and will require a touch more elbow grease but the key tell is that it will come off without the use of descaling chemicals such as Viacal Our earlier video showed some examples of the different kind of residue you should expect to see.

Final Thoughts

We hope this article has helped paint a clear picture of what to expect with a Halcyan so there are no surprises when you fit! But if you do need some further clarification then please get in touch with us using our contact details below.

What is a salt free water softener?

It is important to start this article by making a correction. Technically there is no such thing as a salt free water softener in the UK or anywhere else for that matter. But don’t go running just yet, the term you’re looking for is water conditioner. There are several different kinds of salt free device designed for treating limescale, you can see a general overview of these methods here and some more in-depth examinations of products on the market here, here and here. These devices generally all try to do the same thing. That is treat the hard water minerals directly in order to change the way they behave in the system thereby preventing limescale. But like any system water conditioners have their pros and cons.

Cons

Let’s start with the bad news first. Water conditioners, as we’ve established, target the hard water minerals directly. This means that these minerals are still in the water and the water is still technically hard. Hence the point about salt free water softeners not existing. This means that many conditioners are designed to only treat the limescale and nothing else. So the water won’t feel soft and won’t feel nicer on skin and hair, like you would expect with a traditional water softener. There are some exceptions to this and you can find them in our comparison blogs and documents. For the most part soft water benefits are a premium extra rather than something to expect with conditioning systems.

The other problem with the conditioner approach is that because hard water minerals are still present in the water, in areas where water evaporates you might still see scale with some systems, with others you will find that a fine, easy to clean powdery residue is left behind, we go into detail on how this manifests in our system here, but you can find this information on other products websites or by getting in touch with the companies directly. With water softeners this won’t be the case. For some people, an easy to clean residue might actually be a pro, it depends entirely on the expectations of the system.

Pros

Now onto the good stuff! The pros of water conditioner systems are primarily based around their size and methodology. A water softener requires a lot of space and regular top ups of salt. It will also use up large quantities of water in its regeneration process. Conditioners have none of these issues, all are compact and require no salts nor use any extra water in their process. Furthermore these systems are often maintenance free with premium conditioners lasting between 20-30 years before needing replacement.

Conditioners are the perfect fit and forget solution to limescale. Once installed they deal with the key issue, the formation of limescale, with no extra costs or effort required. Water Conditioners are also more environmentally friendly than Water softeners as they do not release sodium ions back into the water course, you can read more about the environmental impact of water softeners here and the environmental impact of water conditioners here.

The next step

So as in any industry there are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches to the limescale issue. As a customer the key is to establish what the main things you want to tackle are when shopping for a solution. Do you want pristine surfaces and are willing to shoulder the expense and effort required to achieve this? Then a traditional water softener is probably the way to go. Do you want to tackle limescale with minimal effort and have some extra bonuses thrown in? Then a premium water conditioner is the item of choice. We hope this has given some food for thought in your search for a limescale solution. And remember a salt free water softener is a water conditioner!