electromagnetic water softner

[Raj]

Sounds like bogus science. Do they actually work.
Attached: an example circuit and description from an ancient mag

[Gyro]

At least that design has some current flowing through the coil - I've seen examples with two insulated single-ended coils, applied to copper pipes.    [Edit, even here, the copper pipe will act as a shorted turn].

I have no idea whether it works, I would suspect that, even if the principle is sound, the coil power level would be too small.

There are 'water softeners' sold which have powerful Neodymium magnets clamped to the pipe. I don't know if these work either but the field strength would be much higher.

I can't see why an AC magnetic field would be any improvement on a DC (permanent magnetic) field if the water is in motion through the pipe.

[AVGresponding]

It would seem to be a relatively simple matter to build and test it.

As to whether it will work; my instinctive answer is "no".