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The claim is that two magnets dropped into the tank of a toilet can help prevent staining and scaling due to hard water and products such as the following are sold for this purpose:

Picture of two "Toilet Magnets"

I have found at least one site that provides a "scientific explanation" as to how they work,

The water inside your toilet tank either consists of potable drinking potable or non-potable water. These waters contain the ions of ferric and non-ferrous iron oxides, as well as calcium and magnesium sulfates and carbonates (commonly referred to as "minerals in the water"). These are in solution and consist of positive ions of iron, magnesium and calcium, as well as negatively charged ions of carbonate, sulfate and oxides.The positively charged and negatively charged ions attract each other forming molecules that stick together.

However, given the lack of efficacy of magnet based water softeners, I'm skeptical that they can work on even as limited a circumstance. Is there any evidence to support the claim that they help prevent scaling or staining in any sort of noticeable way?

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rjzii
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  • the linked question's answer seems to answer this one as well; magnets don't soften water – ratchet freak Aug 14 '13 at 19:25
  • @ratchetfreak Well, the claim isn't that the magnets are softening the water, just that the scaling and staining doesn't build up. Plus, the explanation on the one site seems very hand-wavy. – rjzii Aug 14 '13 at 19:35
  • The last link provided in the question pretty much closes the matter - the magnets won't reduce mineral buildup. – Ofir Aug 15 '13 at 06:39
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    "Non-ferrous iron oxides?" Really? – shieldfoss Aug 15 '13 at 07:37
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    @medivh There's a reason why the "scientific explanation" was in quotes. :) – rjzii Aug 15 '13 at 13:30
  • @Ofir It's close, but it's also unsatisfactory since the argument that I've been hearing is that along the lines of "Ok, they may not work for an entire house, but this is just a single toilet bowl and the effects last long enough to keep the bowl cleaner!" – rjzii Aug 15 '13 at 13:31
  • Actually (but this is just my logic), I believe a toilet is a worse place than most for any such solution since the mineral buildup is probably more due to evaporation of stationary water than anything else. Given that, it is unlikely anything done to the water can reduce such buildup. – Ofir Aug 19 '13 at 07:59
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    @medivh - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrous vs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferric – James Christopher Oct 27 '13 at 02:08

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