Unitary package for water treatment for attachment to home hot water heater

Claim 1

A unitary special package for attachment to a home hot water heater between a municipal water line and the water inlet of the heater comprising: a package casing having a top, a bottom and sides therebetween enclosing electrical conversion AC to DC apparatus and an electromagnetic assembly about a straight pipe section in the package for water treatment inside the casing; an upper compartment immediately below the top of said casing in which is mounted a step down transformer converting 110-220 volts to 24 volts AC and a DC rectifier converting said 24 volts input into DC output for energizing an electromagnet coil in a lower compartment of the package; a lower compartment containing a straight pipe section between the casing sides which projects from the sides and thus forms a straight line for direct communication between the municipal water line and the inlet line to the hot water heater; an electromagnet coil extending along substantially the entire length of said pipe section between the casing sides; said electromagnet coil being fed by 24 volts DC to thereby induce a DC magnetic field within the interior of said pipe section through which water flows; a spider bearing fitting into said straight pipe section within said package in alignment with each of said sides, said spider bearing having a plurality of radially spaced arms to permit free flow of water therethrough, one of said spider bearings having a hub portion formed with a conically shaped recess having a graphite impregnated bearing surface; an elongated solid helical impeller of ferromagnetic material having a first end shaft portion of conical shape fitting into the conically shaped recess of the spider bearing supported for rotation responsive to incoming municipal water flow; and said helical impeller longitudinally traversing the entire length of said electromagnet coil and having a clearance tolerance between 1/16" and 1/128" between helical flights of the impeller and the inner diameter of the pipe section so that the helical impeller is adapted to rotate both at low flow velocity and at extremely high volume of water whereby said helical impeller will not whip under said conditions.