Magnet Scams & Schemes
Magnets are a mystery to most people. Super Magnets are even more mysterious. How can something so small can exert a strong attraction to steel and iron is beyond belief. We know that they attract but few know why they work or how they work. Therefore they are magical.
Hucksters and scam artists are ready, willing and able to take advantage of this public ignorance by promoting outrageous claims about the benefits of their magical magnets. Pseudo-science at it’s best.
Magnet Water Softeners
The Claim:
Magnetic Water Treatment units are based upon Faraday's Law of Induction. When water passes through a sufficiently strong and properly configured magnetic field an electron excitation occurs in water, causing naturally occurring crystals in the fluid to precipitate out in a low density snowflake-like form (Aragonite) rather than the hard crystal lime- stone (Calcite) form normally associated with scale in pipes and heat exchangers.
I created this computer graphic so I couldn't be sued for badmouthing someone's worthless product. It illustrates a typical water treatment device installed on a copper water pipe. It has absolutely no affect on the water flowing through the pipe. The appeal is that any idiot who knows how to use a screwdriver can install one. The same principle applies (or doesn't apply) to fuel line magnets.
The
scam artists who sell these gadgets inevitably claim that they magnetize the
water. The problem is that in
order to be “magnetized” a substance
has to be both paramagnetic and a solid. Water is diamagnetic and a
fluid. Therefore water
physically cannot
be magnetized.
A company called AquaDoc sells a system involving 4 units like that shown above (2 for your cold water lines and 2 for your hot). The price, $325.00. What a bargain!!!
Magnet Medical Therapy
The Claim:
Magnet therapy will improve circulation, increase blood oxygen, alkalinize bodily fluids, decrease deposition of toxic materials in blood vessel walls (such as cholesterol plaques) or relax blood vessels through effects on cellular calcium channels. Other theories describe altered nerve impulses, reduced edema or fluid retention, increased endorphins, muscle relaxation, cell membrane effects or stimulation of acupoints. Some traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners say that magnets affects patterns of flow of the body's life force, known as chi (qi).
Magnet Therapy has been used as a treatment for Achilles tendonitis, Ankle pain, Anxiety, Arthritis, Asthma, Bedsores, Blood flow stimulation, Bunions, Bursitis, Cancer, Cardiovascular disorders, Cellulite, Cerebral palsy, Circulatory, disorders, Depression, Diarrhea, Edema, Enhanced cellular metabolism, Enhanced energy, Enhanced strength, Epilepsy, Erectile dysfunction, Esophagitis, Fatigue, Fertility, Hair loss, Heel spurs, Hemorrhage, High blood pressure, Immune system stimulation, Improved athletic performance, Improved well-being and vitality, Increased blood circulation, Inflammation, Insomnia, Jet lag, Knee pain, knee replacement surgery, Settling prosthetic implants, Menstrual cramps, Migraine headache, Nerve regeneration, Neurological disorders, Orbicular muscle paralysis, Osteochondrosis, Osteopathy, Peripheral neuropathy, Respiratory (breathing) disorders, Restless leg syndrome, Retinitis pigmentosa, Sciatica, Stress reduction, Synovitis (a type of arthritis), Tendonitis, Tennis elbow, Traumatic reticulitis (a cellular disorder), Whiplash, Wound healing and anything else that ails you. Who needs Doctors and medicines when you have Bio-Magnets?
Magnet therapy, magnetic therapy, magnetotherapy or magnotherapy is a complementary and alternative medicine practice involving the use of static magnetic fields. Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body to magnetostatic fields produced by permanent magnets has beneficial health effects. Magnet therapy is considered pseudoscientific due to both physical and biological implausibility, as well as a lack of any established effect on health or healing Hemoglobin is weakly diamagnetic, and is repulsed by magnetic fields. The magnets used are many orders of magnitude too weak to have any measurable effect on blood flow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_therapy
$5 billion dollars, world wide, was wasted on static magnet therapy last year (as opposed to pulsing electro-magnet treatment which has been shown to produce results).
When suffering pain there are three things that can happen over time. The pain gets better, stays the same or get worse. That is with or without the presence of magnets. Someone who is gullible will apply a magnet to a painful area. The next day the area will feel better and they will credit the magnet for this magical improvement while chances are it would have improved without the magnet getting involved.
HealioHealth sells a 1/2" dia. by 1/16" thick N35 Neodymium BioMagnet for a bargain price of $79.95. K&J Magnetics sells a 1/2" dia. by 1/16" thick N42 (stronger) Neodymium Magnet for $0.45. So calling a magnet a biomagnet justifies increasing the price 178 times. Is it a coincidence that most websites promoting the benefits of magnet therapy also sell magnets?
Get Better Gas Mileage
My
Grandfather is a sucker for anything that would give him better gas mileage.
He
bought a “Tornado Air Gas Savings System” and got “24% Better Gas
Mileage”.
He
bought “MPG Power”, a chemical fuel additive and “Increased His Mileage
35%
He
bought a “Bravada Fuel Saver Device” to “Increase Gas Mileage 10%”.
He
bought a “K&N Replacement Air Filter” and “Saved 10% in Gas”.
He
bought the “ULTIMATE Performance Chip”
He
bought a Gas Saving Muffler and saved 10% in gas.
He
bought synthetic oil and got 5% Increased Mileage.
He
bought a “Carburetor Enhancer (Basic) Kit” and got at least a 25% gain in
mileage.
He
installed a “Vacuum Gauge” that increases his gas mileage 24%.
He
Bought magnets, a “Top Fuel Zero1000 Power Neo Professional” and his “MPG
Improved 30%”.
Etc. Etc.
By
the time he was done he “Saved 212% in Gas”. I told him “That
was amazing, absolutely great!”
He
said, “Nah, it’s really a pain in the ass. Every hundred miles or so I
have to pull into a gas station and empty my tank.”
Magnet Fuel Line Gadgets
The Claim:
With a magnetic field we can increase the internal energy of the fuel, to cause specific changes at a molecular level. Increasing the internal energy to obtain more easier combustion. The molecules fly apart easier, join with oxygen easier and ignite easier. 'Ionization' implies that the fuel acquires a 'charge' and molecules of like charge repel each other, this makes fuel dispersal more efficient. Then if you charge the air to the opposite polarity, then the fuel and oxygen combine far quicker than 'normal'. We can obtain about:
80% -90% Reduction in Hydrocarbon emissions.
60% -80% Reduction in Carbon Monoxide emissions.
20% Reduction in Nitrogen Oxides.
10% - 40% in Consume Reduction.
8% - 60% in Increase Mileage.
The resultant conditioned fuel/air mixture magnetized in opposite polarities burns more completely, producing higher engine output, better fuel economy, more power and most importantly reduces the amount of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen in the exhaust. Another benefits if these devices is that magnetically charged fuel and air molecules with opposite polarities dissolve carbon build-up in carburetor jets, fuel injectors, and combustion chambers help to clean up the engine and maintain the clean condition.
All this just for putting magnets under your hood. Who would have thought?