The key to understanding this is to firstly consider how scale is formed. When hard water is heated the large amounts of dissolved chemicals present in the water react producing tiny crystals. Like snowflakes they can be large or small. In the case of limescale the small ones are known as calcite, the larger aragonite. Calcite crystals in addition to being small tend to stick both to each other and to the inside of pipes etc. On the other hand the aragonite crystals are less sticky and prefer to remain naturally in the water. The key to the scalemaster approach is making aragonite dominant and controlling calcite. How does the electrolytic inhibitor protect your home? The electrolytic process first pioneered by Scalemaster some 26 years ago works by hindering calcite crystal formation so that the crystals formed are of the more plumbing friendly aragonite variety.