It is more reasonable to evaluate scale inhibitors from examining the scale deposited on the surface of heat exchanger tubes than from testing the bulk precipitations in industrial circulating cooling water. In this contribution, a facile cathodal polarization plus weighing has been put forward for fast assessing the common scale inhibitors. Through the short-time cathodal polarization and followed weighing of the mass of scale, the antiscale efficiencies of scale inhibitors were obtained quickly, typically with the order of antiscale efficiencies being PBTCA approximate to HEDP >> PAA. Since the tested scale was the one deposited on working electrodes made of heat exchanger tubes, the new method in this study could reflect actually the antiscale performance of the used scale inhibitors. Therefore the simple operation and reasonable evaluation would endow this route the wide applications in quickly selecting the right scale inhibitors for the water consumers. (C) 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.