The fouling of equipment surface by suspended matter and precipitated scale forming salts is a critical concern to water technologists and plant operators. Certain feed waters especially surface waters require far more extensive pretreatment than sources such as deep wells. Polymeric dispersants are used in water treatment formulations to control fouling of equipment surfaces. This paper will compare the performance of commercially available polymers as dispersants for a variety of suspended matter i.e. corrosion products hydroxyapatite clay silica etc. under a variety of stressed industrial water system conditions i.e. temperature high hardness high total dissolved solids presence of heavy metals surfactants coagulant/flocculant etc. Results will be presented on polymer phosphonate polymer/polymer and polymer/phosphonate blends. Additionally zeta potential data will be presented to explain the performance of different dispersants.The efficiency of test compounds towards dispersability of the different systems depends strongly on the type of interaction between the polymers with the solid surfaces and on their conformational changes at the particle-electrolyte interface.