DEBRA'S ANSWER:

Here's an excerpt from my book Home Safe Home about water softeners:

Water softeners do nothing to purify water, they simply make hard water softer.

“Hard water” is cold water that contains more than 3.5 grains per gallon (gpg) of calcium or magnesium ions. These calcium or magnesium compounds can become separated from the water and adhere to piping and appliances. In addition to being intrusive and difficult to remove, lime and scale buildup can also damage appliances such as hot water heaters, washers, and coffee machines. These minerals also make it more difficult for soap to dissolve. Water softeners are necessary in hard-water areas when using soap to clean and to prevent soapy deposits in bathtubs and sinks and soap-scum that dulls laundry.

“Soft water” contains less than 3.5 gpg of calcium or magnesium ions and is preferred for all household water uses.

Most water softeners work by adding some type of salt to the water, which exchanges the "hard" calcium and magnesium ions in water for "soft" sodium ions, so actually any salt will do. You can add it yourself to your laundry—sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is fine. Just add enough so that the water feels "slippery." In hard water areas, whole-house water softeners are often used which add the salt to the water at the point of entry, thereby increasing the salt content of all the water coming from every faucet all over the house.

If you live in a hard water area, have a water softener, and are concerned about the salt content of your softened water, you can choose potassium over sodium, or install a reverse osmosis water filter to remove the sodium.

There are also water conditioners that work without salt. One method produces soft water without salt by catalytic action, which brings the water into electrochemical balance. Another crystalizes the calcium so it doesn't adhere.

I never had a water softener in California, but here in Florida, the water is very very hard, and I could see right away we needed a water softener. Not knowing anything about then, I purchased a standard salt-based softener, which required purchasing and lugging 40-pound plastic bags home from the store on a regular basis, and picking up these heavy bags and pouring them into the softener. I wasn't very happy with this.

A couple of years ago we bought a salt-free water conditioner from Winston Kao at Go Beyond Organic. It is a small pipe--attached to the pipe as the water comes into our house--with a core made of precious and semi-precious metals. It adds a very small charge of electricity to the water as it flows through. The minerals in the water become 400 times smaller, resulting in water that feels very soft and silky, without adding salt or other water softening chemicals. There is no maintenance, no salt, no plastic bags and our water feels wonderful. We're very happy with it.

Debra :-)