I've been trying to look at water softeners for our new house. We had the water tested and the hardness = 10 the TDS = 276 and no iron or copper detected. Looking around the interwebs, there's a dizzying array of choices, many with conflicting information. Some say you can't drink the water, some say you can (I'm siding with the 'can' camp). Some swear salt-free softeners are crap and others say it's the best thing since sliced bread. My brother-in-law has one and he likes it but he's not hard to please. Honestly, I haven't been able to make a good determination what is what. This site seems to have pretty good information and relatively unbiased but who can tell these days. Kinetico is supposed to be good but I heard they are a little overpriced. Anyone have any expertise in this area?