[villagetinker]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I regularly test our water, for among other things, salt, and our water softener does not add any measureable amount of salt to the house water. I am sure that a misoperating water softener can do this, but I have had water softeners (all Sears) for over 30 years, and outside of the units reaching end of life around 10 years each, I have never had a leak or salt issue.

I agree with above comments, do your research, talk to your neighbors, and listen to the water filter sales people very carefully. In my personal experience the people that came to the house took at lot of information OUT OF CONTEXT and used the rather outrageous headlines to support their view, so be careful.