To remove the sodium added by a water softener (it is actually sodium, not sodium chloride, the chloride is stripped off), you will need a reverse osmosis system, a distillation system, or some sort of ion exchange system that targets sodium. There are some small, single tap ion exchange systems that are in replaceable enclosures for individual taps that may target sodium - google is your friend. "Filters", which typically means sediment and/or carbon-based filters, will not remove sodium from your water. Regardless, the amount of sodium added by the ion exchange process (to remove calcium and magnesium ions which cause hardness) in a water softener is quite small, typically about 24 mgs per 8 ounces of water. This is less than a slice of bread or an egg. If even that amount is an issue because of dietary restrictions, you can use potassium chloride as a regenerate in your water softener, albeit at a higher cost than sodium chloride. In that case, small amounts of potassium will be added to your water from the ion exchange process in the water softener. Small reverse osmosis systems installed under a kitchen sink with a separate tap (next to the normal tap) are popular. You would choose the reverse osmosis tap for drinking and cooking water. Reverse osmosis systems pretty much remove everything.
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Originally Posted by CFrance
It is the water softener that will take care of the calcium/mineral deposits. But it may not take care of the mold under the toilet rim (ours didn't).
As an earlier poster stated (debfromaine, I believe), just having the whole-house filter will not eliminate all calcium deposits unless you add a softener to it.
We added the whole-house filter to the softener system in order to get the resulting salt from the softener out of the water. We had excellent-tasting water and no water spots anywhere. But we did get mold under the toilet rims. That's a humidity issue, not a mineral issue.
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