[getdul981]

BTK - we have a Kinetico water softening system. Yes, it does cost more than most others, but there are no electrical hook-ups and it does not recycle at any particular time. It operates on volume of water used. Supposed to recycle or recharge or cleanse or whatevr it is called after a certain number of gallons have gone through the system. Ours has 2 cylinders and switches from one to the other. When one is going through the cleansing cycle the system switches to the other cylinder. When that cylinder needs cycling, it switches back to the first cylinder. It does use sodium chloride, but I suppose you could use potassium chloride instead. It has a prefilter to pick up sediment. When we first had it installed, we had some problems with iron/rust spots on white clothes, but that seems to have cleared up, since we seem to have all the residue flushed from the lines now. My wife didn't care much for it at first, but I think she has gotten used to it now. I have removed the filter from the refrigerator and now use water from the faucet for making coffee and tea instead of from the refrigerator. The nicest thing about the system is you never have to turn off the timer or adjust for DST. It is strictly based on volume. If you don't use water, it doesn't cycle. If you want to know any more, PM me.