[ton80]

Originally Posted by Garywt

There are filters and there are water softeners, two different things. Nova does both if you want. We have just the filter as we do not like the feel of soft water. I am unfamiliar with Novu.

Actually there are three different things.
1. Filters such as the first part of the Nova system are designed to remove suspended particles in the first two stages(cartridges) and them remove dissolved chemicals such as chlorine in the third activated carbon filter.

2. Water softeners such as the second part of Nova have an ion exchange bed which removes hardness ions such as Calcium and Magnesium from the raw water and replace them with salt ions such as sodium and potassium. It depends which salt is used to regenerate the ion exchange resin bed.

3. There are water conditioners such NOVU who call themselves (saltless water softeners). This a misnomer since they do not remove harness ions, they condition them to make them less scaling. The treatment bed is something called a TAC Bed (Template Assisted Crystallization Bed) The hardness crystals reportedly go through your pipes and plumbing and do not form scale.

The claims on NOVU like systems vary with the reviewers. I have no direct experience to report.

I hope this clarifies what these systems and components do.