Ah yes, salt free water softeners. Everyone wishes they could discover a technology to eliminate the lugging of those salt bags. The bottom line is that the salt free "water softeners" have had invaded this country years ago and were sold by unscrupulous sales people preying upon the unsuspecting public, are now in the Internet arena. The question that you have to ask yourself before making a purchase is, "It these systems work, why don't honest and hard working water conditioning professionals sell them?" The answer is simple. THEY DO NOT WORK. These types of systems can be put together at a much lower cost because (a) they do not need an expensive control valve (b) they do not need a brine tank and (c) the media isn't really all that expensive. Yet I see these advertised and obviously being sold on the Internet at prices that often exceed the retail price of a salt type water softener. These people are laughing all the way to the bank. Most Internet companies can hide behind the computer and don't have a true retail marketing arm where they interface with the end user. Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware)!