In order to soften water you need to remove the minerals in the water.
There are resin inside the softer that will "filter" out the minerals
in the water. Salt or potassium are used to clean the resin
periodically so the resin can filter again. This is the short
explaination.

I am currently using Ecowater with potassium: http://www.ecowater.com

But there are a lot of makes and model operating with the same
principle. I like the Ecowater ones because it's relatively small.

[AdvanceAgent #367924]
Game I am currently playing:
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wrote:
Ok, I have come to the decision that I need a water softener on my
home. It is an older home and I don't have much space. I even went to a
point of contact water heater to save space. I also do not like the
idea of maintenance on the conventional water softeners. Has any one
tried this type or know anythig about it. It uses no salt and easy to
hook up. Apparenty works off electrical current to break up the calcium
carbonate into smaller molecules that dont have the problems as normal
hard water. Any thoughts?

http://www.soo-soft.com/./3tdhow_it_works.html

Just as an opera singer can break glass with her voice, the Soo-Soft
water softener converts the hard calcium in the water. It does this
through the use of a computer that creates multiple groups of high
frequencies, which are driven into the coil that is wrapped around the
incoming water pipe for the home. Although these frequencies are beyond
the range of our ability to hear them, they continually break down the
calcium into smaller and smaller particles until it reaches a
consistency so fine that the water becomes silky-soft.