"Robert Gammon" wrote in message
oups.com...

Lets be perfectly clear about this. Water softeners work by replacing
calcium, magnesium and other metals in carbonate groups with either
sodium or potassium.They do not remove minerals from water. The
only processes that I know about that we can do as consumers to REMOVE
minerals are either Distillation,or Reverse Osmosis.

The amount of sodium (or potassium) added to water is trivial. Drinking
64oz a day of this stuff, 7 days a week will add less Sodium to your
diet in a month than eating ONE of ANY fast food joint's quarter pound
hamburger with cheese

I don't care about the dietary aspect, but I have a question. At a friend's
house, the water at the 2nd floor faucet has a definite salty taste that's
NOT present at the 1st floor faucets. All pipes are copper - relatively new
house. Why would this be?