"gareth" wrote in message
...
The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an
installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must
be installed to suit the water by-laws.
What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?
Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?

Thanks to all that have replied, especially the heads-up on the conversion
from calcium salts to sodium salts, where I had previously thought that the
calcium was trapped in the resin, and that the brine was only used to
back-flush the resin but not actually arriving in the softened water, pretty
much as does the dishwasher.