Hi LJ,
Yep, you’re right. Unfortunately, it’s true that the salt-free solutions don’t work as well as salt-based softeners. They’re fine if your hardness is mild but anything worse than mild is difficult for a salt-free product to keep up. Flow rate and contact time with the media matter too, which is tricky to manage at the inlet where we need the water to be flowing at max pressure/flowrate.

Best,
Shashank
Mr Water Geek

Hi Joe

You could consider this well water and salt free softener alternative. It treats the things you mentioned and the softener alternative can treat up to 75 gpg (extremely hard water) without salt.

Stay hydrated,
Luke

Hi Richard

It sounds very complicated but assuming you have enough space and the right access to your plumbing all of that checks out to me.

A traditional salt based softener will just produce soft water irrespective of what type of water you feed into it (pre-conditioned or not).

Stay hydrated,
Luke

Hi Gail

Is that GPG (grains per gallons) or PPM (parts per million)?

It is most likely PPM because 376 sounds crazy high for GPG, so I calculate 376ppm to be 21.94gpg.

A salt free softener like this can reportedly deal with up to 75gpg so this might be worth looking into.

Stay hydrated,
Luke

Hi Dave

I have written a review of Tier1 salt-based softeners but have not yet investigated its salt less options.

My personal favorites when it comes to whole house filter and salt free conditioner combos are this and this.

But I’ll look into Tier1 saltless for a future review – thank you!

Stay hydrated,
Luke

Hi Maria
It’s difficult for me to comment on Flow Tech as I’ve never used it personally.
However, I’m very skeptical of so called “magnetic” or “electronic” water conditioners like Flow Tech. I once tried a magnetic system and it was a total waste of money.
MY SUGGESTION:
Go for something like the Eddy Electronic Water Descaler if you really want to save money and space because this system has a lot more verified customer reviews and places like Amazon will provide you with a reliable customer satisfaction guarantee and option to refund (without hassle) if it doesn’t work properly.
But if you have extremely hard water then you will really need one of the more powerful whole house options mentioned in this article.
Best wishes,
Luke

Hi Daniel
Many thanks for sharing your opinion, feel free to keep us posted on your progress.
Best wishes,
Luke

Hi Mollly,
I think the Flow Tech salt free water softener is as good as any of them. Personally, however, I prefer Aquasana’s Rhino Whole House Water Filter with a Salt-Free Softener, UV Filtration, Professional Installation Kit
and lasts for 10 years or treats one million gallons.

Slightly expensive but worth it because it’s a high performance machine that both filters and softens without salt.
Hope this helps!
Luke