Question:
I want to buy a water softner and a drinking water filter for my home. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the water in my area is very hard.

What steps should I take before making this investment?

1. I know I'm suppose to contact the local water company and ask for a report. What do I ask for?

2. What are the latest technologies in this area? What appears to be the best? the worst?

3. Cost?

4. Best products? Worst? Best service? Worst?

5. Gotchas...what to look out for? What are services/products they try to charge for that are not needed?

6. Websites that compare water softners/drinking water filters. I checked Consumers Reports and they nothing new.

Answer: my wife works for the alameda water district and she said the biggest problem with home water softners is that people don't do the maintanance. People will call to complain about the water and the water comming into the house is perfectly safe (even if hard and tastes like Chlorine) but the water in their faucets is full of bacteria becasue of the softners... I just use a Brita and change the filter every couple of months, seems to work fine

Please don't be swayed by silly magnetic or similar sounding technologies. There are lots of companies that will try to sell you very expensive systems that have no proven benefit.

You have two choices: Traditional ion replacement ("salt") or reverse osmosis. A decent salt conditioner with on-demand replacement can be purchased for less than $500 and will last 10-20 years before the resin tank needs to be replaced.

If you are concerned about the small amount of salt ions that replace the calcium ions (hardness), you can use potasium chloride instead of sodium chloride. It goes for about $1 more a bag. Keep in mind that if your house is plumbed correctly, your kitchen tap will typically have untreated cold water and it is the source of most of the water you would ingest.