There are some companies promoting no salt water softeners (de-scalers) on the Internet and elsewhere.  Consumers need to know there is no practical way to make soft water without using either salt or potassium.  These no-salt units leave the calcium in the water.  They will not make your soap work better or make your dishes cleaner, or give you the many other benefits of soft water.  These companies mislead unsuspecting consumers who want to believe there is a way of softening water without hauling salt.  There has never been any independent verification that these units can soften water.  If you are considering one of these units be sure to do a search of "Do no salt water softeners work?" and read the analysis by independent persons who are not trying to sell a product.  Here is a independent link related to Easy Water

If there was a way to soften water without using salt or potassium, everyone would be selling it.  But, there is only one practical way to soften water and that is the tried and true ion exchange method used by all reputable water conditioning companies.  Water softeners only put about 20% more sodium into the water than is already in hard water, and put no chloride in the water or it would taste like ocean water.