We met with a vendor about installing a water softener in our home, and I'm torn. I think we need it because we have an insane amount of iron in the water and simply buying bottled water would only fix part of the problem because we'd still be using the water for laundry and showers. But...we HATED the 1950's era sales pitch ("let me talk to the missus about doing laundry") and he never addressed what we really wanted to know, which was - does it work?

So if you have one, does it work? Is it worth it?