I've had water softeners in three homes for the past 30 plus years. I would only call it "maintenance" if you're a lazy son-of-a-[censored]. Seriously, how hard is it to carry in an average of a bag of salt per month ?!?! Every few years I do a "cleaning" which involves pouring a quart of some [censored] in the brine tank and cycling the unit.

I don't have any other gizmos in the lines but my wife likes RO water so we have a separate small RO unit.

I do run outdoor water off a line before the softener - no point in watering lawns with soft water !!

And FWIW, we have a kettle and a Keurig that we've been using for over ten years and both look like the day the were made - no mineral buildup whatsoever in either one.

I used to do maintenance at an industrial laundry. They had a huge softener that would treat all the water coming into the plant, and then a secondary softener that would re-treat the water going into the steam boiler.

First thing to do is have you water tested and see how many grains of hardness you have. if you are above 7 or so you could benefit from a softener. Then you will need to size it appropriately based on your grains of hardness and gallons used per day.

Yes it will be "another thing to maintain", but if you have hard water it will save wear and tear on everything else in your house and will be worth it. Especially stuff like your washing machine, water heater, dishwasher, etc.

We are on muncipal water and have some problems but nothing like you're describing 😲😳

on the hot water heater did you ever service it? IE; drain and remove the sediment that accumulates in the bottom from the hard water? Should be done yearly and is a PITA. I usually do ours every 2-3 years

the faucets etc. would indicate a really bad case of hard water and I might look into why and if there are other causes/solutions
keep us posted

I've had water softeners in three homes for the past 30 plus years. I would only call it "maintenance" if you're a lazy son-of-a-[censored]. Seriously, how hard is it to carry in an average of a bag of salt per month ?!?! Every few years I do a "cleaning" which involves pouring a quart of some [censored] in the brine tank and cycling the unit.

I don't have any other gizmos in the lines but my wife likes RO water so we have a separate small RO unit.

I do run outdoor water off a line before the softener - no point in watering lawns with soft water !!

And FWIW, we have a kettle and a Keurig that we've been using for over ten years and both look like the day the were made - no mineral buildup whatsoever in either one.

If the house is home run plumbed you can setup for not running soft water to the toilets and outdoor taps. Here I ran soft to the toilets because the water is so hard it screws up the floats in the toilets in short time.
But yeah you should not be drinking softened water, its high in sodium, not good for blood pressure in older dudes especially. I have a zero waste RO system to filter the softened water, I am currently replumbing the house and will be putting the RO onto and unsoftened feed soon.
Residential softeners are pretty low maintenance, I add salt every 3 months and run media cleaner once a year, softener is now 6 years old.

I'll bet you use RO water for the kettle and Keurig, not soft water.

Water softeners ADD salt to your water, I'll pass on that genius idea.

Water softeners ADD salt to your water,

Old wives tale. There is more salt in a glass of milk !!!

The salt brine is what reacts with the pellets in the tank to "detach" the minerals and flush them away. The tank then goes through a rinse cycle to flush the salt water. There is no salt water in the drinking water. And we've been drinking it for years.

Ever had your water tested?

And yes, it does add sodium to your water.

RO = Reverse Osmosis