[cstreit]

You can up your recharge time to help save salt. With two people and average water usage I bet you could get away with every 3 days without issue. Laundry day might use it up.

Yes the system does release sodium into the water. Not sure how much. However we're on a well so we don't drink the water anyway, so it's not an issue for us. With city water you might drink it, but typically it's not as hard, so you don't have to add as much sodium. THe sodium is somewhat locked up in the water though, as the ion exchange is pretty reactive...