House Works: Your questions on water softeners, damaged table, basement condensation

Salt-Free Water Softeners
Q: What’s your opinion of electronic, salt-free, water softening systems?
A: I’ve tried electronic salt-free water softeners a couple of times in the past for several months each time and I noticed no difference in the build-up of scale in our kettle, faucets and shower doors.
We have moderately hard water at my house (about 16 grains of hardness,) and the systems I tried made no difference that I could see.
The manufacturers of electronic systems don’