Do You like the Taste of Softened Water?

Bleck, nope...it's just like you described! We ended up installing reverse osmosis significantly helped! Brita might work, I would try it since it's a rental.

We got an under sink reverse osmosis filter for under the kitchen sink from Culligan.
We have a line running from it to the ice maker in the fridge, so the ice tastes great, too.

Nope I hate it as well. That's why we installed a reverse osmosis unit for our drinking water. I second Kjinjb's suggestion of Brita. Or get water delivered.

First of all, water softeners remove ALL of the minerals from water- minerals that our bodies really need. The best water is well water, obviously, but otherwise, I would ditch the softener and go for a great water filter (one that removes fluoride as well.)

Since you're renting, you may just want to think about buying water at the store or setting up a water delivery service with a "cooler" type thing (like they have in office settings) for drinking water in the short term.

We use tap water (city water) with no softener and a Berkey filter fitted with an additional fluoride filter, but will be installing a whole-house filter soon.

Bottom line is- if the water tastes bad, it can't be good for you. Trust your taste-buds and don't drink it!!

Totally agree!! We moved into a house with a softener last Oct and have been drinking from bottled H2O and brita pitcher since then- It is nasty :( It almost makes me think if it tastes this bad, how can it be good for you?? Brita absolutely helps ( we weren't planning on staying here long, so didn't want to invest in something expensive) - Do you even notice that your water smells also? Ours seems to smell sometime, but I don't have a clue about that. . .

Softened water is not intended to be drank. Have the company bypass your kitchen sink. When we installed a water softener they bypassed the kitchen sink and we installed a reverse osmosis softener in the sink because the hard water au naturelle was nasty. I'd check with the owner and ask if this could be done. You could also call the water softener company and ask how much it would be to do this.

You really don't want to drink softened water because it is a health hazard.. It is high in sodium. Look on the bag of the softener salt and see if it contains other chemicals as well.

Before using Britta or some similar purifier check to be sure it eliminates salt. I think it might not. The water coming from a water softener is very high in salt.

I have had both hard and soft water, the softened water is better, however if your water is tasting salty and slimy you need to have your softener checked. I have found that when our softener is off or out of salt our dishwasher doesn't get the dishes as clean and our washer isn't as effective. Try it without the softener for a while, if you don't like the water without the softener check your settings on it.

In my experience, the filters do nothing for softened water. Most of us just do a water cooler. We buy the five-gallons at home depot or Jewel instead of doing the home delivery.

Sounds like maybe the salt is "turned up" too much in the softener? My husband handles ours but I think there are controls to how much salt is used-u might check it out

most houses that have softened water have a spiket that is just for drinking water and doesn't go through the softener. I also know you can turn off the water softener (that is what I would do, that water is nasty!)

You don't HAVE to use the water softener just because it's there. You can turn it off. You can choose not fill it with the necessary salt the next time it's empty. Also, you should check the setting on the softener--it might be set to be TOO soft.

Quite frankly, I've lived my whole life here in the Chicago area with softened water and I MUCH prefer softened to unsoftened. I find unsoftened water to feel chalky and taste chalky (and showering in unsoftened water? Ick! You get no suds and it doesn't feel like you're rinsed completely!), whereas to me softened water feels smoother and, well, softer--and my skin takes lotion better in softened water). It's what I'm used to. You're used to something different, that's all. However, here in IL, we have such hard water that if you don't have a softener, you'll be replacing appliances, faucets, shower heads more often because of the hard water and mineral build-up that can clog and break things (had to replace our water heater at one point due to hard water deposit build-up that destroyed it before we installed our softener!). Softening the water causes those minerals to not build up--doesn't remove the minerals, just makes them flow through and not stick.

Many areas have naturally softened water, such as those near oceans that use ocean water and distillation processes to get water. Water softeners ONLY add a bit of salt to the water (hence, why cities using distilled ocean water have naturally softer water--there's already a small amount of salt left in it!).

Softeners don't remove anything, they don't filter the water, either. Anything that was in the water before is still in the water.

I would say for you, either adjust the softness setting or just turn the thing off and see how you prefer it.

Have a reverse osmosis system installed. The water tastes great. Not that expensive and worth the money. I am a big water drinker also.