If you use a sodium or potassium based water softener [or if you live in an area that has very high levels of sodium in your water] you will most likely need to pre-filter it. How would you know if your water is coming out too salty? You'd probably taste it.

Sodium is an alkaline mineral and it's also electrically conductive. Because it's an alkaline mineral it will concentrate in your alkaline ionized water, possibly making it too salty for healthy consumption. Too much sodium in your diet can be unhealthy especially if you have high blood-pressure or other health condition. The fact that sodium is electrically conductive creates additional complications with using a water ionizer. A water ionizer puts electricity through the water. It may be fine to use extra sodium once in a while [such as with the Enagic's "saline port"], but it may interfere with the ionizer's ability to ionize and even hurt the water ionizer if you continuously used water that was too high in sodium. What can you do to fix this problem?  Thankfully there are a few ways to get sodium out of the water. Obviously, with all our oceans full of salt water, if it was easy and cheap to get sodium out of our water we wouldn't have a water conservation problem on our planet. Here are some effective ways to solve the problems caused by whole-house sodium-based water softeners:

If your water is not too terribly hard [under 250 ppm of hardness]...You can Install a Dedicated Plumbing Line to Use With Your Water Ionizer: It may not be too difficult for you or a plumber to install a separate 1/2" pipe leading to your under-sink cabinet or otherwise close to the location of your water ionizer. If you can do this you will be able to provide un-softened municipal water to your water ionizer. See our hard water page www.alkalinewaterplus.com/hard-water for information on handling hard water.

Reverse Osmosis: RO is actually the best filtration, and it is great for eliminating hardness and sodium from your water. However, there are some complications with it: slower water flow; takes up space; lowers the water pressure going to the water ionizer; you might need a plumber to install it; there's maintenance needed (filter changing, etc.); and you will NEED to remineralize it before it's healthy to drink if it doesn't already come with a remineralizer.] The Reverse-Osmosis-Remineralizer-System we sell is located on our "Other Products and Filters" page. It was designed specifically to work with a water ionizer at a flow rate of 1.5 liters per minute. RO will remove up to 99.9% contaminants, it also removes salt and 100% of germs and viruses. Because it removes salt, it can be used with a whole-house sodium or potassium based water softener.  http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/product/RO-System   Some reverse osmosis systems don't flow water fast enough to ionize. You need a big enough tank and a suitable membrane. So, choose your RO systems with care.

Also, some ionizers are better suited to work with a reverse osmosis, because they don't require too high of a flow rate. So make sure you get an ionizer that will allow slower flow rates if you're hooking into a reverse osmosis system.

If you live in a hard water area [over 200 ppm of hardness or over 12 grains] with extra calcium in your water you will want to go to our Hard Water page: www.alkalinewaterplus.com/hard-water .