This seems to be one of those subjects which is difficult to effectively research online, as pretty much every site is pushing a product with religious fervor or is a 'review' site littered with referrals, and a lot of the 'user' reviews make some eye-rollingly subjective claims (Soft water will kill your children in their sleep! Soft water cured my fibromyalgia!). There also seem to be a lot of companies like Culligan who are gunning to get you on a service contract with cheap proprietary equipment (ADT model).
I have a reputable local guy (Tommy Dorsey) coming out next week, and I understand he pretty much sticks with low-maintenance Fleck salt systems. In thinking about my ultimate goal, though, it's primarily to decrease scaling in appliances/fixtures (a clogged bidet orifice puts us back with the savages, after all). I'm not particularly bothered by the other typical hard water complaints, and in fact I'd prefer that the taste of the water not get altered. That got me looking at the non-salt systems like the Pelican, even though it kind of sounded like voodoo at first (and I'm a little wary of the direct sales route). That said, we do have pretty hard water, and I see vague statements that non-salt systems aren't effective in those situations, though nobody provides any numbers.
Does anyone have any real-world experience with the difference between salt and non-salt systems?