I'm going to finally look into a water softener. Probably should have done it years ago, but we're going to look at replacing our 10 year old water heater proactively and makes sense to do the water softener with that. Probably won't DIY the water heater (given the changes and complexities with the newer models), but pretty sure I can handle the water softener. Been doing some initial research. For our family of 4 it seems the minimum recommended size is 40,000 grain. Had a friend recommend the Fleck 5600SXT and looking it up seems to have good reviews. The big box stores seem to push Whirlpool and GE. Ratings are ok on those--I'm always a little suspicious of big box stuff though and the warranties aren't close to the Fleck. Any recommendations from the crowd here to consider?

(note: on the water heater, was probably going to look at AO Smith or Bradford White but if you have suggestions there I'd also welcome them. We have a 50 gal GE SmartWater right now which isn't leaking but figure it's probably worth replacing proactively with the Highlands Ranch hard water and 10 years on it)