BJ,
The one we have uses about 3/4 of a box(round box??) of table salt for each recharging, so, what's that about 20 cents?? I believe they told Al it did not matter if it were iodized or not!
Al dumps some of the water out of the container (careful to not spill the beads, but if you do, they can be purchased from the manufacturer, or replaced, after 15 years???). Anyway, dump some of the water out, put salt in, hook up the water, back flush for 15 minutes, etc. Al is doing ours about every 6 days. Trying to keep the water very soft, and not let it get hard in the water heater.
The softness goes along real well for a while, then it drops off quite fast. They sell test strips too, a bit pricy, but helpful in letting you get a handle on how this thing works.
Depending on the hardness of the water, it will run longer or shorter, and of course, depending on your water useage.
Al has added some "Y's" and other stuff to make the set up real slick like, but, I would have to go out there and really study it to explain it, and they are not necessary, just fancy!
You are gonna find that the timer valve thing is not gonna help you unless you can keep up a strong water flow, but, I will warn you, Al and others here, have been messing with that and have decided there is no way you can get the required water flow with the plumbing in our units.
One of the attractions to us was the use of table salt, vs that rock salt which we have to use at home, this is easy to purchase, and small amounts easy to carry on board Montana, and cheap!!
We are VERY happy with ours!! (I'll bet you could not tell! HA HA)
Carol
P.S. Al called there a couple of times, got all his questions answered and he said the guy was really very helpful and nice.