Conditioners are not softeners
Salt-free conditioners are marketed as scale control without ion exchange. They do not remove hardness minerals the way a softener does. On Columbus water, already softened to about 7 grains per gallon, many houses do not need either one. The test is how you tell.
We will not call a conditioner a softener, and we will not promise a grains-per-gallon drop it cannot deliver.
Questions people ask
Is a salt-free conditioner a water softener?
No. It does not ion-exchange hardness out of the water. If you want a lower grains-per-gallon number, that is a softener.