Our water is about 3 grains hardness here in the PNW. No one that I know has a water softener. Our soap costs are about as low as they can get, we spend about $200 a year on Foam brush soap per location.I"m at about 5 grains before softener as well, and 0-1 after. When my 30 year old softener took a crap a couple years ago, for three weeks I had to bump up my soap to like 35-1. The soap cost was killing me. I have done the math and the softener paid for itself in less then two years, Just in soap costs, not to mention the extra wear on equipment with hard water.