My husband bought one of the very early Easy Water things. He swore it worked when I know it didn't. He would spend several hours each winter scraping off built-up lime from our water-cooled AC unit and it was constantly breaking down because the lime buildup was so bad.
About six months ago I talked him into buying a water softener and we went cheap at Sam's and that thing has done miracles. Everything is cleaner, there is no residue left in the shower or in the sinks, and my hair feels better (that's the most important thing, right????).
And most of all, our AC unit did not break down once this summer. He hasn't gone out to clean it yet but I will bet you he won't need to spend nearly as much time cleaning it.
The water in central Texas is bad, bad, bad.