about 40 to about 60 mg sodium ions per liter of water based upon 10 grain hard water the softened water will also preferably contain from about 20 ppm to about 100 ppm potassium ions more preferably from about 30 ppm to about 70 ppm potassium ions and even more preferably from about 40 ppm to about 60 ppm potassium ions the inventive blended composition has a number of significant advantages over prior art salt products for example the blended composition overcomes the problems of wicking mushing and recrystallization the individual components of the blended composition in the brine tank also have increased hardness compared to each individual component alone in the brine tank another surprising result is that both salts are used by the system at the same rate despite the solubilities differences between sodium chloride and potassium chloride this was not expected since sodium chloride dissolves into solution before potassium chloride in view of these unexpected results a superior water conditioning product can be based on this combination that provides the benefits of potassium chloride based softeners without the significant increase in expense associate with a potassium only product the following examples set forth preferred methods in accordance with the invention it is to be understood however that these examples are provided by way of illustration and.