Self-installation was very straight-forward, no issues.  After one month in a household with 2 people, it has not yet regenerated on it's own and shows 20 days until next regen, so it seems to use salt very efficiently. Hoping not to get a salt-bridge down the road due to the location of the softener tank inside the brine tank, but we'll see.  This is an inherent issue with all softeners of this design so I am only putting in 2-3 bags of salt at a time to limit the potential of a salt bridge.