Laundry treating machine comprising: - an outer casing , - a washing tub , which is arranged inside the casing , - a rotatable drum , which is arranged in axially rotating manner inside the washing tub and is designed to receive laundry to be washed, - a softening device provided with an ion exchanger device designed to receive fresh water from a water mains and reduce the hardness degree of the fresh water in order to supply softened water to said washing tub , and a regeneration device designed to perform a regeneration cycle to regenerate said ion exchanger device , - a control panel configured to allow the user to select a washing program comprising a number of washing phases, - an electronic control device configured to control said regeneration device in order to perform said regeneration cycle, wherein - said control panel is further configured to allow an operator to: input first data which are indicative of the hardness of said fresh water and input second data which are associated to a softener configuration indicative of supplying softened water or, alternately, fresh water to the washing tub during one or more washing phases, - said electronic control device being further configured to: - change the amount of the softened water to be used during a washing program based on said first and second data, - determine the amount of softened water which has been produced by said ion exchanger device , - control said regeneration device in order to activate said regeneration cycle based on the determined amount of softened water. - an outer casing , - a washing tub , which is arranged inside the casing , - a rotatable drum , which is arranged in axially rotating manner inside the washing tub and is designed to receive laundry to be washed, - a softening device provided with an ion exchanger device designed to receive fresh water from a water mains and reduce the hardness degree of the fresh water in order to supply softened water to said washing tub , and a regeneration device designed to perform a regeneration cycle to regenerate said ion exchanger device , - a control panel configured to allow the user to select a washing program comprising a number of washing phases, - an electronic control device configured to control said regeneration device in order to perform said regeneration cycle, - said control panel is further configured to allow an operator to: input first data which are indicative of the hardness of said fresh water and input second data which are associated to a softener configuration indicative of supplying softened water or, alternately, fresh water to the washing tub during one or more washing phases, - said electronic control device being further configured to: - change the amount of the softened water to be used during a washing program based on said first and second data, - determine the amount of softened water which has been produced by said ion exchanger device , - control said regeneration device in order to activate said regeneration cycle based on the determined amount of softened water. - change the amount of the softened water to be used during a washing program based on said first and second data, - determine the amount of softened water which has been produced by said ion exchanger device , - control said regeneration device in order to activate said regeneration cycle based on the determined amount of softened water. <EOS>