It’s an aquasana system. Master plumbers can install it and you should have them asses your house before you order it. You can install the system in some tight spaces but it isn’t ideal. It’s installed where the water enters the house and mine is two smaller filters and one 5ft tall tank. I change the pre filter every two months (it turns brownish yellow), the post filter is every 6 months, the main filter is good for 6 months. They auto send the smaller filters.

The water tastes great and I’m happy I did it. The system is about $1600 and the install was about $1000 so not cheep, but it’s worth the piece of mind. You can also get under sink systems for less. I did not get the UV filter or any bells and whistles.

> which I think is drying our hair and skin excessively

I was in a different city with quite soft water for Thanksgiving, and holy shit did my hair and skin feel better while I was there. It's got me looking for ways to deal with this.

I've seen a lot of folk on reddit mention something called a water stick that you install into your shower for softening, but I'm kind of unclear if that would actually help with DC's water or not.

(I get the impression a whole house system is generally better, but since I currently rent an apt that isn't an option -- but something that just sits attached to the shower line might be.)