Well, my wife and I dumped 80 pounds of 99.8% pure water softener salt pellets into the pool this evening. She had a lot of fun playing with the pellets, piling them up and noticing the temperature differential around the salt. Adding this much salt actually dropped the temperature of the water by a couple of degrees.

My immediate impressions are that everything is definitely more buoyant. Prior to the addition of the salt, I could walk on the pool floor on my knees. This is no longer possible, as I tend to float away instead.

My hair and skin were both smoother after I had been out of the water for a while, and my wife says her hair was much more manageable to deal with when she took a shower.

There was no discernible taste to the water at all. Of course, 80 pounds is only about 760ppm increase. My wife wants me to add one more bag, so I'll probably pick up another bag this week.

All in all, I think this was definitely a good decision.