We bought a house in December on well water. The house was built in 2009 and had 70,000 grain EcoWater softener installed when it was built. The water when we bought the house tasted salty, smelled of sulphur and left faint staining in the toilets/sinks/shower/dishwasher, but the water was clear.

We had a local EcoWater/Excalibur dealer come in and test the water at the house and he tested with and without the softener.
Iron was 2.0 ppm but I cannot recall if that was the same with and without the softener.
Hardness was 120 grains from the well, 10 grains softened
Sulphur was negative.

We decided to have an iron/sulphur filter put in to take care of the iron staining and hopefully improve the taste. The Excalibur unit we had installed says it removes up to 10 ppm of iron. At the same time he rebuilt the softener head (he said it there e actually broken parts) and installed a UV system as well as adding peroxide to our water heater at our request to take care of the rotten egg smell (it worked).

He tested before and after the equipment was installed.
Hardness was 120 from the well, 3 with the softener a few days after install.
He said iron was 0 ppm.

Our water still tastes salty. Our water still tastes funky. We are still drinking bottled water.
He is coming back to install a whole house carbon filter to help with the taste. He said he will look at the softener again. No charge for either.

Why would the water be salty? Someone had suggested our well water itself may be salty because of the area we live in, I cannot say I have ever heard of that but this is our first experience with well water.
I don't actually notice it the salt in the shower so much, (it did seem a bit salty today and the softener regenerated last night), but we get salt stains if water drips on the dark floor from hands from the sink, on glass of the washer door, and on our dishes if water pools on the top of a mug for example. And there is no mistaking the salt taste then. Is there any other explanation beside a problem with the softener? Could it actually be the well water?

We are a "large" family, my husband and I have 5 kids. It is a 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom house. I run the dishwasher once a day, we do hand washing of dishes in the sink twice per day. 3-4 showers per day. 2-3 loads of laundry most days in a brand new front loader. And of course hand washing and toilet flushing for 7 people (well 6 currently since one is a toddler).
We seem to go through a lot of salt and I have noticed lately the softener is regenerating a lot, like every 1-2 days if I do laundry. That still seems like a lot?

I have some concerns about the softener backwashing salt into our septic tank that often, and I noticed there is no air gap in the drain line. The drain line is connected directly to the kitchen drain from the basement as a dishwasher would be, the iron filter drain line is connected to that line with a y connector. The drain is above the height of the softener and the iron filter (in the ceiling joists of the basement) if that makes a difference. There is no floor drain or any other drain lines in the unfinished basement.

This is all new to us and any advice would be appreciated!