Water softener

[stormy]

Installing a new water softener=& will the water from the cleaning cycles harm my septic system if allowed to drain into it? Thanks

[Pat]

Ask 5 people and get 10-20 answers.

A good answer is, maybe. A good question is where else are you going to put the brine if not in the septic system? Do you have a place where salt water would be a good thing?

I never tried it but always wondered if a solar heated drying pond would be a reasonable approach. You would run the effluent from your softener into this shallow catchment and let the sun evaporate the water out leaving behind the solids which cold be disposed of in an approved solid waste disposal method such as a standard trash pickup service. The quatiy of solids will be approximately equal to the ammount of salt you use.

A downside of this approach is that areas of significant rainfall might have trouble getting the stuff dried or at least concentrated enough to make it practial to dispose of without more engineering than might be practical. If you had a good source of waste heat such as heat shed by A/C in the summer that might make it more practical.

Since hooking up to RURAL water which has its source in a lake (rain water is pretty soft) I have had no incentive to install a softener at the new house. Water filters, YES but not a softener.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]