Had a plumber come to quote a water softener on our house which isn't really plumbed for a water softener.

Because it wasn't plumbed, they're proposed suggestion was the easy route of just soften all the water, including hose bibs.

1. Is the softened water bad for the grass/trees? Plumber says no, but plumber is also a plumber, not horticulturist
2. We do have a sprinkler system, any thoughts on tying in to that to create an extra bib that I could use for watering the backyard which isn't irrigated?

i don't think it's a problem (but don't know)

worst case you can put in another meter for the irrigation. it will save you some money in the long run anyways, especially if you water quite a bit

What's your quote? What type of system? I've been considering one as well.

Softened water will kill your plants, especially your trees. Make sure you have an unsoftened bypass somewhere.

One suggestion would be to manually turn the softener on bypass mode when watering the lawn. I've never tried to water the lawn with soft water so I can't say if there is enough sodium in it to cause any harm.

Yes I also thought about just bypassing as well when we need to do watering not from the sprinkler.

I'm really no softener expert but I would've expected the regen water to be more of an issue as far as salt concentration. The water doesn't actually go through salt to be softened but resin. And the brine is just used to rinse the resin clean. Which is why I do think it would be ok to water with it but just not positive.

The brine for sure will kill everything so be careful where that discharges. We had a couple trees and areas of the lawn that we were watering from a softened bit before we realized how big of an issue it is. Granted, we are on a community well with super hard water so our situation is likely worse than others might experience.

canadianAg said:

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Had a plumber come to quote a water softener on our house which isn't really plumbed for a water softener.

Because it wasn't plumbed, they're proposed suggestion was the easy route of just soften all the water, including hose bibs.

1. Is the softened water bad for the grass/trees? Plumber says no, but plumber is also a plumber, not horticulturist
2. We do have a sprinkler system, any thoughts on tying in to that to create an extra bib that I could use for watering the backyard which isn't irrigated?

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Softened water will kill your grass and trees unless you soften with potassium, which is expensive. The sodium in the softened water will eventually build up in your soil, salting it.

You could probably tie into the sprinkler, but you could also just run a line off your main before it comes into the house and bury it all the way to the back yard. Then stub up against the house and strap to the siding. Be sure to bury it below the frost line and insulate it above ground if you do.

canadianAg said:

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Yes I also thought about just bypassing as well when we need to do watering not from the sprinkler.

I'm really no softener expert but I would've expected the regen water to be more of an issue as far as salt concentration. The water doesn't actually go through salt to be softened but resin. And the brine is just used to rinse the resin clean. Which is why I do think it would be ok to water with it but just not positive.

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Where does your plumber plan to drain the brine?

No idea, but I would likely have him run it to the back of the fence on the property line (wouldn't be too far).

All I got yesterday was a quote but they didn't include any information about the type of setup and the quote was $3k. I'll be getting another quote because they seemed pricey overall on everything they quoted while they were out.

$3k sounds about right...

ABATTBQ11 said:

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$3k sounds about right...

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Yeah if you get a dual tank system like a Kinetico, plus a RO system for point of use drinking water you are looking at
$4-5k

If you want to see what happens when you salt your plants, come to College Station.

Get a water conditioner unit, not a softener. No issues with using its water anywhere.

If it is a concern, branch the irrigation directly off your main and install your water softener on a branch with the rest of your house.

I always read that soft water was bad for plants. I've also largely considered it bull crap. So much so In fact, I currently water part of my yard and fruit trees with grey water from my washing machine which is not only soft water, but whatever else is in washing machine water. This is the only part of my yard that I now have to mow. Soft water does not contain salt. It contains sodium ions. The brine discharge is another issue but I will say that my brine discharge area has grown weeds and stout plants for over a decade that it's been draining. I encourage anyone concerned with it to read up on how ion exchange and water softeners work. The reason you don't want to water your yard with soft water is economics, in my opinion. Salt isn't cheap and you're going to go through more if you're watering your yard, too. If you currently water yard with hard chlorine enriched water from the city, then I wouldn't be worried any further about the supposed danger of watering with soft water.

I'm confused on why you can't tee off of the main line that comes into your house prior to softening and route that to your yard?

As for water conditioners, you can certainly do that but those are not water softeners.

Either way, if you decide to go with a softener, you need to remove the chlorine prior to softening as chlorine will eventually damage your resin.

My new softening system included a dual tank 64k system, a 30gpm UV, light and a 1.5 cube automatic backwash filter. It ran about 4K. But I also installed the entire thing so there was no labor or plumbing parts included on that price.

All of this post is what I have done, my opinion, and personal experience but hopefully it'll shed some light on your original question.

TXAGcommenter said:

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If it is a concern, branch the irrigation directly off your main and install your water softener on a branch with the rest of your house.

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This. And you can add a couple of yard faucets on the irrigation line for outside use like watering, washing cars etc.

We have some pretty nice looking house plants that have never had anything but soft water.

BrazosDog02 said:

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I always read that soft water was bad for plants. I've also largely considered it bull crap. So much so In fact, I currently water part of my yard and fruit trees with grey water from my washing machine which is not only soft water, but whatever else is in washing machine water. This is the only part of my yard that I now have to mow. Soft water does not contain salt. It contains sodium ions. The brine discharge is another issue but I will say that my brine discharge area has grown weeds and stout plants for over a decade that it's been draining. I encourage anyone concerned with it to read up on how ion exchange and water softeners work. The reason you don't want to water your yard with soft water is economics, in my opinion. Salt isn't cheap and you're going to go through more if you're watering your yard, too. If you currently water yard with hard chlorine enriched water from the city, then I wouldn't be worried any further about the supposed danger of watering with soft water.

I'm confused on why you can't tee off of the main line that comes into your house prior to softening and route that to your yard?

As for water conditioners, you can certainly do that but those are not water softeners.

Either way, if you decide to go with a softener, you need to remove the chlorine prior to softening as chlorine will eventually damage your resin.

My new softening system included a dual tank 64k system, a 30gpm UV, light and a 1.5 cube automatic backwash filter. It ran about 4K. But I also installed the entire thing so there was no labor or plumbing parts included on that price.

All of this post is what I have done, my opinion, and personal experience but hopefully it'll shed some light on your original question.

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But don't those Na ions recombine with free Cl to make salt again?

I agree with the part about the Brine. but it is a bad horticultural practice to discharge that much salt into the yard or even into the public waste water system.

You would also have to have your soil tested to determine the Na levels already available. If you are adding more Na then you could end up with sodic soil. (Which is very easy in high clay areas) Probably why you have weeds where you discharge the Brine. I doubt you will be growing vegetables in that location. It will depend on how that area drains when it rains. If it gets significant runoff then the salt levels can be controlled through leaching. Also, certain trees are better with more sodium than others: Live Oaks, for example.

Have you tested the water from your washing machine? Perhaps it's not as soft as you think once it's been through the wash. I don't remember that much from Organic Chemistry, but I know enough to question my assumptions.

So, the deal with soft water on a lawn is that sodium can make a plant think its taken up more water than it actually has and can lead to stunted growth or dying plants. I water my garden with straight well water so I don't have that issue. I would imagine you would need to use soft water in very large quantities with no supplemental rainfall in order to remotely cause a problem. The bigger issue is that you are burning up thousands of gallons of soft water, which leads to more regen and thus, more salt use. From an economical standpoint, it is a waste of money.

The brine discharge is another animal altogether. That is pure straight up saltwater at 100% concentrations. That can and will burn the hell out of your grass and yard, but many plants will simply become accustomed to it. At our old place the brine was discharged straight out on the ground. Over 12 years, that is over 5,000 gallons of pure salt water. That spot grew the hell out of some plants. If you are in the city, then you can send that back down your drain. If you aren't then you really have two options...send it to a leach field or send it to your septic. Personally, I send it to a leach field, but I also have a back flushing filter, so that concentrated salt water is tempered with an identical amount of straight up hard water. The concentration is not the same as pure straight saltwater.

As for weeds....well, one man's weeds are another man's 'native vegetation'. I don't have 'grass' in my yard aside from what natively grows. If I have to water it in the middle of August, then it's just going to have to figure out how to survive on its own. The only thing that gets regular water is my garden. Also, it has rained about 2.8" in the last 6 months here, so any water that the grass gets...brine or not...is welcome to it. LOL.

I had a softener and whole home filter installed in the spring and had similar concerns. However, with how the water-supply enters my home, I had one hosebib that didn't go thru the filtration/softening cycle. So I put a splitter on that bib and rain a hose to my backyard.

Before I came to the conclusion of doing that, the plumber and I had talked about options. You could tap into your sprinkler system, maybe somewhere near your backflow preventer; and have a pvc pipe and bib attached there. Another option is, they have this thick walled flex pipe now that they can route damn near anywhere. Depending on where your water-supply comes in and if they can get it up in the attic, then you can drop a bib on any wall. For me, he said that would've been between $800-$1000.

But as others have said, don't water your plants or grass with softened water. You might not notice at first but the salinity buildup will eventually take over.