Septic tanks and water softener options

Greetings,

I've a septic tank, and fairly hard water. It's my understanding that the discharge from the cleaning cycle of a water softener is is damaging to septic tanks (or rather, the bacterial colonies, as well as the vegetation growing on the leach field).

What are the options for softening the water for the entire house in this case?

Thanks!

Reply to
Javier
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??? Never heard that before. I've had a water softener for 20+ years, and my septic system has never had a problem.

Reply to
<h>

The only concern (other than by those promoting a "solution") I&#39;m really aware of is the additional water volume may be a problem for a marginal system.

Here&#39;s a link to a U of MN site that&#39;s pretty informative...

--

Reply to
dpb

dqb,

I presume that Javier fears that the brine that used to recharge the resin tank may be too salty for the septic system. I don&#39;t think that&#39;s ever been the case. He should check the size of his septic tank. As for the leach field, the softened water that goes through the septic tank and the brine both contain sodium chloride which may accumulate in the leach field. This salt eventually gets washed away by rain. I guess it&#39;s possible during a drought for enough salt to build up to stress the grass a bit. Never heard of this though.

Dave M.

Reply to
David Martel

It is the calcuim salts plugging the system they are worried about. The same crud you are keeping out of your water heater and clothes will eventually compromise the field ... or so they say. I just put a long piece of perforated drain pipe in the dirt near my discharge and piped the WS water there. That system has not failed. I lot probably depends on how well you "perk"

Reply to
gfretwell

Never had a problem with a traditional salt conditioner and my former septic. If you are worried there are alternatives.

Reply to
Meat Plow

I have water that is between 26 and 30g hardness and I have a septic system. I&#39;ve read many studies that tried to determine if the effluent (waste) that is the result of regeneration of a water softener causes damage to septic systems. None of the studies that I found and read concluded that the waste harmed the septic tank or the septic process with softeners using either NaCl or KCl.

Some localities mandate that the drain from a softener must not be routed to a sewer line or a septic system but rather to a seperate french style drain. A properly sized and set up single resin tank softener should regenerate every 7 or 8 days. If your softener is regenerating more often then it is undersized and wasting salt and water.

Twin resin tank softeners may regenerate more often

Reply to
justalurker

Right, thus my post. Can you recommend any alternatives?

Reply to
Javier

I have a septic tank and a water softener - the discharge goes to my sump pump well.

Banty

Reply to
Banty

Is there any damage to a submersible sump pump?

Banty

Reply to
Banty

Newer softeners put such a small amount of brine into the septic tank compared to the hundreds of gallons of effluent that it isn&#39;t an issue...

-- "Tell me what I should do, Annie." "Stay. Here. Forever." - Life On Mars

Reply to
Rick Blaine

I have a friend who did that and regrets it. The brine quickly plugged up his dry well.

-- "Tell me what I should do, Annie." "Stay. Here. Forever." - Life On Mars

Reply to
Rick Blaine

French drain (dry well) is required here and mine has been working perfectly for 12 years. Guess we&#39;re just lucky here and everywhere else it is required.

Perhaps your friend&#39;s softener is not set up as efficently as possible and using more salt than necessary. Your friend&#39;s softener may be undersized and regenerating more often than necessary, which is (unfortunately) far too common, which would increase the softener effluent dramatically.

Either way, the softener effluent needs to go somewhere... either the septic (or sewer) or on the ground or in the ground. I guess one could recover it and take it to a hazmat disposal site :)

Reply to
justalurker

That&#39;s a good point. Do you have any idea how many gallons of brine your typical modern softener puts out during a regeneration cycle?

By "typical modern" assume something Sears sells for household use...

Also, as far as any effects to the septic tank go, is KCL better/worse than NaCL?

Reply to
Javier

By typical and Sears you mean a disposable pre-built softnener with a shorter service life than an industry standard softener?

The amount of effluent to drain during regneration is dependent on the hardness of the water and the hardness capacity of the softener.

A PROPERLY sized softener, regenerating every 7 or 8 days, treating water of say, 10g hardness. with a family of four will run about 50 gallons to drain. Raise the hardness or increase the # of people and that goes up. If the chosen softener is undersized, and most box store softeners like sears, GE, Waterboss, and Morton usually are, then they regenerate more frequently and waste more water and salt.

There&#39;s more to correctly sizing a softener than what the hardness capacity says on the box. Pre-built softeners usually quote that spec at maximum salt dose and that is not the most efficent use of the salt.

I haven&#39;t read of any. I prefer KCl. You can water plants with KCl softened water and it is more envirmentally considerate than NaCl. We prefer the taste of KCl softened water over NaCl softened water and besides, potassium is good for you. KCl costs more but I choose to spend the difference.

We have 26-30g hardness water and are two in the home. We use one bag of KCl a month, but our softener is sized and setup for the most efficent softening and regeneration operation. It didn&#39;t come that way, I had to fine tune it.

Reply to
justalurker

A French drain doesn&#39;t necessarily run to a dry well.

Actually, I have a separate, non perforated, line for my sump pump to a low point in the back of my property (woods).

Banty

Reply to
Banty

Banty,

That&#39;s one solution but I think it is illegal in some localities, mainly California IIRC. You can&#39;t run effluent water to ground surface. Califronia even has limits on the amount of effluent and the salt efficency a softener must perform at in order to be permitted.

Reply to
justalurker

Yeah, that one. We had a Kenmore for several years, seemed to regenerate once a week at most, and seemed to be going strong after 7 years when we sold the house and left it behind.

What would you recommend as "industry standard"?

We used KCl as well, the price difference wasn&#39;t that much really, given we only used a bag a month or so.

Reply to
Javier

Industry standard softeners are sold by local independent water treatment professionals and are assembled using top quality components from the industry. Usually a Fleck or Autotrol demand initiated control valve with a Structural brand resin tank and Purolite or Sybron resin. Those components have proven themselves in the field for DECADES and are easy to get service, parts, and tech info for. Industry standard softeners commonly provide reliable service for

15-20 years with minimal routine service and are more efficent than the pre-built box store softeners.
Reply to
justalurker

About 50 gallons per recharge. For most residential users that should be 100 gal per month. Basically the same amount of water as 2 ten minute showers and less than most washing machines use in a single cycle. Considering the average residential water use is 75-100 gal a day per person, it&#39;s pretty insignificant.

I suppose it might be better.

-- "Tell me what I should do, Annie." "Stay. Here. Forever." - Life On Mars

Reply to
Rick Blaine

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