That actually sounds about right. I have a real good salinity tester (YSI Pro) and my water softener puts about 250-300 PPM into the water. OTOH if you buy an Reverse Osmosis that will come down to way less than 100. I seem to be around 65-75 PPM out of my Whirlpool R/O starting with water that is 750-800 PPM. (I get ~500 PPM out of my well). If you are more like 250 PPM it should be a lot better. There are better R/Os too.
I've never seen a home that uses the softened water for drinking. Mine has a raw-water tap in the kitchen for drinking water ; the rest of the home is softened water, except the outdoor tap. We use a Brita filter for the raw water - just to get a bit of the iron. The water softener works fine to get the low-level iron from the wash water - we use the "rust remover" softener salt in the softener. adding even more scary chemicals ! :-) John T.
It is more common than you think, particularly in a house where the softener was retro fitted and running another pipe would be tough. Typically folks will have an "under sink" R/O here to deal with the salt and any other taste issues. That ends up being "bottled water" quality water.
When my house was on a well, the kitchen tap had softened water. We used it for stuff that wouldn't present a taste problem, like cooking spaghetti. For drinking water, we used bottled.
Cindy Hamilton
I've actually seen many houses where the house was "retrofitted" for a softener where it was just installed in the incoming line to the house with no mofifications made. Others soften onlythe hot water. The right way is to split off and re-plumb so sof water goes where soft water is required and hard water goes to the rest. When an iron filter is required and the water is "stinky" it IS a fifferent situation - but you wouldn't willingly drink the "raw" stuff
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That was our situation. Sulfur-reducing bacteria in the well, plus high iron and other TDS. When the tap water started stinking, we knew it was time to throw a bottle of bleach down the well head and bypass the septic system. Every couple of months, IIRC.
One winter of that and we jumped on the chance to connect to municipal water, which became available right across the street when a subdivision replaced a cornfield.
Cindy Hamilton
If your water tastes salty you have the grains per gallon set to high.
Update: IU Medical Methodist (Indianapolis), which has the top cardiology team in the state, indicates in their dietary documentation (I have a copy) that softened water should not be used as drinking water.
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