Is it allowed to drain water softener on the ground?
 

Thinking about getting a softener. There is no utility sink in the garage and no obvious place for the discharge. Is some sort of dry well permitted?

Most water softener installations drain the discharge directly onto the ground through a plastic pipe in the exterior wall. It is legal.

Does the discharge water have large amounts of salt ?

OK. That was fast. Thank you!

Enough to kill grass and plants over time. Use potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride and that won't happen.

You stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, didn't u?

:evil6:

When we moved here (2013) I had the same question, and could NOT get a straight answer. I ended up hiring a plumber who at the time stated and tried to do a water drill several feet down. In our case this did not work, ended up with something similar to a buried French drain with a cover over it and then a pipe though the cover for the water softener. What I was told at the time was you could NOT pipe or otherwise drain to the road. IMHO, you can call the county building department and ask for the correct answer for your location.

There are other threads on this topic. Do a search. If draining on the ground is not allowed, there are a lot of Villagers violating the rule, and some of them live on my street.

"Per Florida Building Code, household wastewater of any type (including greywater) must be discharged to the sanitary system. This includes water from sinks, tubs, toilets, water softeners, dishwashers, washing machines and floor drains."

The opposite. The hard chemicals, calcium and manganese, are discharged. The salt, sodium or potassium chloride, goes into the softened water.

If you use salt it is discharged, you can see homes with bad areas of grass, that's due to salt.
Potassium does not have that issue, 90% of our customers use it over salt.

It also gives you better feel on your skin.

Be aware that certain cardiac issues can be affected by drinking water with potassium, if that's an issue you can switch to salt
Or better yet add a reverse osmosis for drinking.

Bob
Nova Filters

Hey Bob

Is the Nova filter hooked up before or after the water softner?

Thanks

The OP's question was about the legality of discharging the drain onto the ground. When Nova installs a water softener, do you discharge the drain onto the ground and it that a legal installation?

Salt water pools with the auto level feature discharge excess pool water into the ground after heavy rains. The optimal level of salt in a pool is roughly 3200 ppm.

We've done it both ways, need more info please call 352.566.2649

It is clean potable water It is not considered grey water which is not allowed.

There is no prohibition for doing so, except it is not to go into any storm-water drain system.

As another poster stated pools overflow onto the ground

I read JRcorvette's question 2 different ways.

1. Based on the flow of water, do the filters come first?

2. Do customers have the filters or softener installed first and later add the other?

Thank you. The plumbing code is very confusing on this issue. But, since most Village garages do not have a floor drain, the only other sewer drain you could use is the laundry tub, which is usually on the other side of the garage from where you need to locate the water softener, or to tap into the washing machine drain. The only other option would be to dig up the sewer drain in the front yard. So, it is logical to drain the water onto the ground. Note that Sumter County does not require a building permit to install a water softener.

Filter location
 

Directions with my softener said after directions with filter said before. I researched and found more info that said putting filter before the softener will extend the life of the media in the softener. So that's the way I did mine, filter before softener. Works great.

Also, if there is salt in the mixture, it will kill any grass it comes in contact with. Please be careful.

FYI, the media (resin) lasts 3 to 5 years max, it must be replaced.

Best way to tell that it needs replacing?

When it’s not softening anymore.

Decided against the water softener because of this issue. I had one previously but, because it was located in the basement, it drained into the waste water. Not possible here. So polluting less. Anyway, this water is not so hard, I can live with it.