# Drain for Water Softener...



## Mr Ron (Sep 9, 2010)

My Water Softener drains out side of the house into the ground. The installer ran the water through the system and it's drain line and punched it into the ground. I was watching but not paying attention. There is a piece of 3/4 PVC punched in the ground with a 1/2 poly pipe (the Drain) running through it, They pushed it into the ground until it took the water. It has been there for 5+ years. I have tried to do it with my neighbors system with no luck. Is there anyone that can give me any pointers and tricks of the trade? I for got to mention, we live in Florida. Thanks, Ron:help:


----------



## Binkstir (Mar 6, 2009)

I installed over 1000 systems for rainsoft and culligan and I can't imagine what they did with that pvc pipe that would allow it to take the water from repeated softener regenerations. It's hard to believe they just kept pushing it in till they hit a cavity but I'm in Oklahoma, I'm sure the soil is way different.

If your neighbor has a cleanout somewhere around the house, you could drill and tap the side of it a few inches underground and run the drain to it and attach it via barbed fitting.


----------



## Mr Ron (Sep 9, 2010)

*Water Softener Drain...*

Lloydb, It is funny you mention Rain Soft because that is the kind of softener that I have. Living in Florida the soil is sand and soft. It took them just a couple of minutes to push it down. No hassle and no fuss and bingo, it has been working for over 5 years. Thank You for your time and suggestions... Ron


----------



## NHMaster (Dec 21, 2009)

They di it by adapting a garden hose to a length of silid pipe and then pushing the thing into the ground as the hose runs. However, directly draing salt brine water into the ground is not a good thing and in Florida several coutnies already prohibit things irrigation wells because they can have a tendency to pull salt water to the surface.


----------



## braindead (May 31, 2010)

lloydb said >>>If your neighbor has a cleanout somewhere around the house, you could drill and tap the side of it a few inches underground and run the drain to it and attach it via barbed fitting.<<< 

Don't even think of doing that, that would tie a potable water system into the sewer system, a good way to get someone killed, plus it's 100% against code!!


----------



## Binkstir (Mar 6, 2009)

> Don't even think of doing that, that would tie a potable water system into the sewer system, a good way to get someone killed, plus it's 100% against code!!


 
Ok, so use a stand pipe and a softener air gap. If it was a good way to "Get someone killed" I should be dead since that's how my am32 rainsoft has been draining for the last 12 years. Seems a better way to get someone killed would be to give them keys to a car.

I know code. Bureaucrats lay awake at night dreaming up new codes. It has it's place, but I'm not clinging to it like an inspector.

If you want to believe that ecoli is going to climb through a 5/8" tube, 40 feet around a house against the salt water flush every 48 hours, climb four feet and pass through the softener drain tab that's rated to 150psi, into the softener, survive a chlorine bath and ultimately kill somebody... go ahead....I'll stick with reality. 
Seems it would be just as easy for germs to climb your toilet into the tank and rub elbows with your potable water supplied fill valve, particularly if you have the old fluidmaster 200a.

Every time someone takes a drink from a rural well that hasn't been chemical injected before a retention tank, they are drinking water that is potentially contaminated with animal waste.

Companies have sold hundreds of thousands of reverse osmosis systems to consumers without air gap faucets and some still do. The monstrous wave of dead and dying people should have made it to the hospitals and morgue by now.


----------



## SaraS (Oct 4, 2010)

*Water softener not working properly*

HELP! The power in our house went out last night and I think it has messed up our water softener to our well. I walked outside to find water all over the ground outside of the pump house. I looked inside to see what was going on and the ground inside the pump house was dry. There is a pipe that is connected to the softener that runs to outside of the pump house. I discovered that is where all the water is coming from. Water was pouring out of this pipe. Meanwhile the softener is continuing to make noise like it is constantly running. I unplugged the softener. It eventually stopped making noise and the water stopped pouring out of the pipe. So I then plugged it back in. Within minutes water started dripping out of the pipe again then started gushing out like before. I unplugged the softener. The bypass is now on. I don't know what to do. My husband works out of town. My dad happens to be out of town as well. It's just me and my two year old son here. I could really use some help.


----------



## Binkstir (Mar 6, 2009)

The softener is just in the middle of a regeneration, but it's just happening at an unusual time probably due to your power outage.

I would plug it back in, take it off bypass and let it do it's thing. It will finish on it's own. The water flooding the ground is coming out of the drain that is connected to the softener. It's normal and has to happen.


----------



## SaraS (Oct 4, 2010)

lloydb said:


> The softener is just in the middle of a regeneration, but it's just happening at an unusual time probably due to your power outage.
> 
> I would plug it back in, take it off bypass and let it do it's thing. It will finish on it's own. The water flooding the ground is coming out of the drain that is connected to the softener. It's normal and has to happen.


Yes, but I've never seen the ground completely saturated like that and my water smells rusty in the house.


----------



## Binkstir (Mar 6, 2009)

If the softener won't finish regeneration on it's own, the timer motor may have been zapped. Can't really say why the water smells rusty. It seems even if the softener malfuntioned over night due to the power outage that it would still take a day or two to lose total capacity of the softener.

Sometimes if you run water in the house while the softener is in the middle of a regeneration, you can get a mega load of salt water in your pipes.


----------

