Tap water with water softener

Hello. My tap water is run through a water softener first. I thought I read somewhere that I shouldn't use this water because of all of the salt that the softener leaves in it? I used bottled water for a while which turned out to be a pain in the rear now that they are flowering. Then I used an outside hose because the water to the outside doesn't get softened. Winter isn't far away and I'm not really excited about running my fat ass outside and using the hose. Especially since with my luck the faucet would freeze and break. Can I use my inside tap water or is that a bad idea? Thanks in advance for your advice.

Looks like your fat ass is gonna get cold. Disconnect the hose, the tap itself shouldn't freeze.

Wet

You can do several things here. I would check the ppm and PH of the softened water compared to the pre-softened water.

1. Try the water and see how it goes.
2. You can tap into your water supply inside the house before your softener. You can run it directly into your room for convenience. Use PEX tubing. It's cheap and easy.
3. get a filter to put the softened water through.

PPM and PH are the most important factors. I am not sure what it would do to the ppm or ph of the water.

I've done a little more looking around on this and everyone says no go with the water softener but doesn't really say why. Is it a pH issue? Or is there salt or other stuff in the water after it goes through a softener? Is there something I can add to the water to replace whatever it is that the softener takes out? I do have a water distribution panel in the basement that has a slot or two open from the un-softened water side but I know next to nothing about plumbing. I'd for sure flood my basement.

imvho, unless you live in some where that's got some really screwed up water, water right up of the faucet should be just fine..

are you growing in soil or hydro? if soil, i'd say the quality of the water is even less important than if you were growing hydro..

my $.02

I'm in soil. I tested the pH right off the tap today and it was 7.5. That was water that had gone through the softener. I don't know if the softener has an effect on the pH or not. Either way, it can be treated I think at least from a pH perspective. I guess I'll have to just try it like what was mentioned. I guess I'll watch them close to see if there are any adverse effects.

Why don't you put your own fitting before the softener and run a tap off of it. Hose it from there to where you need it. JAS

I had the same issue with water softener. Once I switched to water before the softener my plants really took off. I had a hell of a time cloning with softener water. I added a faucet before the softener. If your not good at plumbing they make fittings called shark bite fittings at lowes. They are a solderless fitting. They work really well.

I'm pretty sure softened water is a no go! I haul my fat ass outside in the winter lol. I grow in a shed so I use outside tap with one of those extendo hoses (as seen on TV lol) and if it is a non freeze tap u should be fine just don't leave a hose on it or it will freeze. Also there are fittings you can get with a tap fitting on them that don't require solder, just cut and push on. Shark bite fittings are one brand! As said put it before the softener.

hobby1980 said:

I've done a little more looking around on this and everyone says no go with the water softener but doesn't really say why. Is it a pH issue? Or is there salt or other stuff in the water after it goes through a softener? Is there something I can add to the water to replace whatever it is that the softener takes out? I do have a water distribution panel in the basement that has a slot or two open from the un-softened water side but I know next to nothing about plumbing. I'd for sure flood my basement.

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water softener removes calcium from water and replaces it with sodium. salt is the reason.

1itsme said:

water softener removes calcium from water and replaces it with sodium. salt is the reason.

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Thank you. This is what I was looking for.

Beith of sure your unsoftened water is not to high in iron.......if you can taste it and you say yuk...it's to high.....get an RO syatem and run the softened water through that...just be sure to add a CalMag to it b4 using

Water softner's and simmilar devices usually have bypass valves conected to them - In this case you could just bypass the softner

Sharkbite fittings work great for anyone that does not know how to solder , but they do go bad fast compared to a solder joint , If you must use sharkbites spend the extra dollor on the ones that are eazly removeable - That way when it leaks it's simple to repair.

Do you have a sprinkler system ? if so that should not be on the softner , and will usually have a boiller drain/hosebib somewear for blow downs .. If not trace your water main out from where it comes into your home - to the softner their will usually be a T fitting left out for a future sprinkler system.

Im guessing with a water softner you have well water ??

City Water. It's pretty bad here. When they brought it out, they didn't even bother testing because they know that the water is super hard. Like I said previously, I have a water distribution panel that has a bypass for outside faucets. I'll just have to figure out how to get one of the extra ones hooked up so I can use it.