Water Softener Discharge Line

A softener drain line must not be connected directly to the waste system but must be emptied into a laundry tray floor drain or properly trapped special outlet preserving an air gap of at least two times the diameter of the drain line but in no case less than 1 1 2 above the top of the receptacle used.

Water softener discharge line.

Tighten the fittings using an adjustable wrench or channel lock pliers. Connect the flex lines to the water supply pipes then into the back of the water softener unit as directed by the manufacturer. Many of the home improvement stores sell big box water softeners and installation kits to get them connected. They then bored thru the wall to the softener and ran a flexible discharge hose from the softener thru the wall and into the top of the pvc pipe.

Those of us in the backflow industry would immediately identify this as a cross connection that must be protected by an air gap an adequate physical separation between the water softener and the sewer. Water softener discharge subsurface or surface within 200 feet of drilled bedrock driven or dug public wells or within 400 feet of gravel packed or gravel developed public wells. When the water softener resin is backwashed two or three times a week concentrated brine enters the wastewater stream as a slug of 38 to 112 gallons each backwash cycle. According to most plumbing codes a water softener drain line must not be connected directly to the household waste system.

The industry standard is a polypropylene drain line that is rigid yet flexible. Drain line best practices on water softener service calls in minnesota we find a wide variety of drain line material being used. The house side pipe to the outlet port. Hard water is softened through eliminating the magnesium and calcium it contains.

In one sentence the installer directly connected the water softener drain line to the sewer. Make sure the supply side pipe is connected to the inlet port on the water softener. When sears installed ours they water jetted a pvc pipe 10 deep into a narrow strip of soil next to the garage wall. Water softener discharge options it is a common knowledge that hard water can be an issue on both your dwelling place to you and to the entire family.

This causes two problems.