On Sep 9, 11:37 am, Kurt Ullman wrote:
When our house was built, it was plumbed in such a way that we can't
add a water softener w/o also putting softened water through the outside
faucets. I am getting conflicting information on whether or not this is
a good idea from the standpoint of watering flowers, etc. The main
sprinklers for the grass are in-ground and between the meter and the
house, so they aren't impacted. It would mainly be watering the flowers
in the planters around the house and one small grassy area that the
in-ground sprinklers don't get to.
So, comments? Also, we would use the outside faucets (spigots,
whatever) to put water in the pool when opening and occassionally during
the rest of the season.

It depends on how hard your water is and how frequently you water with
the softened water. Once in awhile watering with softened water to
below the root level won't harm plants but it can cause the softener
problems if you run too much water water or run it too fast.

You can by-pass the softener when watering or use potassium chloride.
Using it will cost more than salt and you'll probably have to increase
the salt dose of your softener by up to 30%; that depends on the salt
efficiency the softener is set up for.

You don't want to use softened water in a pool. It can mess up the
chemistry of the pool and the softener will probably run out of
capacity and then not be regenerated fully with the salt dose setting
it is set for.

Gary Slusser
Quality Water Associates