We moved to the country a few weeks ago, and 2 days ago had Culligan install their best water softener, a UV light and RO unit onto our well water system.
Tonight during dinner, a friend told me water softeners “can” hurt a septic system because of the salt corroding the concrete.
He also said the debate has been ongoing, and nobody really wants to take a position because there is too much money at stake.
How about it anyone, does anyone have the straight dope on this matter?
The softener uses 4 pounds of salt per month (as per info provided by Culligan), and the septic system was installed in 89.
Water hardness from well is 20.
I’ve never heard of it damaging the concrete. What I have heard is that the excessive salt can upset the bacteria in the system that break down the solids. You may end up pumping out the tank more often just because the solids won’t be breaking down properly. If you get too much solid stuff floating around you can also clog up the holes in the pipes that go out to the drain field. Or, if you have a sand mound system (like I did) the pump and the pipes in the sand mound could get clogged.
(note - I am not an expert on septic systems, I’m just going by what I’ve read while trying to maintain mine)
Based on studies water softener discharge has no negative impact on septic systems. The hardness added to the septic has been shown to be beneficial to the percolation in the septic tank.
Check out www.wqa.org and type ‘septic’ as a search option that will give you some answers.
The other aspect of salt based systems is “backwash” which increases the fluid load on your leach field. Consider an ash system which meters a mix into your water. These systems require no backwash.
It also depends on what the purpose of your water softener is. Besides removing hardness ions, water softeners are also commonly used to remove iron from well water, which is why I had one installed in my new house six months ago.
When the system was first installed, I had the backwash set to discharge directly into the septic system. The state recommends that this not be done, but I too read the research on it, and concluded that damage to my septic system was unlikely.
However, it turns out that there is a major difference between using a water softener to treat high iron as opposed to treating hard water.
Most of my neighbors in this new development also connected their backwash to their septic systems. About two months ago, one them had their septic system clog, and sewage backed up into their house. It turns out that the iron-rich softener backwash had encourage the formation of an iron-loving bacterial slime that clogged the effluent filter of the septic system. To solve the problem, they simply removed the filter. :rolleyes: I expect that in a few years, the problem will recur in their leach field. Note that replacing a leach field runs about $15,000.
In any event, last month, I had a separate dry well installed solely for my water softener backwash, as was originally recommended by the state.