@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK it is salt (sodium chloride) softened. I am seeing somethings on the internet about potassium chloride being a suitable alternative, but I haven't found many sources that back up this claim.

If it's Sodium chloride the drinking water should not softened. If it is there's something very wrong with the system.

I have hard water. I have to soften it. Therefore, I use sodium chloride to soften it (very common here). I wanted to know if anyone has any solutions to work around softened water without having to do a bunch of really in-depth remodeling.

It depends on the specific system but some water softeners have a bypass valve on the equipment that would stop the water from traveling through the salt. You could then just run your faucet for a minute to get the rest of the softened water out of the lines and you'd be good to go.

" You could then just run your faucet for a minute to get the rest of the softened water out of the lines and you'd be good to go. "

Ridiculous. You want a drink of water, go out to the garage and open the bypass, go back to the sink and run a ton of water down the drain, get your glassful. Go back to the garage and close the bypass.

Generally the entire house is treated except the hose bibs for outside watering!

You've got to be kidding. Google "on water softners in uk "

Salt is the catalyst there, because hard water is hard water. lol

Also, salt is not used in heating water nor in hot water systems.

What is the issue using softened water for plants? Very little salt makes it to the water. The salt solution is used to backwash the resin in a tank, which then cleans ions out of the hard water.

Hi Andrea! I water my houseplants with water bottle water purified by reverse osmosis. Most water bottle companies use this method to purify their water, so you can pretty much use any brand as long as they use this method. Usually four bottles is enough to water 9 small houseplants and 2 big ones once a week, or about 16 water bottles per month. I hope this helps!

damask_rose : )

This is the advice from my water company.

"Water softeners

We do not soften water artificially during the treatment process and do not recommend softened water for drinking and cooking purposes.

If you prefer your water to be soft, you can install a domestic water softener in your home.

If you do so, it is recommended that you have a separate tap installed to supply unsoftened water straight from the mains for drinking and food preparation."

@damask_rose_zone9b

thanks for the suggestion. unfortunately, I use about 5gal of water every two days and i think it would be irresponsible of me to use that much plastic. good idea though!

@Seabornman unfortunately it's enough salt to be detrimental to my plants.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK thank you for your input. For us, we soften the water to keep hard metal scale from building up in our plumbing. Additionally, softened water allows you to use a LOT less soaps, detergents, cleaning agents. The salt does not give the water more/less drinkability. It merely extends the life of the plumbing system and all of the plumbing fixtures by conditioning the water. Drinkability is a completely separate topic that requires testing for bacteria, etc. Additional systems can be added for creating a drinking system from the water.

So, with that aside, do you happen to know any good tips or tricks that could help me? I am trying to find a way to water the plants without having to reroute plumbing or add a reverse osmosis system. If those are the other alternatives, I will gladly do it.

@keys6505 thanks for the suggestion! One of the first things I did was check for that. I was actually banking on at least one of the hose bibbs to be plumbed in before the water softener, but of course with my luck, that's not the case. LOL I should post a picture of the nightmare plumbing in my basement. It is really well maintained, but there are so many retrofit systems down there that they just jammed in PVC anywhere they could. LOL

In the UK it seems they are just like the US... my goodness, water is the same on both sides of the pond? Who knew?

UK Boilerplate

"Drinking softened water: official advice

For health reasons, there is a limit set on the recommended level of salt in drinking water at 200 mg/l.

For most areas of the UK, the sodium levels of softened water will be well within recommended limits; however, in a few parts of the UK where the drinking water is particularly hard, sodium levels may exceed 220 mg/l....."

Soft water will not hurt plants - the reason that we do not normally soften water to outdoor hose bibs is cost and product waste! Period!

Put a faucet in before the water softener and fill your watering can there.

Hi @Andrea and everyone else.

Softening involves the replacement of hardness ions (calcium and magnesium) with sodium. The source of the sodium is indeed, the salt. The amount of sodium in softened water depends on the amount of calcium and magnesium in the water originally. When the resin is depleted of sodium, it is regenerated with a brine solution.

Most homes plumbed for a water softener specifically exclude outdoor hose bibs and usually the cold water faucet in the kitchen. If you are sure that's not the case with your home, you should have that fixed. If you don't want to do a "big project" right now you can also just install a tap before the softener to fill a container for your house plants.

The slight sodium increase in potable water to your kitchen sink is not harmful and should not cause you to spend a fortune trying to get unsoftened water plumbed to that sink.

" The truth is, water softeners do not add any salt to the water. The water softening process breaks down the salt to use its sodium. There is a difference. To clear things up, salt, also known as sodium chloride (NaCl), contains sodium (Na)."

@Jake The Wonderdog thank you for your input and help in this. As you have mentioned, I do have tropical plants a lot of plants that require a very stable ecosystem. I have spent a lot of money on them and in keeping them alive, which is why I tested my water on a less expensive plant that I really don't like...it died. LOL. So, there is absolutely ZERO chance that I will be watering my lawn with it, let alone my indoor plants as some folks suggested.

Honestly, it sounds like I am just going to buckle down and install a reverse osmosis system. That'll be the only way I an ensure that my humidifiers stay in optimum condition and that my plants stay alive.

Thanks everyone!

I have a water softener and while my hoses aren't connected, I'm not going outside in the middle of winter to fill water jugs. I use a Brita water filter when I water my plants or I use water from the fridge. They both seem to filter out the "salt".

You really should get your hose bib disconnected, it's a huge waste to have that water softened.

Hey @suedonim75 I completely agree with the winter comment. I am totally not going to be out there doing that lol. However, I have a TON of iron in my water and will be using the hoses to wash the house and vehicles. I don't want my house to be orange like my neighbor's (lol).

I have a serious iron issue too. The previous owner of our house never had a softener and all of our plumbing had to be replaced because the pipes were almost completely plugged with iron build up. Hey, at least it's not sulfur, lol.

Well water is a double edge sword, you don't want the iron in the water, but the softened water is just as bad for cars and windows. The salt will leave a residue if it isn't dried right away. I never wash my car at home, I take it to the car wash and use their water. It's a pain in the a*s, but that's the drawback to well water.

I see a lot of houses that have big orange splotches where the sprinklers hit it. I personally haven't had an issue with my house having orange stains, but I also don't let the sprinkler spray against the house.

@suedonim75 oh my god that happened to me too!!!! My second bathroom shower was getting no hot water flow and I took apart the pipes to find out why.... Completely plugged!!! UGH!

And you are so right about well water. It's great on my skin and house, but terrible on everything else. Ugh. It seems like it's always something. It'll take these problems over others though, that's for sure! ;)

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) thanks for your thorough answer! I 100% with you. I have decided to go with a reverse osmosis system. Have a great day!

My pleasure.

Please do remember to tap into the supply line upstream from the IX softener, Andrea.

Also, this link might be helpful.

Al

I've owned three homes that had water softeners... not one of them had an unsoftened supply to the cold water tap at the kitchen sink. Not one.

They were all similar to this:

And yet you continue to attack me and post bogus info. I said no such thing already - I did, however, post the Google returned schematic earlier.

Moved to a new home a few months ago that has a whole house water softener (I believe the outdoor hoses are NOT connected). So far I haven't noticed any issues with my plants but I do wonder if it's affecting them.

Aside from getting a TDS meter, is salt buildup on the soil surface/pots a good indicator of likely issues? I am not seeing any salt buildup anywhere on any of my pots or soils. None at all. Could this possibly mean that my sodium levels are too low to cause any problems?

I'm waiting for the current year water quality report to come out so I can see the hardness level, which is what gets converted into sodium. Might just start storing some 5-gallon buckets of hose water with a dash of foliage pro in the garage to use on my plants. I really don't like having softened water but all of the plumbing and appliances in my previous home were destroyed by hard water. Hopefully no issues arise but I will be flushing my plants with the hose as weather allows. I'm really hoping someone here can advise me on the lack of visible salt buildup!

i NEVER thought about the soft water issues and houseplants!! I have a couple of plants that are not doing well and couldn't figure out why! They've always done so well. So I checked out water softeners and houseplants and read that I'm slowly killing my plants! I have a lot of plants and some are expensive like my staghorn ferns. Our outdoor water is not softened. So I plan to just fill up a lot of gallon jugs and keep them in the basement and use those to water the plants. Or have a 5 gallon jug filled with outdoor water and pour out of that. I'd rather do a bit of work than to lose my plants.

Hi, grey mare. Your handle makes me want to ask if you are all you used to be ...... but I won't.

If you have a basement, it wouldn't be much of a chore to cut into the supply line upstream from the water softener and install a tee with a short piece of pipe to a hose bib. That way it wouldn't be necessary to go outdoors to collect your water. Something similar could be done in a crawl space, then come up through the floor with the direct service ....... that's IF the pretreated water is appropriate. If it isn't, you could buy and install (very easy to install) a small reverse osmosis filtration system, which will deliver water with 0 PPM dissolved solids. That's what I use for plants that over-winter indoors, drinking, ice, and for all humidification. Because I use pure water (no dissolved solids) I only have to clean my humidifiers once per year in spring. I buy hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) by the case from the dollar store and add about a tbsp/gallon when I fill the humidifiers. I don't measure it out, just add what feels about right to me. The H2O2 attacks any organic molecules that manage to make their way into the water, so nothing grows or multiplies in the reservoir. I also make my own humidifiers that work much better than those available which are commercially built.

Al

ha, ha.... I didn't even realize til now that I used that as a user name. I picked it because one of our horses is a grey mare (Arabian) and she's such a great horse. I'd rather just fill from outside - much easier for me. I don't want to try messing with re-piping and dealing with water lines. For my humidifiers and I only have 2, I have a distiller. I bought one when they had a shortage on distilled water and couldn't get any. I can get it now but price went WAY up so I still make my own. It's easy enough and the machine works great. I could use that on my plants as well but I would have to make way more. It takes about 4-5 hours for the machine to make a gallon.

Reverse osmosis is the way to go.

there is a device for this search timerbypass

Just in case nobody has checked.

I have a spigot with hose threads in the basement right near where the main water comes into the house (read before the softener).

I always thought it was code and it was installed for that reason.

I’m on a farm with well water and both a softener and a neutralizer. The well,company tests the water every year and my plants and animals are thriving. I have monster aloe plants in the house, can’t wait for it to warm up enough to put them outside. If you are having problems, test the water first.

Soft water can be a challenge for houseplants due to its low mineral content and sometimes high sodium levels. I had a similar issue with my aloe plant, which got me researching solutions. For watering plants in a home with soft water, consider using distilled water or filtered water that removes the sodium without adding minerals. I also found that letting tap water sit for a day before using it can help some of the excess sodium to evaporate.

Regarding my underwatered aloe plant, I first identified the problem by the brown, crispy leaves, then gently increased watering frequency without overdoing it. The plant needed indirect sunlight and careful monitoring to recover. Managing the right water type and quantity helped my aloe bounce back. For anyone facing similar issues, these steps can be really helpful.

No Elena, the water system corrects the water to a neutral pH and you don’t want a high mineral content. There is no salt in the water after it goes through the system.

Hi @ShadyWillowFarm

I'm not sure what system you have, but it sounds like a R/O filter rather than a softener. I'm glad it's working for you.

However, water softeners do not correct pH and they do exchange sodium ions for calcium and magnesium ions. So, if the untreated water is very hard, the softened water will contain much more sodium. And that sodium can build up in the soil over time with indoor plants. How much is too much for plants depends on the plants, and the hardness of the untreated water, how much watering is done, etc.

Again, I appreciate that what you have is working for you - but I don't think it's a water softener.

Jake's reply is accurate, Andrea. An ionic exchange water softener (using NaCl as the exchange medium) does add sodium chloride in phytotoxic (damaging to plants) amounts by replacing Ca, Mg, and some Fe and Mn with salt, usually sodium chloride but sometimes potassium chloride.

Al

From the NIH:

"Softened well water in our area on average contained a 2.5-times-higher concentration of sodium than local municipal water, comparable with previous reports. It is unlikely that the increased sodium from softened water would have any health risks for most people. This may not be true for people on severely sodium-restricted diets."

You learn something every day.

"I also found that letting tap water sit for a day before using it can help some of the excess sodium to evaporate." Sodium is highly reactive and doesn't exist in nature in its elemental form. The sodium (Na) content in softened water is actually NaCl (sodium chloride), which isn't volatile (doesn't evaporate or gas off). If you dissolve a teaspoon of NaCl in a cup of water, then allow the water to evaporate, you'll have exactly 1 tsp of salt left in the cup; so any reduction in the volume of salted water due to evaporate actually increases the concentration of NaCl in whatever water remains.

That is also why tapwater tends to increase in pH in the summer months. When surface water evaporates it leaves all the dissolved solids it contains behind. The increase in the concentration of (primarily) calcium and magnesium increases the water's pH.

Al

Sorry Jake but you are wrong, I do have a softener.

That's fine - you have a softener.

But what I said about softeners is absolutely true.

It's possible that you have something else in addition to the softener - but softeners work exactly how I described.

The only thing I know that does something like what you described was an R/O filter.

I have a neutralizer too, and every year I get my water tested, and they tell me I have the best water in 3 counties. 🙂 Legend. ☺️

It's been 3 years, so Andrea likely has solved her problem. My 2 cents would be to go to Walmart and get a 3-gallon or 5-gallon plastic water container, fill it with water from the outside spigot, and use that water on the plants.

I have a water softener and have not noticed any problems with my orchids and snake plant.

Even if the spigot is outside, the pipe comes from the inside.

"Even if the spigot is outside, the pipe comes from the inside."

We have one spigot with soft water and one with untreated. I changed one out to soft water so I could wash a vehicle occasionally. The hard water left spots.

Oh man, that soft water situation can be a real bummer for your plants! If you've got a water softener messing with all your taps, an easy workaround is to grab some distilled water from the store for your green buddies. It's pretty cheap and safe for all kinds of plants. Another option is to fill up containers with tap water and let them sit out for a day or two; this lets some of the sodium dissipate, which is better than nothing. If you're up for it, you might also check out installing a bypass valve for your water softener—it’s a bit of a hassle but could give you a direct line of unsoftened water when you need it. Just make sure not to overcomplicate things, keep it simple and your leafy friends will be all good!

Even if the spigot is outside, the pipe comes from the inside. Obviously, but the path the water takes to get to the hose bib can be routed around the softening system by splicing into the cold water supply line after any meter but before the softening system.

Another option is to fill up containers with tap water and let them sit out for a day or two; this lets some of the sodium dissipate. This is entirely inaccurate, so please stop with the erroneous info. Sodium is highly reactive and doesn't exist in nature in its elemental form. The sodium (Na) content in softened water is actually NaCl (sodium chloride), which isn't volatile (does not evaporate or gas off). If you dissolve a teaspoon of NaCl in a cup of water, then allow the water to evaporate, you'll have exactly the same amount (by weight) of salt left in the cup; so any reduction in the volume of salted water due to evaporate actually increases the concentration of NaCl (or ANY dissolved solid) in whatever water remains.

That is also why tapwater tends to increase in pH in the summer months. When surface water evaporates it leaves all the dissolved solids it contains behind. The increase in the concentration of (primarily) calcium and magnesium increases the water's pH.

Some forms of water chlorination (like chlorine gas) can gas off, but the fluoride compounds and all other minerals dissolved in any given open container of water INCREASE in concentration as water in the container evaporates. The pH of water left in an open container rises as CO2 dissolved in water from the tap gasses off. If your intent is to allow volatile substances to gas off, use an open container like a pot/ bowl/ bucket as opposed to a milk jug/ soda bottle, e.g..

Al

The very best thing to do is to have a professional test your water every year so you have the system you need and you are using the product you should be using so that you have good water for drinking and watering plants etc. if you have salty water, you need to change something.