Question re Hard Water

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

We recently put a water softening system into our house, and there are two outside attachments for lawn and flowers. Do I use the softened water or the hard water?

DH said he read that the sodium content in the soft water can hurt the flowers and lawn.

 

[DaisyDebbie]

Don't know but don't kill the flowers before I get to see them

I will ask my dh the water expert when he gets home.

 

[h20jag]

Hard water is generally better for lawns & plants. The unit "should" have a bypass valve or handle that you can actuate before using a spigot/faucet that is now plumbed soft-water.
Using softened water isn't an immediate "killer" on plants, but the mineral-laden hard water will surely be best to use. Plus, sprinkling with soft-water can exhaust your softeners' capacity between its' regeneration cycles (the process where it actually uses the salt & sounds like a washing machine... best analogy I can think of!), and you could experience hard-water in the home again. Temporarily of course.
Keep in mind, any water usage inside the home while unit is "bypassed" will also be hard-water.
Hope this helps, I do softener/drinking filter systems in our area.
First time checking this forum out and couldn't resist this thread. Excellent forum and glad to see it!
Jim

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

Thanks, Jim.

Since DH put the system in, we know where the cutoffs are and what the bypass configuration is. He just added a post-softened water spigot for outside use and then read that about the hard water. Our outside spigots are still pre-softened water.

Now, if only my garden would grow...

 

[We4mickey]

Hardwater for outside use. Washing cars,water lawn and plants.