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Re: Water Recycling (was Re: This year's garden)

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

> Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
> Well, our water from the hose is also softened and the plants have never
seemed
> affected...
>
> Mary in WI
> Zone 4 (Appleton)

There is a difference between what the water softener delivers to the house
and what it spits out to the drain.  A resin bed water softener (the kind
you need the salt for) has a bed of resin beads that the water perculates
through with the beads picking up whatever it is the water softeners
pickup.  When the resin bed gets "full" of whatever it goes off line and
back flushes itself with a heavy saltwater solution which cleans up
the resin bed and this very very salty water is dumped straight
down the drain.  The procedure is usually controlled by timer and
happens in the middle of the nights when you supposedly can
do without softwater for a few hours.

So the primary output from the water softner is okay for most things,
but as is the primary source of water does not count as grey water,
and is probably a no no to use during water restrictions.

Previous in the thread was Charlie suggesting that water softners are
cleaned with salt and hence the grey water would be contaminated
with high levels of salt (extra words added by myself)and whatever
it is that water softners remove.  For Resin bed softners Charlie is
correct.

Previous again in the thread was Mary T asking if the "waste" water
from reverse osmosis systems would be okay.  They way reverse
osmosis was done in my high school chemistry classes would
suggest the answer is yes, water crosses the barrier one way
but cannot get back so the water gets divided into water that
is pure and into the orginal water (with impurities) less the
clean water that made it though the membrane.  If the oringinal water
was usable but was just hard water I would imagine that the
"waste" water from reverse osmosis would be usable just
"harder" still.

NB.  I do not know how reverse osmosis systems in the house
work, the above comment is speculation.

I DO know how certain resin bed water softeners work in some
current water softeners.  But this information may not apply
to other technnologies or older/specific models of resin bed
water softeners.

Isn't technology grand.  Makes it nearly impossible to give a
yes or no answer that applies to everyone.

Best regards, goodluck.  Ron Souliere


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