Using softened water to irrigate lawn

14 years ago

I have decided to add a kinetico water softener to my home. I have one deep well that goes to the house and irrigation system. Hardness 19 and Iron 2.0 ppm- have been told that it is all ferrous. The kinetico guy here in the Florida Panhandle told me that the 2060 would be good for the house ($ 2700). The iron is staining my pool decking and driveway. He said that there are 100's of homes around that use softened water to irrigate their lawns. He said that we have more salt in the air than would be in the water. He said that I could send softened water to the 1 zone around the pool and move up to the 2100 ($ 2900). I could irrigate the entire lawn with soften water if I move up to the CP 213s OD ($ 3400). He said that I would go through about 50lbs of salt a week. My last home had a shallow well for the lawn with a drip master which didn't really seem to help that much as far as iron removal. Is using softened water for the lawn a bad idea? Any other better solutions?

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Comments (4)

User
14 years ago
AFAIK using NaCl (sodium chloride) softened water is a no-no for plants and lawns while KCl (potassium chloride) softened water is OK with certain conditions.

Go straight to the salt and ask your question... http://softeningsalt.com/index.html
sniffdog
14 years ago
If you plan on using potassium chloride - check out the price per bag first. I have seen it recently going for $28 for a 40 lb bag a Lowe's. Southern States had it for $18 per bag a few months ago. I don't know why the price has jumped, but it seems that anything with potassium in it is costing 2 to 3 times what it did a few years ago (saw the same thing happen with fertlizer for the lawn).

When I first installed the softener I was using KCL tablets and it was running about 7 dollars a bag (salt was 4 dollars). Then suddenly I could not find KCL tablets anywhere. This lasted for almost a year, so I had to switch over to sodium tablets. Recently I decided to switch back to KCl because I had my yard expanded and the drain for the water softener was above the new grass area. Needless to say - the softener was killing my new grass. SO back to KCL I went. But at $18 to $28 bucks a bag - that isn't going to last long. I now have to extend the drain pipe about 50 feet just so that I can switch back to sodium chloride tablets.

I would not run my lawn sprinkler off the softener - unless you plan on having truckloads of tablets delivered to the house. Take the sprinkler feed directly from the well and make sure the spray doesn't hit the house or concrete walks to stain. If you have to move heads - so be it. You could then put in a whole house iron filter to deal with the iron problem for the house and hose bibs. You can decide on where to put the softener. If you soften the hose bibs, then use KCL tablets. But at least you won't be burning up tablets when you turn your sprinkler system on.
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andy_c
14 years ago
A couple questions:

Can you separate your irrigation zones? For example, using softened water near the pool but well water in other locations?

What do you mean by 'drip sytem'? Is that a polyphosphate feed? A phosphate feed system can work if appropriately set up. I might have recommended using and iron filter for the irrigation and the softener for service water needs. If you do that, then your softener can be altered to a more efficient model rather than the 2060. Say a 2040.

Iron filters at 2ppm can come in may varieties. Air injection (chemical-free) is a relaible and cost effective means to remove iron for specific puposes such as irrigation.

One downside of phosphate feeders, especially environmentally, is that they do not break down naturally and remain in the environment indefinitely. Think of it as a liquid plastic.

At 2 parts iron any of thos softeners wuill do the trick. But when you apply them to an irrigation system, it reaaly consumes a lot of salt.

Another iron removal system can be a chemical feed using hydrogen peroxide (H202) or bleach (NaClO). Pumps, backwashing filters and retention tank are needed. I don't care for greensand filters and birm has limitations as well. Avoid using KDF media (copper/zink) as it won't last long, large volumes are needed and huge backwashing pressure is required.

I have seen where plants can be affected by softened water and others where there was no noticable difference.

Your equipment is outside or in shed?

It is true, in part due to bio-diesel programs, that the price of potassium chloride has skyrocketed.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II
User
14 years ago
For those who are environmentally conscious or watering plants or are on a no salt diet or just don't like the taste of NaCl softened water KCl is the alternative to NaCl.

Our local Costco has KCl for $12.95 a 40lb bag. Not as outrageous a price as the $25 a bag I've seen at HD.

If your softener is a contemporary design, sized properly, and setup to run efficiently KCl is not too dramatic an expense on a yearly basis.

Our water varies from 26g to 32g hardness and we use one bag of KCl a month. Always paid $6.95 a bag so an extra $6 a month won't break me.

Using softened water to irrigate lawn

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