On Mar 1, 9:52�pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:21:23 -0800 (PST), Sheldon
wrote:





On Mar 1, 8:42?pm, Billy wrote:
In article ,

?Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 17:10:13 -0800, "SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA
wrote:

I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the
soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water?
They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but
I need to get around and water some of the trees before that.

Thanks.

Steve

For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it.
Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium.
Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will
build up, change the soil properties.

Like Charles said, you would basically be putting salt on your plants.
You don't want to drink it either, again it is salt (or the cation half
of the salt) and you risk raising your blood pressure. It is good for
washing things because the Ca++ in the water (hard water) is out and you
don't precipitate fatty acids or get calcium stearate (better known as
bathtub ring) which interfere with making the dirtiness soluble in water.

wrote:

not to mention is very expensive to use soft water. �

What do you call "very expensive"?

A 40 pound bag of salt will typically produce about 6,000 gallons of
softened water... a 40 pound bag of salt costs about $4.50.

Actually that same $4.50 worth of salt can save the average household
about $45 worth of cleaning products each month... not to mention the
time and effort of cleaning, and will save more than 6,000 gallons of
water each month (mostly hot water) because softened water is just
that much more efficient at cleaning. Softened water is kind to your
plumbing too, will save untold thousands in plumbing bills over the
life of the water softener (about 20 years).

If one lives in a hard water locale *not* having a water softener is
VERY expensive.

On Mar 1, 9:41�pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon
wrote:





Charles wrote:
"SteveB" wrote:

I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the
soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water?
They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but
I need to get around and water some of the trees before that.

For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it.
Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium.
Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will
build up, change the soil properties.

That's not true. �There is no more salt contained in softened water
than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually less.
If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened water,
now would it. �The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem as
grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes), that
never enters the domestic water. �If the typical water softener uses a
pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to 1/2 pound/
day. �The trick is to find a way for disposing of the grey water
without it building up in one spot. �My grey water (water from my
water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is piped by gravity to a
creek, the same creek that collects run off from many thousands of
acres of lands as the creek meanders over many miles, which includes
the many tons of salt spread on the roads in winter by the highway
department.. my couple handfulls of salt a day is so negligible that
it doesn't count. �And salt is not toxic it's a necessity of life, a
salt lick for live stock places more salt into the ground than any
water softener. �Softened water contains very little salt, certainly
far less than if the water were not softened.

Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. �The common
household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions for
sodium. �The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the water
stays where it is.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio...

Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary
school level, and I'm being quite generous.

[per your web site]
"Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of
sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up a
very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or beads
(this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong brine
displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the
zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining
brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a
drain pipe. "_

DOH!

In article
,
Sheldon wrote:

On Mar 1, 9:41?pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon
wrote:





Charles wrote:
"SteveB" wrote:

I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to
the
soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft
water?
They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area,
but
I need to get around and water some of the trees before that.

For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it.
Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium.
Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will
build up, change the soil properties.

That's not true. ?There is no more salt contained in softened water
than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually less.
If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened water,
now would it. ?The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem as
grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes), that
never enters the domestic water. ?If the typical water softener uses a
pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to 1/2 pound/
day. ?The trick is to find a way for disposing of the grey water
without it building up in one spot. ?My grey water (water from my
water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is piped by gravity to a
creek, the same creek that collects run off from many thousands of
acres of lands as the creek meanders over many miles, which includes
the many tons of salt spread on the roads in winter by the highway
department.. my couple handfulls of salt a day is so negligible that
it doesn't count. ?And salt is not toxic it's a necessity of life, a
salt lick for live stock places more salt into the ground than any
water softener. ?Softened water contains very little salt, certainly
far less than if the water were not softened.

Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. ?The common
household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions for
sodium. ?The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the water
stays where it is.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio...

Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary
school level, and I'm being quite generous.

[per your web site]
"Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of
sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up a
very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or beads
(this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong brine
displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the
zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining
brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a
drain pipe. "_

DOH!

Shelly, my dance instructor once told me that if I was going to fall, I
should do it gracefully. You might learn from that and not be so snotty
when you are so horribly wrong. The preceding paragraph reads,"The idea
behind a water softener is simple. The calcium and magnesium ions in the
water are replaced with sodium ions. Since sodium does not precipitate
out in pipes or react badly with soap, both of the problems of hard
water are eliminated. To do the ion replacement, the water in the house
runs through a bed of small plastic beads or through a chemical matrix
called zeolite. The beads or zeolite are covered with sodium ions. As
the water flows past the sodium ions, they swap places with the calcium
and magnesium ions. Eventually, the beads or zeolite contain nothing but
calcium and magnesium and no sodium, and at this point they stop
softening the water. It is then time to regenerate the beads or zeolite."

Hellooooo? Did you get that Shelly? The calcium and magnesium ions in
the water are **REPLACED** with sodium ions. Duh. Now go have a nice big
glass of soft water:-)
--

Billy

Impeach Pelosi
Bush & Cheney to the Hague
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml

In article
,
Sheldon wrote:

wrote:

not to mention is very expensive to use soft water. ?

What do you call "very expensive"?

A 40 pound bag of salt will typically produce about 6,000 gallons of
softened water... a 40 pound bag of salt costs about $4.50.

Actually that same $4.50 worth of salt can save the average household
about $45 worth of cleaning products each month... not to mention the
time and effort of cleaning, and will save more than 6,000 gallons of
water each month (mostly hot water) because softened water is just
that much more efficient at cleaning. Softened water is kind to your
plumbing too, will save untold thousands in plumbing bills over the
life of the water softener (about 20 years).

If one lives in a hard water locale *not* having a water softener is
VERY expensive.

This was about gardening Shelly, not plumbing. Toxification of the
landscape and all that. St. Molly used to say, when you find yourself in
a hole, stop digging.
--

Billy

Impeach Pelosi
Bush & Cheney to the Hague
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml

In article
,
Sheldon wrote:

On Mar 1, 9:52?pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:21:23 -0800 (PST), Sheldon
wrote:





On Mar 1, 8:42?pm, Billy wrote:
In article ,

?Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 17:10:13 -0800, "SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA
wrote:

I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to
the
soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft
water?
They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural
area, but
I need to get around and water some of the trees before that.

Thanks.

Steve

For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it.
Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium.
Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will
build up, change the soil properties.

Like Charles said, you would basically be putting salt on your plants.
You don't want to drink it either, again it is salt (or the cation half
of the salt) and you risk raising your blood pressure. It is good for
washing things because the Ca++ in the water (hard water) is out and you
don't precipitate fatty acids or get calcium stearate (better known as
bathtub ring) which interfere with making the dirtiness soluble in
water.

What tripe. ?There is virtually no salt in softened water... whatever
salt was contained in the water before it was softened would be far,
far less.

From:http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/se...ter+softener&G..
.

Sodium ions is not salt. The salt used in water softeners does NOT
end up in the domestic water... the salt and oher minerals flush out
as grey water.

You have to give Shellly credit. He may be stoopid but but he is
persistent. One more time from the top:

The idea behind a water softener is simple. The calcium and magnesium
ions in the water are ""REPLACED** with sodium ions. Since sodium does
not precipitate out in pipes or react badly with soap, both of the
problems of hard water are eliminated. To do the ion replacement, the
water in the house runs through a bed of small plastic beads or through
a chemical matrix called zeolite. The beads or zeolite are covered with
sodium ions. As the water flows past the sodium ions, they swap places
with the calcium and magnesium ions. Eventually, the beads or zeolite
contain nothing but calcium and magnesium and no sodium, and at this
point they stop softening the water. It is then time to regenerate the
beads or zeolite.

How's that hole coming Shelly? About time to hydrate again, huh?
--

Billy

Impeach Pelosi
Bush & Cheney to the Hague
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml

"SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote in message
...
I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the
soft water system. Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water?
They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but
I need to get around and water some of the trees before that.

Thanks.

Steve


Similar question here. How about hydrogen sulfide gas from well water. Its
filtered out before entering home plumbing. Hose bibs are connected to the
same home plumbing.

Normally, I use the 2 standalone faucets outside for irrigation. These have
no filtration whatsoever. Any special notes on soaker hoses for this
situation?

--
Dave

Sheldon wrote:
On Mar 1, 9:41�pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon

wrote:





Charles wrote:
"SteveB" wrote:

I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are
hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to
watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the
irrigation
water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and
water some of the trees before that.

For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it.
Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with
sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over
time it will build up, change the soil properties.

That's not true. �There is no more salt contained in softened
water
than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually
less.
If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened
water,
now would it. �The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem
as
grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes),
that
never enters the domestic water. �If the typical water softener
uses a pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to
1/2 pound/ day. �The trick is to find a way for disposing of the
grey water without it building up in one spot. �My grey water
(water from my water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is
piped by gravity to a creek, the same creek that collects run off
from many thousands of acres of lands as the creek meanders over
many miles, which includes the many tons of salt spread on the
roads in winter by the highway department.. my couple handfulls of
salt a day is so negligible that it doesn't count. �And salt is
not
toxic it's a necessity of life, a salt lick for live stock places
more salt into the ground than any water softener. �Softened water
contains very little salt, certainly far less than if the water
were not softened.

Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. �The common
household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions
for sodium. �The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the
water
stays where it is.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio...

Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary
school level, and I'm being quite generous.

[per your web site]
"Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of
sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up
a
very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or
beads
(this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong
brine
displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the
zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining
brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a
drain pipe. "_

You're confusing "sodium" with "salt". The process is that sodium
ions are picked up on the surface of the zeolite. Not "salt", just
one of the chemical components of it. Those are exchanged for
less-reactive calcium and magnesium ions in the water, so calcium
carbonate (or magnesium sulfate or whatever) gets turned into sodium
carbonate (or sodium sulfate or whatever) with a slight release of
energy. The calcium and magnesium ions then remain on the suface of
the zeolite until such time as it is regenerated by exposure to sodium
chloride at which time it picks up the sodium ions and the calcium
goes into the brine as calcium chloride.

So the softened water has no "salt" added, what is has is the existing
calcium and magnesium compounds turned into sodium compounds. The
quantity of the compounds doesn't change, what changes is their
chemical composition.

If you think that a water softener works by "adding salt" then try
adding salt to hard water and then have the hardness checked with and
without salt and see what you get.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

In article ,
"J. Clarke" wrote:

Sheldon wrote:
On Mar 1, 9:41?pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon

wrote:





Charles wrote:
"SteveB" wrote:

I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are
hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to
watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the
irrigation
water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and
water some of the trees before that.

For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it.
Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with
sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over
time it will build up, change the soil properties.

That's not true. ?There is no more salt contained in softened
water
than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually
less.
If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened
water,
now would it. ?The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem
as
grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes),
that
never enters the domestic water. ?If the typical water softener
uses a pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to
1/2 pound/ day. ?The trick is to find a way for disposing of the
grey water without it building up in one spot. ?My grey water
(water from my water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is
piped by gravity to a creek, the same creek that collects run off
from many thousands of acres of lands as the creek meanders over
many miles, which includes the many tons of salt spread on the
roads in winter by the highway department.. my couple handfulls of
salt a day is so negligible that it doesn't count. ?And salt is
not
toxic it's a necessity of life, a salt lick for live stock places
more salt into the ground than any water softener. ?Softened water
contains very little salt, certainly far less than if the water
were not softened.

Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. ?The common
household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions
for sodium. ?The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the
water
stays where it is.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio...

Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary
school level, and I'm being quite generous.

[per your web site]
"Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of
sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up
a
very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or
beads
(this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong
brine
displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the
zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining
brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a
drain pipe. "_

You're confusing "sodium" with "salt". The process is that sodium
ions are picked up on the surface of the zeolite. Not "salt", just
one of the chemical components of it. Those are exchanged for
less-reactive calcium and magnesium ions in the water, so calcium
carbonate (or magnesium sulfate or whatever) gets turned into sodium
carbonate (or sodium sulfate or whatever) with a slight release of
energy. The calcium and magnesium ions then remain on the suface of
the zeolite until such time as it is regenerated by exposure to sodium
chloride at which time it picks up the sodium ions and the calcium
goes into the brine as calcium chloride.

So the softened water has no "salt" added, what is has is the existing
calcium and magnesium compounds turned into sodium compounds. The
quantity of the compounds doesn't change, what changes is their
chemical composition.

If you think that a water softener works by "adding salt" then try
adding salt to hard water and then have the hardness checked with and
without salt and see what you get.

--

From my pitiful short garden experience.

* Water from rain is best
* then Water from rain barrels
* then Water from softener
* then Water from the hard line.
* Let plants die.

When I use my hard line my garden does not grow very well.
Still better than no water at all. I have also found that flowers does
seem to hold up better with the soft water than vegetables.

Most water softeners are first run through a sediment filter taking out
some nasty stuff first. Hard lines tend to come straight out of the well.

Depending on the size of your garden that softener can get expensive, if
it is a large one. If you are very rich and do not care, use the water
from the R.O. purification system from your drinking water.

Their are some companies that make inline water filters for the outside
water lines (also not cheap). I will let you do the searching.

Enjoy Life ... Dan

--
Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash automatically.

"Dioclese" NONE wrote

Any special notes on soaker hoses for this
situation?

--
Dave

Not sure about where you live, but here, the irrigation water is not
filtered to a high degree. Fill a glass gallon jug and see if it has
sediment or organic materials. This will clog up a soaker from the inside.

Steve

"SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote in message
news

"Dioclese" NONE wrote

Any special notes on soaker hoses for this
situation?

--
Dave

Not sure about where you live, but here, the irrigation water is not
filtered to a high degree. Fill a glass gallon jug and see if it has
sediment or organic materials. This will clog up a soaker from the
inside.

Steve


Central TX, rural hill country west of IH35.

Do have calcium etc from limestone in well water. Not really concerned
about that since the soil is similar due to runoff from rain. I have a
sediment filter, hydrogen gas filtration bottle (aerator), and a whole-house
carbon filter running inline to the house.

I saw one of those "what ifs" on an educational channel on TV. Evidently,
the earth ODed on hydrogen sulfide gas sometime in the past. Killed pretty
much everything land and sea. There's potential for that to happen again.
The gas is bad ju-ju in concentrations. Thus, the soaker hose question
about water with hydrogen sulfide gas. Picture in my mind about a soaker
hose is like a holding tank, intermittently burping pure hydrogen sulfide
gas in concentration.

--
Dave

"Dan L." wrote in message
...
In article ,
"J. Clarke" wrote:

Sheldon wrote:
On Mar 1, 9:41?pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon

wrote:





Charles wrote:
"SteveB" wrote:

I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are
hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to
watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the
irrigation
water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and
water some of the trees before that.

For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it.
Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with
sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over
time it will build up, change the soil properties.

That's not true. ?There is no more salt contained in softened
water
than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually
less.
If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened
water,
now would it. ?The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem
as
grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes),
that
never enters the domestic water. ?If the typical water softener
uses a pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to
1/2 pound/ day. ?The trick is to find a way for disposing of the
grey water without it building up in one spot. ?My grey water
(water from my water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is
piped by gravity to a creek, the same creek that collects run off
from many thousands of acres of lands as the creek meanders over
many miles, which includes the many tons of salt spread on the
roads in winter by the highway department.. my couple handfulls of
salt a day is so negligible that it doesn't count. ?And salt is
not
toxic it's a necessity of life, a salt lick for live stock places
more salt into the ground than any water softener. ?Softened water
contains very little salt, certainly far less than if the water
were not softened.

Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. ?The common
household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions
for sodium. ?The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the
water
stays where it is.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio...

Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary
school level, and I'm being quite generous.

[per your web site]
"Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of
sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up
a
very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or
beads
(this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong
brine
displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the
zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining
brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a
drain pipe. "_

You're confusing "sodium" with "salt". The process is that sodium
ions are picked up on the surface of the zeolite. Not "salt", just
one of the chemical components of it. Those are exchanged for
less-reactive calcium and magnesium ions in the water, so calcium
carbonate (or magnesium sulfate or whatever) gets turned into sodium
carbonate (or sodium sulfate or whatever) with a slight release of
energy. The calcium and magnesium ions then remain on the suface of
the zeolite until such time as it is regenerated by exposure to sodium
chloride at which time it picks up the sodium ions and the calcium
goes into the brine as calcium chloride.

So the softened water has no "salt" added, what is has is the existing
calcium and magnesium compounds turned into sodium compounds. The
quantity of the compounds doesn't change, what changes is their
chemical composition.

If you think that a water softener works by "adding salt" then try
adding salt to hard water and then have the hardness checked with and
without salt and see what you get.

--

From my pitiful short garden experience.

* Water from rain is best
* then Water from rain barrels
* then Water from softener
* then Water from the hard line.
* Let plants die.

When I use my hard line my garden does not grow very well.
Still better than no water at all. I have also found that flowers does
seem to hold up better with the soft water than vegetables.

Most water softeners are first run through a sediment filter taking out
some nasty stuff first. Hard lines tend to come straight out of the well.

Depending on the size of your garden that softener can get expensive, if
it is a large one. If you are very rich and do not care, use the water
from the R.O. purification system from your drinking water.

Their are some companies that make inline water filters for the outside
water lines (also not cheap). I will let you do the searching.

Enjoy Life ... Dan

--
Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash
automatically.


The filter needed depends on what you want to remove, the concentration of
that unwanted substance, AND, how much resulting water you intend to use
during a filter change interval. A solar heated still with intermittent
manual removal of solids is almost like rain water purity. United States
Patent 5181991. Rain barrels are a good idea if you get enough rain, flush
the gunk out of barrels and lines once in awhile (green slime, might be
black if cold).

-----
Dave

In article , "Dioclese" NONE
wrote:

"SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote in message
news

"Dioclese" NONE wrote

Any special notes on soaker hoses for this
situation?

--
Dave

Not sure about where you live, but here, the irrigation water is not
filtered to a high degree. Fill a glass gallon jug and see if it has
sediment or organic materials. This will clog up a soaker from the
inside.

Steve


Central TX, rural hill country west of IH35.

Do have calcium etc from limestone in well water. Not really concerned
about that since the soil is similar due to runoff from rain. I have a
sediment filter, hydrogen gas filtration bottle (aerator), and a whole-house
carbon filter running inline to the house.

I saw one of those "what ifs" on an educational channel on TV. Evidently,
the earth ODed on hydrogen sulfide gas sometime in the past. Killed pretty
much everything land and sea. There's potential for that to happen again.
The gas is bad ju-ju in concentrations.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?cha...ID=00037A5 D-
A938-150E-A93883414B7F0000

Thus, the soaker hose question
about water with hydrogen sulfide gas. Picture in my mind about a soaker
hose is like a holding tank, intermittently burping pure hydrogen sulfide
gas in concentration.
--

Billy

Impeach Pelosi
Bush & Cheney to the Hague
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml

there is a lot of water needed to backwash the resin (if paying for the water) plus
the electricity. then there are the iron prefilters to replace. on my mothers house
the water is very hard and she used a service, rented the equipment, somebody carried
the bags down into the basement and filled the softener. $45 every 3 months. She
had extensive gardens and I can see that it could have doubled the price if she didnt
have well water for the gardens. this doesnt even include the price she paid for
city water which I am not even sure how much that costs cause the renters pay for
that now.
We dont have a softener. During 3 months we use about 12-15 ccf in winter, about 30
or more ccf in summer. 30.0 ccf = $164.89. Remember that sewage fees are based on
USAGE it doesnt matter if that water for the garden doesnt go down the drain. Well
water costs nothing but the electricity to pump it and the pump replaced every 25
years or so. Ingrid

On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:09:52 -0800, Billy wrote:

In article
,
Sheldon wrote:

wrote:

not to mention is very expensive to use soft water. ?

What do you call "very expensive"?

A 40 pound bag of salt will typically produce about 6,000 gallons of
softened water... a 40 pound bag of salt costs about $4.50.

Actually that same $4.50 worth of salt can save the average household
about $45 worth of cleaning products each month... not to mention the
time and effort of cleaning, and will save more than 6,000 gallons of
water each month (mostly hot water) because softened water is just
that much more efficient at cleaning. Softened water is kind to your
plumbing too, will save untold thousands in plumbing bills over the
life of the water softener (about 20 years).

If one lives in a hard water locale *not* having a water softener is
VERY expensive.

This was about gardening Shelly, not plumbing. Toxification of the
landscape and all that. St. Molly used to say, when you find yourself in
a hole, stop digging.

Well I am not confusing anything. salt is NaCl which dissociates in water to Na+ and
Cl-. Cl-, BTW is what makes food taste "salty". The sodium ions are exchanged for
the calcium and magnesium ions in the water which are stabilized with the chloride
ions which are flushed down the drain. The sodium stays in the softened water. This
is a BIG issue with people who keep fish because some places have so much calcium
and/or magnesium in their water that the sodium ion concentration is thus high enough
to sicken and/or kill their fish. This is even a bigger problem when people use salt
prophylactically without testing for sodium ion concentration. It is the chloride
ions that are helpful to fish, not the sodium.

In addition physicians typically admonish their patients with high blood pressure to
not drink softened water, rather, to use RO water for drinking. Ingrid


On Mon, 3 Mar 2008 08:43:40 -0500, "J. Clarke" wrote:
You're confusing "sodium" with "salt". The process is that sodium
ions are picked up on the surface of the zeolite. Not "salt", just
one of the chemical components of it. Those are exchanged for
less-reactive calcium and magnesium ions in the water, so calcium
carbonate (or magnesium sulfate or whatever) gets turned into sodium
carbonate (or sodium sulfate or whatever) with a slight release of
energy. The calcium and magnesium ions then remain on the suface of
the zeolite until such time as it is regenerated by exposure to sodium
chloride at which time it picks up the sodium ions and the calcium
goes into the brine as calcium chloride.

So the softened water has no "salt" added, what is has is the existing
calcium and magnesium compounds turned into sodium compounds. The
quantity of the compounds doesn't change, what changes is their
chemical composition.

If you think that a water softener works by "adding salt" then try
adding salt to hard water and then have the hardness checked with and
without salt and see what you get.

--