Hi All,

First post here, but always enjoyed reading and learning from many of the experts on this board.

I recently purchased the Kenmore Elite Hybrid Water Softener and had it installed yesterday. I had a certified plumber in to do the work, and after searching through the basement (which is finished), the only spot that would work from a plumbing perspective was in the same closet as the sump pump (that is also where the main water line comes into the house as well). The plumber advised that this particular water softener would be fine with discharging into the sump pump and that he did the same thing with his house.

The pump already drains into a dry creek, so I'm not worried about the grass being killed. What worries me is hearing that the discharging can damage my actual sump pump. Did the plumber really give me good information stating that THIS particular softener is fine to drain into the sump pump, or did he just cause me a lot of furture damage down ther road?

Thank you all in advance for the help with this!

John

P.S. - I've been trying to search as much as possible about this specific softener/water purifier in regards to the discharge amount/contents, but have had little to no luck.

Does this water softener use salt? If so, you're discharging salt water into the dry creek bed.

Here is a paper from Rhode Island on the subject. You might search for something similar from your state or local government. In RI at least it isn't illegal to dump it on the ground, though they prefer a dry well. Link is a pdf.

http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs...ll/pdfs/backwash.pdf

The softener does use salt. I should also mention that when I say dry creek, it is a bed of rock that we built on our property. It is not dumping into common ground or anything. We just put the rock there for general runoff from the sump pump. I'm more worried about the salt dumping into the pump. On one hand I have a plumber saying its no problem. On the other hand I've read that it's no big deal...and others saying its not good at all.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JohnG83,

While RI apparently allows it, it is not the best practice. Your state may have different regulations than RI so you might want to check with them to make sure you're not running afoul of their clean water requirements. The link I provided has a lot of good information on the subject and the problems with different ways of disposing of the water.

Are you on a well or city water? Do you have sanitary sewers or your own septic tank?

Thanks for the good info thus far. I'll look into my state regulations. I am on a city sewer system, but the plumber couldn't fit the softener close to my center drain in the house due to the way the basement was finished. I looked at the manual and it stated that using a sump is fine. I'm just worried about causing damage to the pump.