Possible to divert well water to avoid being softened?

Hello, just daydreaming here... maybe someone has ideas, or someone else can tell me it's impossible :)

We are on a well. Our water is naturally high in sodium, so we do drink some, but also use reverse osmosis for some drinking water.

Also, because of hardness and mineral buildup, we use a water softener. The pipes/taps/etc. would be in rough shape if we didn't.

But, I don't think the water softener water is that great for plants, and that's what comes out through the hose. We're in such a droughty spring and early summer right now, that I've had to do a lot of watering by the hose.

Little by little, I'm building a better system to hold water in the soil--organic matter, a little chop and drop, cover crops, leaves on top (but this is difficult, as the leaves sometimes blow away). Anyway, it's a long process and I'm not there. The soil is sandy, the sun is hot, I don't have enough cover material, my gardens are no longer very weedy, so there's not much to chop and drop. Next year I'll be even more on top of it.

However, this droughtiness is concerning me. There seems to be more and more of it where we live. Usually I can count on spring rains to soak the ground and water my plants and soil. Not this year. But I feel I'm ruining things with the water softened water too :(

SOOOOO, is there a way to attach something to the well to get a direct feed to water the gardens, rather than going through the house system (softener system)?

Thank you for any ideas!

You bet there is!  But it requires doing some plumbing work to run a new supply to your faucet.  

Starting after the pressure tank, there should be some length of piping before it gets to the water softener.  You can tap in anywhere along that stretch.  Then run new pipe to whichever (or all) faucets that you want to run that water to.  It's very dependent upon your particular piping installation but it's very doable.  It would require a plumber or someone moderately capable at doing plumbing work.

My best guess, is that your system is already set up the way that you want it. To me, it would seem like malpractice for a plumber to connect a garden faucet to the soft-water side of the plumbing system. If the piping is exposed, you can follow it to see what's actually connected to what.

Or, if the pipes are not exposed, and there is a valve at the water softener, you could turn that off, and see if the garden-faucet continues to flow.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:My best guess, is that your system is already set up the way that you want it. To me, it would seem like malpractice for a plumber to connect a garden faucet to the soft-water side of the plumbing system. If the piping is exposed, you can follow it to see what's actually connected to what.

Or, if the pipes are not exposed, and there is a valve at the water softener, you could turn that off, and see if the garden-faucet continues to flow.

Hmm, you know, that is possible. I'll try to figure it out. That would actually be such a relief. Thanks!

Hopefully the naturally high sodium content of the water is not problematic as well. My plants just seem unhappy in this drought.

Mike Haasl wrote:You bet there is!  But it requires doing some plumbing work to run a new supply to your faucet.  

Starting after the pressure tank, there should be some length of piping before it gets to the water softener.  You can tap in anywhere along that stretch.  Then run new pipe to whichever (or all) faucets that you want to run that water to.  It's very dependent upon your particular piping installation but it's very doable.  It would require a plumber or someone moderately capable at doing plumbing work.

Ok, that's great news! Now I just need to take a closer look at exactly what we've got here... Thank you!