I'm trying to find out some plumbing codes for the area we live in, which is Jefferson County, in New York. We had a home built last year, we closed on it in Aug. I'm having a problem with our water lines, we have a water softner system as well as a UV bacterial zapper... all water lines, which include two of the three outside spickets, run through the water softner and UV thing before coming out the faucet. I believe we should have two water lines in the kitchen, a hard water and a soft water line. I've been doing some reading on soft water and it shouldn't be used to cook or drink. I believe bottom line, our builder, in order to save money, had all water lines running off the main line, rather than running alternate lines to the kitchen and outside spickets. I would really like to know if there are any codes requiring a hard water line in the kitchen. Also, keep this in mind, after we purchased the home we found out a plumbing inspection had not been done, but a Certificate of Occupancy was issued. Somebody please enlighten me... thanks

I have never heard of any state or code that requires both a hard water and a soft water line installed in the kitchen of a home.
Why do you not think soft water is good to drink or to cook with? Actually I agree with that statement because the hardness is removed by the mineral in the softener and then the mineral is back washed by brine water. Unless you have a very long back wash cycle there is going to be a lot of salt remaining in the softened water. Unless you wanted to run a hard water line over to the kitchen area my suggestion would be to install a reverse osmosis filtration system under your sink and use that water for cooking or drinking. But my personal choice is to drink the unfiltered water so that you body will get some of the trace elements that we need and is not left in our prepared foods so many people eat today.

I had a water softener and it went through the whole house. We drank it, cooked with it, cleaned with it. Did everything with it. Never heard about soft water not being good to use for drinking water or cooking.

Joe

Hi!

We've had a hard water line in our home for three years and have always noticed the plumbing residue and hard water soap lines in the tub and sinks. My husband has remodeled one of the bathrooms with natural stone and we're recently replaced a dishwasher and clothes washer and we've been told to protect these recent upgrades, we should install a soft water system. I can honestly say, our detergents are much more effective and our skin is much less dry as a result of the change from hard to soft. However, I've also been told the additional sodium can make you more thirsty and bloated feeling (via water retention) if you drink it regularly. We use a PUR filtration system anyway, so hopefully we're getting less of that, and we now drink bottled spring water so, I'm hoping these symptoms will subside as well. Additional sodium can be an issue for those with blood pressure issues, and they may want to check with their physicians to be sure this isn't an issue, but as far as drinking and cooking with it, we haven't had any problems yet.

I am sorry that I just logged on here and wasn't here back when these original questions were being raised. As far as your whole house being plumbed with soft water that can be kind of irritating especially if you use your outside taps to water the lawn and so forth, (you are using a lot of soft water that way and I the hard water is better for plants) As far as drinking it and using it to cook with. That is a different matter. It is actually better to cook with simply because if you have teflon or non stick pans you won't have a hard water minerals etched in your pans from boiling water in them. And even though it doesn't taste all that great soft water for most people will not hurt them.
The facts about salt is that an efficient softener should add about 1.6% more sodium into the water than is already in there.

I would recommend the same thing that letmetellu said, get reverse osmosis system for your drinking water. And then enjoy cooking and cleaning with the good soft water.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade right?

I agree, the reason most spigots and cold water lines aren't using soft water is for cost savings. The amount of aditional salt in softwater will not hard you by drinking or cooking with it. It is not great for plants but most can tolerate this low level of salt, its just a waste of money to water your lawn with soft water. It uses up a lot of brine and your system likely regenerates on a scheduled cycle which will now not meet your needs.

In the custom homes that I plumb I install a cold hard water line to the area under the sink. I also make sure that the outside faucets are all on the hard water line except one soft water faucet near the driveway to the garage for washing cars. Also the commodes are all connected to hard water.

Earlier I didn't mention the fact that people with high blood pressure should not drink water from the water softener system.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by letmetellu

In the custom homes that I plumb I install a cold hard water line to the area under the sink. I also make sure that the outside faucets are all on the hard water line except one soft water faucet near the driveway to the garage for washing cars. Also the commodes are all connected to hard water.

Earlier I didn't mention the fact that people with high blood pressure should not drink water from the water softener system.

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So you pre-plumb all of the commodes to the hard water as well? By commodes you are meaning the toilets, correct? May I ask why? Just out of curiosity.
This is why I enjoy places like this. They allow us to see other peoples experiences and adapt our own to be more efficient. Thank you for sharing letmetellu.

Mainly to save on the salt and to make a re-charge last longer.

And yes I did mean the toilets.