Im in central florida so the original water softener that was installed with the house (2001) was placed outside at the time the house was built by the original owner. It was an old rain soft system. It appears they grabbed the incoming line from the city water before entering house based upon what i see under the ground near there as i just trenched an electrical run recently.
Im getting ready to replace that unit and i was curious how they drain these outside systems in florida. So i have the incoming and return lines coming out of the ground and an additional pvc pipe buried in the ground that is being used for the drain. Looks to be 3/4 pvc with the black drain tubing from the softener placed inside that pipe. It doesnt feel connected to anything as i can move the drain tube up and down a little.
I was pushing and pulling the drain tubing a little bit to see how deep it was going just to get an idea of whats there. It feels line the pvc drain is making an elbow or something not far under ground. As i push it i can hear the tubing making contact with something, i assume its the elbow.
Couple of questions...
1. What does this setup look like under ground? Does this pvc pipe lead to some kind of dry well or french drain further away from the house? Excuse my ignorance, i was googling and it seems that they are sometimes used for softeners. Im going to assume its not going to the septic since that is on the front of the house and this is the backside and i didnt see any pipes returning that direction (other than city water) while trenching the electrical run.
2. I saw manuals on softeners/filters show an airgap neccessary for the drain tube from softener. With the tubing pushed into this pipe, is it really an airgap? Or do i need to modify this a little bit?
3. I would like to slap a carbon filter out here too. Would i be ok to utilize this drain for both assuming backwashing schedules dont conflict?
4. Do i need to account for if something backs up to prevent backwash from entering the other unit? Im guessing thats what the airgap is for and i need to modify the above?
Thanks for the help.
Im getting ready to replace that unit and i was curious how they drain these outside systems in florida. So i have the incoming and return lines coming out of the ground and an additional pvc pipe buried in the ground that is being used for the drain. Looks to be 3/4 pvc with the black drain tubing from the softener placed inside that pipe. It doesnt feel connected to anything as i can move the drain tube up and down a little.
I was pushing and pulling the drain tubing a little bit to see how deep it was going just to get an idea of whats there. It feels line the pvc drain is making an elbow or something not far under ground. As i push it i can hear the tubing making contact with something, i assume its the elbow.
Couple of questions...
1. What does this setup look like under ground? Does this pvc pipe lead to some kind of dry well or french drain further away from the house? Excuse my ignorance, i was googling and it seems that they are sometimes used for softeners. Im going to assume its not going to the septic since that is on the front of the house and this is the backside and i didnt see any pipes returning that direction (other than city water) while trenching the electrical run.
2. I saw manuals on softeners/filters show an airgap neccessary for the drain tube from softener. With the tubing pushed into this pipe, is it really an airgap? Or do i need to modify this a little bit?
3. I would like to slap a carbon filter out here too. Would i be ok to utilize this drain for both assuming backwashing schedules dont conflict?
4. Do i need to account for if something backs up to prevent backwash from entering the other unit? Im guessing thats what the airgap is for and i need to modify the above?
Thanks for the help.
