Water Softener Loop - Which Side is Supply?

[M3Jake]

Hello friends. I need some help identifying which side is the supply side in a new-home water softener loop.

We just moved into a new construction house in Casa Grande Arizona and I'm about to install a filter/softener system. Is there a trick to identifying which side is the supply side (from the street)?

I'm about to climb in the attic, but I was hoping someone might know a better/easier way. At first I thought I'd just turn off the water from the street, cut the loop, then crack it open and let it self identify, but there must be some cool plumber's trick out there.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tryagain]

Water Softener Loop

I just bought a new home that is pre-plumbed for a water softener. I am trying to install a water softener myself but when I asked the builder which side of the loop was the inlet and which was the outlet, he didn't know, nor did he know how to figure it out. He said the plumber is not...

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[Reach4]

As you face the wall, most softeners have the input on the right. Softener loops, if there is a convention, will have the input on the right. Same as for water heaters.

 

[ditttohead]

Water softener loops are rarely universal. The only way to know is to cut the pipe and turn the water on to see what side the water comes from.
Fleck and Clack are inlet right, outlet left, Erie and Autotrol are the opposite, so definitely not universal.

 

[Jeff H Young]

I got careless hooked one up wrong by using common sence like reach 4 mentioned the softener is marked and the piping coming out the wall who knows could have been whatever way was most convieniant to the plumber why waste a bunch of 1 inch 90s pipe and labor roughing in for the unkown? Id follow Dittoheads advice!

 

[ditttohead]

Hooking up a softener backwards can end badly. Resin pushing through the top diffuser, flooding the house with resin... not fun to fix. Sadly I did this too my own dads house 25 years ago, it took several years before the top diffuser failed... I spent many hours fixing his plumbing.

 

[Jeff H Young]

once for me too not afraid to admit a failure , got in a hurry no damage though