Water Softener Help

Hey All
I bought a house with a water softener system installed. There is no on/off switch that I can find on the unit. There is also no separate non softened taps. Even the outdoor tap is hooked up to the softener. The whole plumbing system runs through this thing. The kitchen has a r/o system hooked to one tap.
I grow in super soil and have a separate r/o system hooked up to basement tap where I 'make' my water. Will the softened water run through a r/o system be ok to use? If I just unplug the unit will it discontinue softening? Like most, I have a lot invested in this crop and appriciate any experienced input.

water softeners that use salts are not ok, its not one of those is it?

Yes it is. Screw it I am getting my plumber to disconnect it

I had the same problem but luckily there was a bypass installed. For sure the directly softened water is no good for plants (or for drinking IMO). Your R/O system should do just fine running on softened water. Of course you may need calmag added back in but I'm sure you already know that. Are you on well water?

Good question!!! I been running my stealth 100 R/O system for a couple years and my house came with a water softener system so I knew R/O was a must.. Even put a kitchen R/O faucet on the sink and the ppm on the plain R/O water is at like 30 ppm..So yeah you should be fine.

SupraSPL said:

I had the same problem but luckily there was a bypass installed. For sure the directly softened water is no good for plants (or for drinking IMO). Your R/O system should do just fine running on softened water. Of course you may need calmag added back in but I'm sure you already know that. Are you on well water?

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I agree I dont even put salt in my water softener anymore.. It really didnt do shit for me it made my skin softer getting out the shower, oh and you use less soap and shampoo one tiny drop of shampoo with water softener made a ton of suds.

Doobius1 said:

Yes it is. Screw it I am getting my plumber to disconnect it

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Put a by-pass with shut off valves in. That way you can still have softened water if you want it.

Thanks for replies. Used water softener for sale. Cheap

Red1966 said:

Put a by-pass with shut off valves in. That way you can still have softened water if you want it.

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Best answer IMHO.

I have the softener, and RO system. I wound up going straight well water to my Blumats. Works great. Don't have salt from softened water and don't have to CalMag the RO water.

The RO will strip out most of the Cal/Mag, but if it hasn't been a problem, don't worry about it.

For anyone's interest, the RO will work better if softened first. The Ca and Mg is tough on the filters and you'll replace more often. The RO takes out the sodium (from the softener) pretty easily. I run a lot of RO this way for drinking.