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Nothing can ruin your day more than a leak in the plumbing that you cannot find or figure out why it is happening. Plumbing and pipes are one of my least favorite things but understanding everything about them so they are not as intimidating is crucial to saving you time, money, and a headache.

Your water softener is no exception, and the more you know and understand about it, the better off you will be. Here are the different types of leaks you can expect, along with how to fix them.

Can A Water Softener Leak?

Yes, the water softener can leak. And depending on how big a leak, can be a serious problem. Anything that involves plumbing and water has a chance of leaking.

Whether it is at a connection point that did not have the right amount of Teflon tape, a pipe cracked for one reason or another, or an overflow of a tank, there are multiple ways that a water softener has a chance of leaking.

That is only a couple of ways that a water softener can leak through. There are many other ways because of all the different parts that are involved with water softeners and different system setups and installations.

How Can you Tell if You Water Softener is Leaking?

The easiest sign to tell if your water softener is leaking is water forming a puddle on the ground around where it is installed.

Another is potentially regeneration taking longer due to less water being available for it due to the water leak. Here are the different ways that it will leak and how to diagnose and solve them.

Common Water Softener Leaking – Reasons And Solutions

Water Softener Bypass Valve Leaking

You will know if the bypass valve is leaking because you will start to see some mineral deposits buildup around where the leak is on the valve.

If you have O-rings in the valve, they may need to be replaced, while some softeners come with kits for rebuilding your bypass valve on the off chance that it starts leaking or goes bad. The last option you have would be to just buy a new bypass valve.

Leaking Water Softener Resin Tank

You will know if you have a resin tank leak by either having a crack somewhere that is letting water drip out or at one of the connection lines that it has.

If it is the tank itself, check if you still have a warranty on it, and you can talk with the company that the warranty is with to replace the damaged one. If it is not under warranty anymore, you can turn off the water softener, clean and dry the tank, and then use a strong waterproof epoxy that handles salt well and applies it on the crack to seal it properly.

If it is at a connection point for the resin tank, see if tightening it works. If not, you can check the O-ring to make sure it is in proper working order and if not replace it.

Water Softener Drain Line Leaking

Drain lines can be installed improperly or overtime becomes blocked and crack or burst. Check to make sure that the drain line has the proper amount of air gap and was correctly installed.

If it was installed properly, then you will be able to rule the air gap out. If you notice a trickle of water following the drain line, follow it until it stops, that will be where the crack or issue begins.

You will need to check for blockage that may have caused the cracking or just replace the drain line altogether. Either way, this is a big problem that will need to get fixed right away if this ever happens.

Water Softener Leaking at Top

There will be two main culprits if your water softener is leaking from the top.

The first being a rotor valve issue. This is how the water softener receives water. The older the system you have, the higher the chance that this will be the issue. If it is cracked, you will need to replace it. If it is not cracked, check the O-ring to make sure it is working well and get a replacement to fit and check if that was the problem.

The second being the O-rings in the bypass valve. If these have not been getting lubricated frequently enough by you or a professional as scheduled maintenance, they may just need some lubrication. If they have been neglected for a long time, then you may need replacements before they normally fail at the 15-20 year marks.

Water Softener Leaking from Brine Tank

You will know if your brine tank is leaking for a couple of reasons.

The first reason being that you will have a nice sized leak coming directly from the bottom or side of the tank. There is a good chance you had just done schedule maintenance on it and clean it up from the salt bridge that you had found inside if this is the case.

You can use an epoxy rated for this repair after you have done proper prep work on the tank and cleaned it all out, and prepped the surface to be ready for setting an epoxy.

The second reason would be a crack in it due to a faulty tank. If this is the case, check your warranty to see if the tank is still within warranty.

If it is contact the company the warranty is with to get a replacement. Even if it is not within the warranty anymore, you may want to call them to see if there is a way to get a free replacement. If you cannot get one for free, they may offer you a discount on it.

Water Softener Leaking Overflow

If you are having overflow issues, there are a multitude of reasons for it.

Stuck brine tank float or defective control head:

• This is where it will overfill the brine tank because it does not know to stop. You will need to replace the tank float valve.
• Check the brine line and make sure that it is properly attached to the float inside the tank.
• Check for obstructions in the lines or valves and clear them out if they are present.
• Make sure the drain line is not blocking the flow of the brine line and causing the overflow.

Water Softener O Ring Leak

If the O-ring has not been properly maintained with lubricant, then you may need to lubricate the O-rings to make them work properly again. Depending on the age of the O-rings, they may have failed as well and need replacing altogether.

Lubricate them first to see if that fixes them, but if it becomes a consistent issue, replace them, and make sure the new ones are still fully lubricated every 6-12 months or every time the casing is opened and exposing them to air.

Water Softener Hose Leaking

If you think your hose is leaking, you can do the following:
Check the connection if you think it is coming from the hose and see if it is coming directly from where it is connected. If it is, you can simply tighten it to see if it fixes the issue.

Hoses can wear down over time and it may not be the connection. If it is the hose itself, and hot a crack that is fixable in the hose, then it is time to replace the hose. Just make sure you disconnect power and turn off the water to it so that you can do the repair and swap out the hoses.

Water Softener Resin Tank Leaking from Bottom

If the resin tank is leaking from the bottom, you most likely have a cracked tank for one reason or another.

The easy way to fix this is to turn off the water softener and clean the tank properly. Then you can mark and follow the crack to see how big it is and if it is repairable or not. If you will need to get epoxy that is rated for the job, and then prep the cracked areas that the epoxy will be applied to work properly for the epoxy.

How Much Does It Cost to Fix a Water Softener?

This answer is two-fold

What type of repair is needed? If you know the repair that is needed, depending on how difficult or easy it is, that will change it from being $5-10 for a new O-ring to more expensive replacement parts that go into the hundreds.

Hiring out or DIY? If you are hiring out then the labor for a professional who has all the knowledge and can repair it in 10 minutes will charge for an entire hour or two of their time to ensure that no hiccups happen that cause more issues.

If you are doing the repair yourself, all you need to factor in is the time of the repair and the cost for materials.

Should I Call A Professional to Fix the Water Softener Leak?

I would go through and check the simple things that you can and find where the leak is first. Depending on what type of leak you have and if you the simple fixes did not work and you are not comfortable repairing yourself or do not have the time, I would go ahead and call a professional to fix it.

Keep in mind some warranties may require professionals to service the water softeners and doing any repairs yourself may void the warranties if they can tell that it is altered at all from the original parts.

Final Thoughts

The more common problems that will arise from water softeners can often be fixed without calling in a professional.

If you are handy, you will most likely never need to call in a professional unless a leak has decided to flood your basement. A professional will cost a nice chunk, but if you are ever unsure and the simple checks or fixes did not work for the leaks, it is time to call them and have them fix the problem.

There is nothing wrong with getting a second pair of eyes on the problem to help solve the leaking issue you are having with your water softener.

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There is some conflicting information with the safety of softened water and hard water safety and if they are safe to drink, which is understandable since water is one of the most important things in life.

We will look at how both are safe to drink for the majority of people, how the minerals in hard water do not absorb into our bodies very easily, and how to get the salt removed from the softened water if there are health concerns.

Can You Drink Water from a Water Softener?

You can most certainly drink water from a water softener. You cannot only drink water from a water softener but depending on the hardness of your water originally, it will put little to no salt in the water. Meaning you can drink water that has almost no effect on your daily consumption of salt.

The harder the water, the more salt goes into softening water and in turn, puts more salt in your drinking water. For cases where your water is very hard (10 grains or more), there is a possibility of the excess sodium amounts to be in your water.

If you have health concerns or dietary restrictions, then this is where you may need to find a different water source for your daily needs.

How Do Water Softeners Treat Hard Water?

Water softeners treat hard water by creating an ion exchange where the minerals that make up hard water are removed and exchanged for sodium getting put into the system.

Ion-exchange water softeners are going to be the only softeners that end up removing the majority of minerals from the water instead of just some of them or just preventing scaling on pipes.

You can get two types of pellets for water softeners to perform this ion exchange. One will be a salt-based pellet that will be cheaper, and then there will be a potassium-based pellet that will be more expensive. Both pellets will be the only products in ion-exchange softeners that will truly treat hard water and remove minerals.

Which Water Is Better to Drink Hard Water or Soft Water and Why?

For drinking water, it will depend on factors from health, to taste, to feel.

If you have health conditions or dietary restrictions with salt, then depending on how much salt is in your water from softening it, hard water will be better for you to drink.
The minerals in hard water will not hurt you at all because of them being inorganic. Meaning your body will have a difficult time absorbing and utilizing them and the health benefits can be negligible for hard water.

If you like the taste and feel of hard water, then hard water will get you to drink more water, so it would be a better choice for you.If you like the taste and feel of soft water and have no dietary restrictions with salt, then soft water will get you to drink more and be the better option.

Drinking Softened Water Side Effects

If you are using salt-based instead of potassium-based ion exchange for creating soft water, some of the side effects can arise. You are adding extra salt to your daily intake, which can create health concerns for high blood pressure or diabetes.

• You will be losing a mineral source for calcium and magnesium that may need to be supplemented in other dietary changes.
• You may not like to drink soft water anymore due to the taste changing completely for it. This can be remedied easily enough by adding some fresh lemon, a pinch of apple cider vinegar, or making tea more often.
• You may have extra iron or lead in your water from the water softener depending on the type of pipes you have. You will need an extra filter and to clean your water softener more often to remedy this.

Can You Filter Softened Water for Drinking?

You can filter softened water for drinking, so it does not have the added sodium or potassium that the ion-exchange adds to the water. In the ion-exchange process, the particles are too small for normal filters, so you will need to get a reverse osmosis filter installed where you want to drink water from.

You can filter the water in small batches using the only other filtering method with distilling the water. Distilling is boiling water and collecting the steam and condensing it. While this will become pure water, it will also be very time and energy-consuming. The better method that still costs time and maintenance to replace filters will be the more expensive reverse osmosis filter.

How to Make Softened Water Drinkable

If you have no issues with the taste, feel, or having a little added sodium to your diet then your softened water is perfectly fine to drink already. You can make softened water drinkable by doing a couple of different things:

A Hard Water Tap: This will allow you to have close to the same tasting water as before and allow everywhere else in your house to have soft water still.

Reverse Osmosis Filter: This is the preferred solution so as to have as pure of drinking water as possible since you will only be filtering out sodium or potassium with the already soft water going to your faucet and allowing the filter to last a long time.

Distilling Water: This is for those who just need a little bit of water and have the time and energy to perform this labor-intensive task.

The easiest solution if you just do not like the taste and are fine with a little added salt to your diet, then making it into a tea or adding fruit for added flavor will be the healthiest and most nutrition-rich solutions easy to do.

Frequently Asked Questions and Answered

How to Drink Softened Water?

If you have no dietary restrictions, you will be perfectly fine to drink softened water that has added sodium to it. If you do not like the taste you can get a hard water tap, or a reverse osmosis filter, or add in more nutrients by drinking tea or adding fruits to your water when you drink it.

Is It Safe to Drink Softened Water When Pregnant?

There are no clear signs or evidence for the effects of softened water being dangerous at all to drink while pregnant. With that, you should not use soft water to prepare baby feed for the first six weeks for a newborn.

Adding sodium can affect newborns and their kidneys since they have not developed enough and no longer have your kidneys filtering out salt for them.

Is It Safe to Drink Water Softened with Potassium Chloride?

If you have kidney disease or are seriously compromised in health, you can have an adverse reaction to too much extra potassium in your diet.

For the majority of people, the added potassium will not only help them and be healthier but will end up helping their gardens and yards as well since potassium is a vital piece of nutrition for different vegetation as a bonus.

Is It Safe to Drink Filtered Softened Water?

It is very safe to drink filtered water, especially when you are drinking water that has gone through a reverse osmosis filter. Drinking water from one of these filters is one of the purest forms of water you will get on tap.

Is Soft Water Good for Your Skin?

Your skin will not know how much to thank you for no longer having all the extra minerals from hard water drying it out and causing oil imbalances from overproduction or underproduction of the oils your skin uses to stay healthy. It may even be the first time your skin will really feel silky smooth and not squeaky or dry.

Final Thoughts

Despite popular belief, the minerals in hard water are difficult for our bodies to absorb since they are inorganic and not primed for body absorption. Softened water will not have that much salt in it compared to some other drinks if it is not working overtime to remove minerals.

If you have a low salt diet or dietary restrictions for health, there are ways to remove the salt from your softened drinking water.

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Knowing if your water softener is working is a crucial part of maintenance and is not always talked about when you purchase it or is explained poorly.

If you know more about what can go wrong with your water softener along with how it works, you have a better chance of fixing problems right away when they happen.

Water Softener Basic Functionality

Depending on what type of water softener you get the function is a little different. They all do the main function of keeping scaling in pipes from happening and helping your water from having as many minerals inside the water.

Only one type of water softener works to completely remove minerals that make water hard though instead of filtering them out or changing their charges, so they do not build up in your pipes at all.

Ion-exchange water softeners are the only ones that mark all the boxes to truly make soft water soft and remove minerals completely from the water. The minerals swap the chemical bonds between the salt and the resin beads, and the salt is released from bonds while minerals are trapped, creating soft water that is better for skin and hair equilibrium overall compared to hard water.

How to Tell If Your Water Softener Is Working

To know you have a water softener working properly, you can do a couple of different things.
Check it when it will regenerate: If your water softener is not regenerating or using salt and you are not needing to fill up the salt when you used too, you may have an issue with your water softener will need to check.

Check for hard water signs:

• Has your water gone back to leaving water spots on dishes and in the bathrooms?
• Has your laundry gone back to being a little stiffer?
• Have you been noticing dry skin after showering again?
• Have faucets started to have mineral deposits again?

Running a Soap Test: Checking for suds from soap is something you could do at home very easily without the need to go to the store for a hard water testing kit and be a guide for if your water softener is working desired just as easily.

1. Fill a water bottle to almost full of tap water from your faucet
2. Add 10 drops of liquid soap
3. Shake the bottle

Check for suds. If suds do not appear when you have a water softener with around 10 drops of liquid soap, you may need to get a test kit to see how hard your water is.

What Are the Signs a Softener Is Not Working Properly?

There are a couple of different signs to note when a water softener is not working properly.

Squeaky hands: Hands feel sticky after washing them, or a little dry.
Seeing Signs of hard water: Signs of hard water returning are almost always a sign of something wrong with the water softener.
Water tastes Salty: The water begins to taste saltier than normal, it may be regenerating too often.
Brine Tank of Out of Salt: If your brine tank is out of salt, it has no way to regenerate and continue to produce soft water.
Water Softener is not working at all: This is when you call in a professional to take a look to service it if you have ruled out all the minor issues it may be pieces that have worn out for your softener that need to be replaced.

What Factors Affect Water Softener Performance?

You will have a couple of different factors that can affect water softener performance.

Excessive Salt Buildup: When the proper maintenance is not done often enough, salt buildups that affect softener performance can occur.

Resin Bead Quality: Over time these will eventually wear out and stop working how they originally functioned even with proper care. When these wear out they cannot be repaired and will make the water softener eventually not be able to function even if everything else is working perfectly.

Motor: All motors eventually stop working due to having a certain range for life due to it being mechanical. This is a piece that will need to be replaced when it decides to stop working altogether.

Filter: If the filter is clogged that keeps hard minerals out of your water softener, then your water softener will need to be cleaned more frequently and lose efficiency more often.

Salt Bridges: Salt is what makes them work, but also what can make them no longer work. Salt bridges cause water flow issues, and all is needed is to break them up to allow water to flow through again normally.

Frequently Asked Questions And Answered

Is My Softener Working If It is Full of Water?

It may work for a little bit, but after too much time, it will fail to work and start having issues to where it will no longer be making soft water due to not being able to drain properly.

How to Tell if Whirlpool Water Softener is Working?

You can tell if your whirlpool water softener is working by checking to see how much salt is in its week to week and if it is going down at all or not. If it is then it is regenerating.

Another thing you can do is a manual regeneration to see if it runs and is working properly.

The last easy thing to make sure that your water softener is working is to do a soap test to make sure that you have soft water.

Can You Put Too Much Salt in a Water Softener?

Yes, you can put too much salt in a water softener. You need to leave at least 4-6 inches unfilled for salt in the brine tank, if not more, depending on what the manual says for the water softener that you buy.

Why is My Water Softener Brine Tank Dirty?

By creating soft water, you are taking out impurities from the water and filtering them out, along with getting minerals out with the ion exchange. This means that you can catch dirt or grime in the tank as well.

You may also have a full filter that needs to be changed to do its job again and keep the bigger particles and impurities out of the water.

Final Thoughts

Many things can go wrong with a water softener, and knowing more about what can go wrong and checking to make sure that it is working properly before having to call on someone else to come service it can help save you a lot of money.

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Being conscious of how much water we use is a very important thing on a large scale. The more efficient we are with water, the less our bills are, the more water everyone has access too, less stress on water treatment plants, and cleaner water for the environment. So how much water does a water softener add to a family’s weekly usage?

How Much Water Does a Water Softener Use?

This depends on a couple of different factors.

Types of water softeners systems: It depends on your type of water softener and what brand you bought. If you have a dual tank system or an on-demand system, they can be more efficient than a single tank system for your water waste.

If you have an on-demand system, it will use less water and less salt per regeneration and conserve more water than one that must do a full, intense regeneration each time.

How often regeneration happens: If your family uses more water each day or got an improperly sized water softener system, then your water softener will have to regenerate more and dispose of spent water each time. The amount per regeneration can be between 25-65 gallons of water.

Except for regeneration, your water softener does not really use any extra water than what you are putting through it. If you are frugal with water use, your water softener will overall be frugal with its water use.

How Much Extra Water Does Water Softener Use?

Water softeners do not use much extra water at all. Say your water softener is to regenerate once a week based on your water usage, and you have an on-demand system that is highly efficient with how it uses water for regeneration.

You will only be using about 50 extra gallons a week at most for regeneration for keeping it working right.

If you have water usage that makes your system need to regenerate, say, 3 times a week, and you have a single tank system, you could be looking at an extra 150 gallons a week. this is a lot of extra water that will affect your water bill at the end of the month.

Water Softener Backwash Volume

You will have the most amount of water used during regeneration in two different parts. The first is the bringing and the second is during the backwash portion.

The backwash is going to last around 10 minutes, and in that 10 minutes, you will end up having multiples flushing of water to get the tank cleared of brine water. This means depending on the size of your tank and type of system; you will have anywhere from 20-30 gallons used all the way to 40-60 gallons used during this.

The difference in the amount of water you will use every year, depending on how efficient your water softener system is will be significant.

If you have a weekly regeneration and have one that uses 30 gallons for backwash, that amounts to 6,240 gallons of water a year. But if you have one that uses 60 gallons, it will double and go up to 12,480 gallons of water. That amount of extra water costs will be in the water bill through the year for sure.

What Would Cause Your Water Bill to Increase?

Water bills will increase for a couple of different reasons.

A leak in your toilet: This is where a lot of families will end up having increased water bills and not realize it. Toilets use about a quarter of all the water in most households already, so if you leak, it could significantly raise your water bill.

A dripping faucet: A dripping faucet can waste almost 20 gallons of water a day. It can be more or less, depending on how fast it is dripping.

A broken pipe or leak: A broken pipe or leak can cause major water issues and significantly raise your water bills, and depending on where you live, it may be a while based on the type of ground soil your area has.

Water Softener problems: If you are having problems with your water softener where it cycles continuously or has a leak, or is regenerating way too often, then you can have a big increase in water bills as well.

Hose leaks: When you are watering your lawn or garden, if you have any leaks or punctures in your hoses, you can see an increase in water bills as well.

Final Thoughts

You can have water that is better for your health as a whole and still be using less water if you are cognizant of what type of water softener you buy and what type of salt you use. By getting a more efficient water softener and using the right salt and doing proper maintenance, you use the least amount of water that a water softener can use.

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When asking if all water softeners need a drain, the answer is yes. How we get to the yes is a different matter. This is because there are different types of water filters that can help act as water softeners for your house that help prevent scaling in your pipes with no need for a drain.

That is the very small category of water softeners since all other types need drains and drain hoses to work. Make sure it is all installed properly.

The wrong setup or misunderstanding of how water softeners need drains can cause headaches and added costs that no one wants. We will break down the three main parts of water softeners systems with the drain lines, the drain, and the air gap in further detail and shed some light on frequently asked questions.

Why Does a Water Softener System Need a Drain Hose/Line?

A drain hose or line is required to properly take care of the spent water that is being discharged. It allows for the water to go to a drain without issues arising and allows for less maintenance.
Without a drain hose/line you will have problems with discharge and overflow. The drain hose is how the spent water (brine) from the water softener can be discharged without issues arising.

If you were to only have a water line feeding hard water to the water softener, you would have either water overflow all over your floor or water line issues. Waterline issues would occur because of spent water trying to go back into the hard water line potentially.

Type of Drain Required

When getting a drain and drain line setup, there are some specifics to keep in mind to have it run smoothly. The drain line size that is considered the best practice would be a ½” polypropylene drain pipe.

To go along with this, the best drain options will be a laundry tray, a floor drain, or a properly trapped outlet (an example would be a dry well in the lawn). Make sure to check local laws if there are restrictions on drains you can use.

Laundry tray

This is what some will call a utility sink, laundry tub, etc. When draining into a laundry tray, it functions as an air gap for you to where you do not need the air gap anymore.
It is versatile and useful for other reasons as well and not just for use as a drain for water softeners. If you have space and time, it may be worth looking into getting a laundry tray installed.

Floor Drain

If you have a floor drain, then this is the most common drain that people will drain the water softeners into.

You will need to check codes for your local area to make sure it is allowed, unfortunately. This is due to most of them going to sewer systems. And if they do not go to sewer systems, they can go to sump pumps, waterways that go to the ground outside, etc. It depends on how the water systems have been built in your cities and neighborhoods.

Properly Trapped Outlets

If you are tying directly to an outlet instead of having a drain line, you will need a properly trapped outlet (commonly known in plumbing as p-traps).

This is to keep sewer smells or anything from coming backward in the plumbing. For outlets, you can tie it to a sewer line or create a dry well in the yard with a p-trap.

If using a dry well for the trapped outlets it would need to be under the freeze line (if applicable for your area) and need to be big enough storage capabilities for estimated weekly water output.

This means if you have a system regenerate once a week at 50 gallons of water used, you will need to have at least a 55-gallon drum if not two, to ensure the water has time to leach into the ground between uses.

The last thing you will need to do is get a soil test. This is to make sure that it is not going to be put into clay soil, or gets put deep enough so that it is able to leach water into the ground properly.

Where Do I Drain My Water Softener?

For draining your water softener, you will be looking at a couple of different options. These options do limit where you are able to have the water softener because of regulations in most areas to protect a community’s water from getting contaminated.

The locations to drain them will be to a floor drain, a washing machine, a utility sink, or a sump pit. Keep in mind if you drain it into a sump pit it can void warranties on your sump pump.

How to Install a Water Softener Drain Line

When you are installing a drain line for a water softener, you will need to have two lines.

The first one will be installed to the control valve so that the backwash water is disposed of during the regeneration cycle.

When that line is finished being installed, you will want to connect the other tube to the brine tank and led to the drain that is being used for the water softener. This line will serve as an overflow drain.

They will both be sent to the same home drain but make sure not to have them directly connected. Otherwise, that would defeat the purpose of having them separate.

Frequently Asked Questions and Answered

How Often Does a Water Softener Drain?

A water softener will change how much it drains depending on how much water you and your family use.

It depends on the hardness of your water and the capacity of your resin tank as well. On average, every three days and up to a week will be the expected time-frequency for how often the water softener will drain.

If you have a more efficient softener, then it will be closer to every 3 days timespan.

If you have an older system, your capacity for spent water will go down, and it will need to regenerate more often, so with an older system, you may have it regenerate multiple times a day.

Can I Drain my Water Softener Outside?

It will depend on what type of laws are in place for your local areas. Some allow it still, and some do not. If it is allowed, you will not be able to grow plants or grass where the discharge is sent. The discharge will make the soil unable to support plant life for most areas in the United States.

The way to do it without killing the lawn is going to require digging a dry well in your yard. This will have the discharge be sent further down into the ground to not hurt any plant life in your yard. Installing a dry well is the only option that does not need to be checked for local laws.

Should A Water Softener Drain into the Septic System?

This is another question that depends on what your local laws are. Some allow it and advise it to track the water softener usage.

While others do not allow water softeners to drain into them at all for fear of them causing damage to the septic systems. From all the information that is out there, if that is the easiest location to do the drain install for the spent water will cause negligible effects.

If you have other options available that are not a hindrance at all, it would be suggested to go with those that are more common drain locations with a floor drain or utility sink or laundry tray.

Can I Drain My Water Softener into My Sump Pump?

While this is a viable option with how it will discharge the brine into the yard wherever the sump pump line ends, it is not suggested. This is due to sump pumps not being designed with materials that will hold up to brine water and will deteriorate the sump pump.

It will most likely void any warranties that you have on the sump pump as well. All the negatives that can happen due to using your sump pump to get rid of the brine water from the water softener would suggest that an alternative should be used.

Recap

Not all water softeners require a drain, but ones that do not act more like filters than softeners. This means water softeners will require a drain, and with that comes rules and regulations for how drains and drain lines can be set up.

Some areas will allow for discharge in septic systems; some will not. If not, your best options are floor drains, a sump pit, a dry well in your yard outside, or the laundry tray.

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