Ok to place softener in well house?

[rafjr64]

So my well is approx 175" from my house. Currently the softener is in the house. Would like to free up some room and move it to the well house. Any reason I should not do this?

 

[TomFOhio]

How cold does it get in there. If the main water line doesn't freeze any then you should be OK. You don;t have
down where you are located at.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Usually there are outside sillcocks for garden watering etc that are not on the softener line.
With the softener at the well house, all the water would be softened.

 

[Zanne]

Jeff, if they have multiple lines going out & they are separated in the well house, the can run just the house's water through a softener. That is what we wanted to do but there wasn't much space for the water softener & our plumbers refused to even touch it.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Why would there be more than one 175 foot water line from the well house to the home?

 

[rafjr64]

Thank you guys. It hits 32 degrees now and then but the well is in a nice 10x12 building so, no it doesn't freeze in there. Not concerned about outdoor hose bibs as those are all on a different system separate from the well.

 

[Dshow]

Unless there is a heater in there... Murphy’s law says it will freeze at some point.

 

[Zanne]

Jeff, to clarify: Sometimes in well houses there is a main line and then it branches off to other lines that can be shut off individually. In my home's case since we have a workshop & barn as well as hose bibs out in the field we had ours split 3 ways. One went to the barn/workshop, another went to the house, and another went to the back fields/garden. Granted, I've got almost 32 acres so I have a lot of area to cover. For some homes they may just have two branches-- outdoor & indoor. It's smart bc if you get a break in an outdoor line you can shut off the water to the outside but still have water on the inside the house.
Having separate lines for indoor & outdoor can help if outdoor pipes freeze or if someone trespasses & runs a hose from your outdoor faucet to their trailer to steal your water (both of which happened to us-- shutting off outdoor water resolved it).

So, the OP could set up a softener just for the inside lines. I wonder if PEX could be used for a water softener to make it a bit easier to route things.

Editing to add that while it rarely gets below freezing where I live, it did start to get colder in recent years so we added a small ceramic heater (rated for outdoors) to the well shed- so you can have a heater. You can also have insulated walls to keep it warmer. So long as the lines inside don't freeze, water softener should work. Since many of them work using salt, I've heard they tend to corrode the anode rod in the water heater faster though.

 

[Jeff Handy]

All of that makes good sense.

My point was, because the well line is 175 feet, it seems unlikely they would have run two of those to the house from the well house.

So how are you going to split off softened and softened water to the house, if the softener is moved to the well house?
Just wondering, not nit picking.

They are already doing the branches inside the house with the softener there now.

 

[Zanne]

OP already said that the outside water is separate from the inside water. He specifically said he's not concerned about the outside as they are on a system separate from the well. Post #6.
I missed it at first as well, but went back and saw that so I know that only the indoor water would be softened. Wish I knew enough about softeners to know whether or not it would impact the pressure if it was moved.

 

[rafjr64]

Thx guys. It doesn't snow here so being in the well house should be fine. I have above ground pipes in there now and they don't freeze. As for pressure, that's a good question. The softener is 175' away from the pressure tank now and pressure is great. Could moving the softener closer to the pressure tank (literally right next to it) decrease the pressure delivered to the house?

 

[Jeff Handy]

I think yes, for sure.
If not pressure, then flow rate which matters more anyway.