In the Field · Part 4

Water treatment: where softeners are restricted in California, filtration, pressure regulators, and thermal expansion

Hard water is most of California, so softeners and filters are a steady add-on for a residential plumber, and they are the one product category the state lets local sanitation agencies ban. Health and Safety Code 116786 allows a local agency to prohibit self-regenerating softeners that discharge brine to the sewer where it finds the salt is a water-quality problem, and the Santa Clarita Valley did exactly that. This lesson covers the restriction and how to check it, the difference between a softener, a conditioner, and a filter and what each does and does not do, the drain and backflow rules that every treatment installation must meet, and the two devices that belong on every high-pressure house whether or not the customer buys treatment: the regulator and the expansion tank.