I've just bought my first house in the country on a well & septic.

One project was to run 1 1/4" abs pipe from my sump pump to the outdoors. It runs 6' up to the basement ceiling then 21' to the backyard. It drops 5 1/2" along the way.

That went so well I got the idea of combining the water softener drain line to this pipe using a dishwasher wye.
All seemed good then I noticed the force of the sump pump discharge would push back along the WS drain...just an inch or so then things would settle.

There's not a lot of room up there for a standpipe, even a short one so I was thinking of some sort of mechanical vent "upstream" of the wye fitting, does this look like a solution?


I know I'm not allowed to tie the WS drain into a sewage line without an air gap & trap/standpipe but this is a slightly different deal. I don't want to siphon this stuff into the water softener.

That is about the worst idea you have ever had. You will not "siphon" the water into the softener, the pump's pressure will PUSH it into the softener. You CANNOT combine the two drains.

since the water softener drain is only 1/2 inch, why not just run a length of 1/2 inch vinyl drain hose along side the pump discharge pipe? just tie wrap them together.

Quote"That is about the worst idea you have ever had. You will not "siphon" the water into the softener, the pump's pressure will PUSH it into the softener. You CANNOT combine the two drains."

Hang on, you've only heard this one idea so far!



Edited 2 times.

There's no room beside the pipe for the 1/2" tube to exit the house. It gets cold up here & if I ran it outside with it's own matching pipe it would freeze come November.

I think I'll run the tube down the existing pipe half way or more to where I can plumb a short stack to fix the tube to it and get the air gap I need, I am concerned that the sump water would use it as an escape route though.

YOu man you could come up with a worse one? One that would kill you immediately,instead of long term?

You CANNOT "Fix" the softener line to the "existing pipe"in any way, shape, or form. Put the drain into the pit where the pump is.