Water Softener Salt and Your Health: Blood Pressure Facts and Filter Fixes

You’re probably wondering if that water softener is quietly adding sodium to your diet and messing with your blood pressure. Let’s get straight to the point.

We will cover how softener salt impacts blood pressure, the actual sodium content left in your water, and the filters that remove it.

I’ve fixed more softeners than I can count. My own house runs on softened water. Here’s the truth: the sodium bump is tiny for most, but a good undersink filter handles it if you’re concerned.

How a Water Softener Works (And Where the Salt Goes)

Think of the resin beads inside your softener’s tank as tiny traders. Each trader holds a sodium ion, which is like a blue marble.

Hard water, full of calcium and magnesium ions (white marbles), flows in. The traders prefer the white marbles. They give up their blue marbles and grab the white ones. This swap is called ion exchange. Your water now leaves the tank soft, carrying the traded blue sodium marbles instead of the hard white ones.

The salt you add to the brine tank has one job, to reset the traders. It never mixes with your home’s drinking water. During the regeneration cycle, a super salty brine solution washes over the resin beads. The high concentration of salt forces the beads to let go of their hard water minerals and grab fresh sodium ions again. The grimy brine, now full of calcium and magnesium, gets flushed down the drain.

The key point is this: salt cleans the system, but sodium ions are left behind on the resin beads, which then get added to your water as it softens.

The Straight Talk on Sodium and Your Health

For most people, the sodium added by a water softener is not a health concern. The amount is very small.

What is the sodium content in softened water? It depends entirely on how hard your water was to begin with. The harder the water, the more sodium ions are used in the ion exchange process.

For a typical 8-ounce glass of softened water, you might get between 12 to 20 milligrams of added sodium. In areas with extremely hard water, it could be closer to 30 or 40 milligrams. These amounts can matter for people monitoring their sodium intake. Understanding softened water sodium content safety helps put these numbers into context for daily dietary planning.

Put that in perspective. A single slice of white bread has about 130 to 150 milligrams of sodium. One dill pickle spear can have over 300 milligrams. The sodium from your softener is a drop in the bucket compared to your daily diet.

You will consume more sodium from a pinch of table salt on your food than from drinking several glasses of softened water all day.

Who Should Be More Cautious?

Some individuals need to pay closer attention. This includes people on a strict, doctor-prescribed sodium-restricted diet, often for managing conditions like hypertension, heart failure, or kidney disease.

If you are in this group, talk to your doctor. They can help you determine if your softened water intake is relevant to your specific sodium limits.

The next step is to know your numbers. You can get your water tested to find out exactly how much sodium your softener is adding. Many local health departments or water testing labs offer this service for a reasonable fee.

What about effects on blood pressure? The science is clear. The minimal amount of sodium added by a properly functioning softener is unlikely to have any measurable direct impact on blood pressure for the general population. For someone on a strict medical diet, every source of sodium counts, but the primary focus should remain on food, not water.

If your doctor has you on a strict low-sodium diet, have a conversation about your water. It’s the responsible step, but don’t panic about your softener being a major culprit.

Water Science Snippet: Measuring What’s in Your Water

Before you worry about salt, you need to know what’s in your water right now. You can’t fix what you don’t measure. Let’s talk about two key numbers: TDS and gpg.

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS): The Whole Picture

Think of TDS as a crowd of invisible particles in your water. It measures everything dissolved in there: calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and even trace metals. The meter gives you a reading in parts per million (ppm).

A water softener changes what’s in the crowd, but it doesn’t make the crowd smaller. It trades the hard minerals (calcium and magnesium) for sodium (or potassium) ions. Your TDS reading might even go up a bit after softening, because sodium ions are lighter and more of them are needed to replace the heavier calcium and magnesium. TDS tells you the total load, not the recipe. Curious about how this works step by step? Our water softeners work guide breaks down the ion exchange and regeneration cycle.

Grains Per Gallon (gpg): The Hardness Specific

This is the number you care about for sizing a softener. One grain of hardness equals about 17.1 parts per million (ppm) of calcium or magnesium. We use “grains per gallon” because it’s a more practical unit for the amounts we deal with in home water.

Here’s a quick guide to what those numbers mean for your home:

• 0-3 gpg: Soft water. You probably don’t need a softener.
• 3-7 gpg: Moderately hard. You’ll see some scale buildup over time.
• 7-10 gpg: Hard. Scale on fixtures and spotty dishes are common.
• 10+ gpg: Very hard. This is where appliances suffer and cleaning gets tough.

The well water at my last house tested at 22 gpg. I could practically feel the chalkiness in the shower. That’s a sure sign you’re in softener territory.

How to Get Your Water Tested: Skip the Guesswork

You have two good paths to get your real numbers. Don’t rely on taste or guesswork.

Start with a free in-store test. Many big-box hardware stores or water treatment dealers offer free basic water tests. You take a sample in, and they’ll usually give you hardness and sometimes iron and pH. It’s a fantastic, no-cost starting point. I do this yearly as a quick check on my own well.

For health concerns, invest in a professional lab test. If you’re specifically worried about sodium content, metals, or contaminants, you need a certified laboratory analysis. You order a kit, follow precise sampling instructions, and mail it in. You pay more (usually $100-$300), but you get a detailed, accurate breakdown of dozens of elements.

Get your test done from a cold kitchen tap before any treatment system. This gives you your raw water quality. Testing after a softener will only tell you what the softener is doing, not what you’re starting with.

Your Filtration Toolkit: Removing Sodium from Softened Water

How can you remove sodium from softened water with filters? This is the right question to ask if you’re on a strict low-sodium diet or just prefer peace of mind. You have a few reliable paths to take. Think of it as a menu. You can filter at one faucet for drinking water, or you can treat your whole house with a different technology. Here are your effective options.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) System: The Gold Standard

Imagine a sieve so fine it can filter out single atoms. That’s reverse osmosis. It forces water through a special membrane with pores microscopic enough to block sodium ions, other dissolved minerals, and a huge list of contaminants.

The most effective and practical solution is to install a point-of-use RO system under your kitchen sink. This treats the water for drinking, cooking, and making coffee or ice. You get the benefits of whole-house soft water for your appliances and showers, while your drinking water is virtually sodium-free. I put one in my own kitchen years ago, and it’s the best of both worlds.

A good RO system doesn’t just remove sodium. It strips out lead, arsenic, nitrates, and many other things you don’t want. You’ll need to maintain it by changing the pre-filters and the RO membrane every few years, but it’s simple.

Salt-Free Alternatives: Do They Work?

Salt-free water conditioners, often called descalers or template-assisted crystallization (TAC) systems, are a common question. They don’t remove hardness minerals or sodium. Instead, they change the structure of the calcium and magnesium so it doesn’t stick to pipes as scale.

Compare this directly to a traditional salt-based softener:

• A salt softener swaps calcium/magnesium for sodium, removing the “hardness” and giving you true “soft” water that lathers easily and prevents scale.
• A salt-free conditioner leaves all the minerals in the water. It stops scale buildup but you won’t get that slick, soft-water feeling in the shower. Your soap will still react with the minerals.

For someone focused solely on sodium intake, a salt-free conditioner has a clear pro: it adds zero sodium to your water. The con is you’re not getting softened water. Your dishes might still spot, and your skin might still feel dry. It’s a scale prevention device, not a softener. If your main goal is to eliminate sodium from your diet, this is an effective whole-house approach, but know what you’re trading.

The DIY vs. Pro Verdict: Installing a Solution

You can manage some sodium removal yourself. Other jobs need a pro. Here’s how to tell the difference.

Project Difficulty Ratings

Think of these ratings based on the tools and plumbing skill required. A 1 is changing a lightbulb. A 10 is rebuilding your water softener’s valve.

• Installing an Under-Sink Reverse Osmosis (RO) System: 4/10. You’re typically working with flexible plastic tubing and push-to-connect fittings under one sink. No soldering is needed.
• Installing a Point-of-Use Carbon Filter (like for a fridge): 3/10. This is often a simple in-line connection using compression fittings. It’s one of the easiest filter swaps.
• Installing a Whole-House Carbon Filter: 7/10. This requires cutting into your main water line, which may involve soldering copper or threading galvanized pipe. You also need to handle bypass valves and correct flow direction.
• Re-plumbing for a Whole-House Filter or RO System: 8/10. This is major surgery on your main line. It often requires repiping sections, adding shutoffs, and ensuring proper support for heavy filter tanks.
• Converting a Softener to Potassium Chloride: 2/10. If your softener is already running, this is just dumping a different bag of crystals into the brine tank. The machine does the rest.

What a Handy Homeowner Can Do

If you can use a wrench and follow instructions, you can handle these tasks. My own first under-sink RO install took an afternoon and a few trips to the hardware store for extra tubing.

Installing an under-sink RO or carbon filter is well within reach for a determined DIYer. These kits come with almost everything you need. The work is confined to a single cabinet. You can take your time, double-check connections, and test for leaks with the sink’s water supply shut off.

Swapping out prefilters or membrane elements on an existing system is basic maintenance. It’s like changing the air filter in your furnace. Just note the model numbers, order the correct replacements, and follow the system’s manual to release pressure and swap the cartridges.

Remember to always turn off the water supply and release system pressure before opening any filter housing. Keep a towel and a bucket handy for the first startup to catch any drips from loosened connections.

When a Licensed Plumber is Absolutely Needed

Know your limits. Some mistakes can flood your house or violate local plumbing codes.

You need a pro for any work that involves cutting into or modifying the main water line entering your house. This is not a suggestion. If the project requires you to shut off water at the main house valve and start cutting copper, calling a plumber is the smart move. They have the tools, the experience, and the liability insurance.

Installing complex whole-house systems, especially those needing electrical connections like an ultraviolet (UV) disinfection light, should be left to professionals. They understand the code requirements for proper mounting, electrical bonding, and backflow prevention.

If your plan involves moving pipes in the walls or floor to accommodate a new filtration system, hire a plumber. A small leak inside a wall can cause thousands in damage before you even notice it.

When in doubt, get a quote. A good plumber can often complete in two hours what might take you a frustrating weekend and might still leak.

System Maintenance Roadmap

Think of maintenance like changing the oil in your car. Skip it, and things get expensive fast. A good routine keeps your water safe, your appliances running, and your mind at ease. Here is the schedule I use in my own home.

Your Annual Maintenance Checklist

Stick to this calendar. It prevents 95% of service calls I see. This schedule assumes you have a water softener and a reverse osmosis (RO) system at your kitchen sink for drinking water, which is the smart setup for managing sodium.

Follow this simple calendar to keep your systems running perfectly and your water’s sodium content in check.

Task	Frequency	Why It Matters
Check & Add Softener Salt	Monthly (or as needed)	Keeps the resin bed charged to remove hardness and a tiny amount of sodium. Running out means hard, scaling water enters your pipes.
Sanitize Softener Brine Tank	Annually	Prevents smelly bacterial or mold growth in the salty water, which can affect taste.
Change RO System Pre-Filters (Sediment & Carbon)	Every 6 Months	Protects the expensive RO membrane from clogging. Dirty filters also hurt water flow and taste.
Change RO System Membrane	Every 2 to 5 Years	This is the heart that removes sodium and other contaminants. Performance and water quality drop when it wears out.
Change RO System Post-Filter (Polishing Carbon)	Every 12 Months	Gives the final polish to your drinking water’s taste right before the faucet.
Inspect for Leaks & Check Softener Settings	Seasonally	A quick visual check of connections and the control head settings can catch small issues before they become floods.

Simple Tools for Basic Upkeep

You don’t need a truck full of gear. These few items handle almost every maintenance task.

• A 5-Gallon Bucket: For catching water when you change filters. It seems obvious until you’re mopping the floor.
• Adjustable Wrench or Channel Locks: For loosening filter housing canisters. Don’t over-tighten when you put them back.
• Teflon Tape: Also called plumber’s tape. Wrap it on the filter housing threads after cleaning to ensure a perfect seal. I keep a roll in my kitchen drawer.
• Old Towels or Rags: Keep everything dry. Water under the sink leads to cabinet damage.

Always shut off the water supply and release the pressure in the system before unscrewing any filter housing.

Connecting Maintenance to Your Health

This routine directly addresses the health question about sodium. The softener adds a small amount of sodium to all your household water. The RO system at your drinking faucet then removes nearly all of it, along with other contaminants. If you let the RO filters or membrane go too long, its removal efficiency plummets. You’re essentially drinking the softened water straight. Sticking to the filter change schedule is how you actively manage the sodium content in your glass.

I use a simple TDS meter from my toolbox to check my RO water quality every few months. If the number creeps up, I know it’s time to check my filters or membrane. It’s a five-second check that confirms everything is working right.

Code & Compliance Check

Before you buy a single filter, you need to check the box. Not the cardboard one it ships in, but the certification box.

Any water treatment device you install should be certified to the proper NSF/ANSI standard. This is your guarantee that independent experts have tested the product to do what it claims. For a reverse osmosis system that removes sodium, you’re looking for NSF/ANSI Standard 58 certification.

A product with the NSF 58 mark is validated to reduce the specific contaminants listed on its performance data sheet, including sodium. Don’t just take a sales description at face value. Find the certification and check what it actually covers.

Understanding Local Plumbing Codes

Installing a filter or RO system often means cutting into your home’s water lines. That’s plumbing work, and it must follow your local building codes.

This is the main reason why some projects need a permit or a licensed professional. The rules vary by city and county. A simple under-sink RO system might be a straight DIY job in one town, but require a permit and a licensed install in another.

Calling your local building department is the fastest way to know what rules apply to you. They can tell you if you need a permit for the work you plan to do.

Common triggers for needing a permit include running new water lines, installing a new drain line, or adding a dedicated faucet. The goal of the code is safety-preventing leaks, contamination, and improper waste line connections that could siphon dirty water back into your system.

Red Flag Troubleshooting Guide

Your water system won’t send you a text when it’s failing. You have to watch for the signs. Catching problems early saves you money on repairs and bad water. Here are the five biggest red flags that your softened or filtered water is in trouble.

1. You see salt bridges or mush in the brine tank.

Open the lid on your softener’s brine tank and look inside. You should see clean, dry salt pellets or crystals. If you see a hard crust of salt forming a hollow cave over water, that’s a salt bridge. If the salt looks like wet, slushy mush, that’s salt mushing. Both of these issues can affect the optimal salt levels in your water softener.

A bridge stops the salt from dissolving into the brine water, which means your softener can’t recharge and will soon stop softening. A salt bridge water softener fix can restore brine flow by eliminating the bridge and letting the salt dissolve. Salt mush can clog the brine line and damage the control valve. Both are usually caused by high humidity, the wrong type of salt, or impurities in the salt.

To fix a bridge, gently break it up with a broom handle (with the unit’s power off). For mush, you’ll need to scoop out all the wet salt, clean the tank with a mild bleach solution, and refill it with high-purity solar salt or evaporated salt pellets. I check my own brine tank every month when I refill the salt.

2. Soap isn’t lathering like it used to (softener failure).

This is the classic, simple test. Hard water makes it hard to get a good lather with soap, shampoo, or dish detergent. If your showers suddenly feel less slippery and you’re using more soap for bubbles, your softener likely isn’t working.

The resin beads inside the softener tank are likely exhausted. They’ve traded all their sodium ions for the hardness minerals (calcium and magnesium) in your water. The system might have failed to recharge due to a timer error, a stuck brine valve, or a damaged control head.

First, check if the softener is stuck in a cycle or if the salt tank is empty or bridged. If everything looks right, try manually triggering a regeneration cycle. If that doesn’t restore soft water, you’re likely looking at a professional service call to diagnose the valve or internal parts.

3. Water flow from your RO faucet slows to a trickle (clogged filter).

Reverse osmosis systems have multiple filter stages. A dramatic drop in flow at the dedicated RO faucet almost always means a clog. The pre-filters (sediment and carbon blocks) protect the delicate RO membrane. If they’re overdue for a change, the membrane itself can foul.

Clogged filters make the system work harder, waste more water down the drain, and can lead to premature membrane failure. The fix is straightforward: follow your system’s maintenance schedule.

• Replace sediment and carbon pre-filters every 6-12 months.
• Replace the RO membrane every 2-3 years.
• Sanitize the system and replace the post-filter annually.

I mark my filter change dates on the kitchen calendar. It’s cheaper than buying a whole new RO unit.

4. The water starts tasting salty (a rare but serious softener malfunction).

You should never taste salt in your softened water. If you do, it’s a major malfunction. The most common cause is a damaged or fouled injector and nozzle assembly in the control valve. This tiny part creates suction to pull brine into the resin tank. If it’s cracked or clogged, it can fail to close, allowing salty brine water to leak directly into your home’s water lines. This issue can make your softened water taste salty and feel slippery.

Immediately bypass your water softener to stop the flow of salty water. This is not a DIY fix for most people. You need a technician to diagnose and rebuild or replace the control valve assembly. Drinking highly salted water is a health concern, especially for those on sodium-restricted diets.

5. You notice new scale buildup on appliances.

Look at your showerhead, dishwasher, coffee maker, and water heater. White, crusty scale is hardened calcium and magnesium. If you see it forming quickly after you’ve had a softener, your softener is no longer removing those minerals effectively.

This scale is more than an annoyance. Inside your water heater, scale acts as an insulator, making it cost far more to heat your water and drastically shortening the heater’s life. The cause is the same as Red Flag #2: exhausted resin. Follow those same troubleshooting steps. If your appliances are scaling, your softener has likely been offline for a while, and you may also need to descale appliances like your coffee maker.

What Helped Me: A Personal Setup

You don’t have to choose between soft water and low-sodium water. I use a hybrid system in my own home.

My whole-house water softener uses salt. It protects my water heater, keeps my showerheads from scaling up, and makes my laundry feel better. I would not give up my salt-based softener for my appliances and showers, especially when I use the right kind of salt.

For drinking and cooking, I take a different path. I installed a reverse osmosis system under my kitchen sink. This is my dedicated source for all water I consume.

Why This Two-System Approach Works

Reverse osmosis is a different kind of filtration. It forces water through a very fine membrane.

• It removes about 95-99% of the dissolved sodium added by the softener.
• It also strips out other contaminants the softener leaves behind, like nitrates or certain metals.
• The water from the RO faucet tastes completely neutral, like premium bottled water.

This setup gives me the best of both worlds. My pipes and appliances get the protection of soft water, and my family gets drinking water with minimal sodium.

How to Plumb This Correctly

If you do this, the order matters. The plumbing should go: main water supply -> whole-house softener -> RO system under the sink.

You feed already-softened water into the RO unit. Using soft water as the feed for your RO system dramatically extends the life of the RO membrane. Hard minerals are what foul it up quickly.

You will need a dedicated faucet for the RO water. A small hole in your sink or countertop is required for installation. It’s a straightforward job for a handy homeowner or a plumber.

When to Seek Professional Help

Knowing when to call a pro saves time, money, and prevents a small issue from flooding your utility room. I’ve been on both sides of service calls, and these are the three times you should definitely pick up the phone.

When you are not comfortable soldering or cutting into main water pipes.

Installing a filter to remove sodium or connecting a softener bypass often means working on your home’s main water line. This isn’t like swapping a faucet.

If you’ve never soldered copper or glued PVC for a pressurized line, this is your sign to stop. A bad joint won’t leak right away. It’ll fail at 3 AM, two weeks later, when you’re on vacation. I learned this the hard way on a basement project years ago.

A licensed plumber has the tools and muscle memory to make these connections quickly and correctly. Their fee is cheaper than the water damage from a blowout.

If you have consistently very high water pressure (over 80 PSI) that needs a regulator installed first.

Your home’s water pressure should be between 40 and 80 PSI. Anything consistently above 80 is destructive. It stresses every appliance, fitting, and hose in your house.

You cannot install a water softener or an under-sink filter into a high-pressure system. The internal parts will fail prematurely. You must install a pressure reducing valve (PRV) on the main line first.

Installing a PRV is a main-line plumbing job that often requires cutting and threading pipe, which is a firm boundary for most DIYers. I have a PRV in my own basement because my street pressure was 95 PSI. It’s not a weekend DIY task.

If you suspect a malfunction is adding excessive sodium (that salty taste).

A properly functioning water softener adds a minimal, predictable amount of sodium to your water. You should not taste it. If your water suddenly tastes salty or you’re on a strict sodium-restricted diet, your system may be malfunctioning.

Common causes include a control valve stuck in regeneration, a broken brine valve, or incorrect programming. Diagnosing this requires checking the softener’s cycles, brine tank water level, and drain line flow.

A technician can test your softened water’s sodium content and pinpoint the faulty component in under an hour. This is not a guesswork fix, especially when health is a concern. I’ve replaced more brine valves than I can count for this exact reason.

Recommended Products (Category Focus)

If you’re concerned about sodium from your softener, you need the right tool for the job. Throwing a random filter at the problem is a waste of money. I’ve fixed that mistake for clients before. Here are the categories that actually work, based on what you need to accomplish.

Under-Sink Reverse Osmosis Systems (with standard 3/4 pre-filters)

For removing sodium from your drinking water, a reverse osmosis (RO) system is the gold standard. It’s what I installed under my own kitchen sink. Think of the RO membrane as an ultra-fine sieve that catches sodium ions and a host of other contaminants, sending them down the drain.

An under-sink RO system with basic sediment and carbon pre-filters will strip out 94-98% of the sodium added by your softener, giving you essentially sodium-free water for cooking and drinking. The pre-filters protect the more expensive RO membrane from chlorine and sediment, which is why that “standard 3/4” setup is non-negotiable. Expect to change the pre-filters every 6-12 months and the RO membrane every 2-3 years, depending on your water use.

Point-of-Use Carbon Filters (for light taste improvement, but note they don’t remove sodium effectively)

Let’s be clear. A carbon filter, like a faucet-mounted unit or a pitcher filter, is not the solution for sodium. These are great for taking out chlorine taste and odor. They do nothing to remove dissolved sodium ions.

Installing a carbon filter to fix a sodium issue is like using a sponge to catch a mosquito, it’s the wrong tool and you’ll be disappointed with the result. If your water just tastes a bit “off” after softening and you have no specific health concerns, a carbon filter might make it more palatable, especially if it’s an activated charcoal filter. But for sodium removal, look to RO.

Salt-Free Conditioner/Descaler Systems (for scale prevention where sodium is a major concern)

This is a system-level alternative, not a drinking water filter. If a doctor has put you on a strict sodium-restricted diet, a salt-free conditioner is worth considering for your entire home. It uses a template-assisted crystallization (TAC) media to alter the structure of hardness minerals so they don’t stick to pipes and appliances.

A salt-free conditioner prevents scale without adding any sodium to your water, making it a good whole-house option for those with serious health directives. Understand the trade-off. It doesn’t remove existing scale, and the “soft” feeling on your skin is different than with a traditional salt-based softener. It’s a scale prevention device, not a true softener in the traditional sense.

Quality Water Test Kets (for hardness and TDS)

Don’t guess. Test. Before you spend any money, you need two key numbers: your water’s hardness (in grains per gallon) and its Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in parts per million (PPM). A simple hardness test strip tells you how much softening you need. A digital TDS meter is critical.

Here’s why. Tap water has a base TDS. After softening, that TDS will be higher because sodium has been added. Testing your TDS before and after the softener shows you exactly how much sodium the unit is adding, which tells you what you’re up against. It’s the first step I take on a service call for a customer with health concerns. A post-filter TDS test also tells you when your RO membrane needs replacing. Get a reliable kit, not the cheapest one online.

Common Questions

Is the sodium from my water softener actually bad for me?

For the vast majority of people, no. The amount added is very small compared to your daily diet. However, if you are on a strict, doctor-ordered sodium-restricted diet, you should take it into account and consider a filter for your drinking water.

Will drinking softened water raise my blood pressure?

It’s highly unlikely. The minimal sodium added has no measurable impact on blood pressure for the general population. Your focus should remain on managing dietary sodium, which is a far greater source.

How do I find out exactly how much sodium is in my softened water?

Get a water test. Use a simple digital TDS meter to see the total dissolved solids before and after your softener-the increase is mostly sodium. For a precise health-focused number, send a sample to a certified lab.

What’s the single best filter to remove sodium for drinking?

An under-sink Reverse Osmosis (RO) system. It’s the most effective method, removing 94-98% of the sodium. This gives you the benefits of whole-house soft water while providing virtually sodium-free water at your kitchen tap.

Are salt-free conditioners a good solution if I’m worried about sodium?

They are a different tool. Salt-free conditioners prevent scale without adding sodium, which is good for strict diets. But know they don’t produce truly “soft” water for better lathering and feel; they are scale inhibitors, not softeners.

Managing Softened Water and Your Health

If you are on a strict sodium-restricted diet, talk to your doctor and get your softened water tested to understand your intake. For everyone else, the simplest step is to install a dedicated reverse osmosis filter at your kitchen sink for your drinking and cooking water, or use a bypass valve to send unsoftened water to that faucet.