So, I bought a Genesis Revolution upflow water softener to install in my first house in Laveen AZ. We have a water softener loop already plumbed into the house. The airgap is in the laundry room upstairs. This question is about the drain line. I have the 1" Sharkbite flex hoses for the inlet and outlet, not a problem. I'm having a huge problem figuring out exactly how to attach a drain line. The directions for the water softener only say to "connect 1/2 drain tube" with no clear indication on how to attach it to the copper drain pipe. Everything I've Googled or YouTube'd is about fitting it to an air gap PVC fitting, which I cannot do with my loop setup.
Everything I could find, said to use PEX and a Sharkbite connector. Easy enough, except that the drain on the Genesis valve head is a barb fitting and the 1/2 PEX tubing I bought does not fit on there. It's too rigid.
The other solution was to get "flexible PVC" tubing, using a tube clamp to clamp it to the barb. Easy enough, except I don't think that will work on the Sharkbite connector to the copper pipe, will it?
Does anyone know how to make this work? I'm at a loss after 10+ hours of being online, reading forums, watching videos.
Best Answer
If you use flexible hose, and take the sharkbite fitting off the drain, the flexible hose will/should clamp right onto the 1/2 inch copper pipe. Or, you (or a plumber if you don't solder as I might expect for sharkbites) can solder a brass/bronze barbed fitting there, or I suppose you can build some sharkbite contraption that ends in a barbed fitting.
Hint, use enough hose onto the pipe to allow placing TWO hose clamps on the pipe, and put the screw-clamp part on opposite sides.
Alternatively, you could investigate what sort of threads you get if you unscrew the plastic barbed fitting, and look for a PEX fitting that matches that thread.