Can 4" drain plug up from water softener discharge

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rjdelapp

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Newbee here. Have had a kenmore water softener installed for about 5 years with no problems till 9 months ago. The brine discharges into a vent pipe to the stool. Slab house with about 50 feet of drain line before it tee's into another 4" line then out from house to street drain. The 4" pipe is clogged and no water will pass. Had stool removed and line snaked out 2 months ago and was fine till just now plugged up again. We only pee in this toilet so wifes toilet paper is only solid going into it. The washing machine dumps into same drain about 15' from stool. Could the discharged water be setting in the drain pipe and hardening? When it was snaked out we got chunks of white material out of it. No ideas what it was. My question is could the water softener be causing buildup in the pipe? Thank You
 

ditttohead

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Not likely. The amount of calcium/magnesium, velocity of drain water etc. has very little scaling ability. The sodium chloride has almost no scaling ability. All of this is rinsed with clear water afterwards. White scale buildup can be caused by many things, but in a residential application it is hard to say. Hard hot water that intersects with a cold water source commonly scales the drain, is this a possibility here? Are you on municipal or well? Commercially, tempering lines from steam boiler blow downs can scale an 8" drain closed in a month. We usually design these applications with sections of pipe that are cheaply and easily replaced or cleaned.
 

rjdelapp

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Thanks for the response Dittohead. Makes sense. If anything it should help the long drain line with the volume of water discharged.
 
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