Many people choose to either leave the water for outside taps unsoftened, or bypass the water softener when watering the lawn because the volume of water needed will deplete the supply of softened water quickly; the water softener will need to recharge more frequently, thus using more salt. Since the lawn does not need softened water, this may be the best course of action.

If you do not want to bypass the system, you should be aware that normally the small amount of sodium that is discharged into your water from the water softener is not a problem for most lawns. However, if your soil already has a high content of sodium, that may not be advisable. In this case and because potassium is a major and essential plant nutrient, some people use potassium chloride to recharge their softener.