When we are closed for holidays such as the Christmas break or have a full diary, you may be wondering what you can do if you have any issues with your water softener before we can get to see you. Luckily it is really simple to bypass your softener. Just follow the steps below for how to bypass your water softener.
You can locate the valves by following the two large hoses which come out of your water softener. These normally run either out of the side or the back and are the inlet and outlet hoses for water moving through the softener. Follow them to lead you to the bypass valve. Depending on how your softener was installed it is possible that the bypass valve may be on the other side of a wall or in a cupboard, but if you keep following the hoses they will eventually lead you to it. There will be some other smaller hoses and cables running off of your water softener but you just need to find the 2 largest hoses. They might be made of flexible plastic or braided metal. This diagram should help!
The inlet and outlet valves are the 2 plastic knobs located where the 2 hoses connect to the rest of the piping. Turn them 90 degrees so they are perpendicular to the hoses in order to close them. The valves have a long wing-like shape which will show you which way they are turned. When the wings are running across the piping they are closed and when they are running in line with the piping they are open.
The bypass valve is the third valve located between the inlet and outlet valves on the main pipe and opening this will mean that your water system is now just running with normal water without sending anything through the water softener. You can open this valve by turning it 90 degrees so that the handle (or 'wings') is in line with the pipe.
When the problem has been fixed and you want to use your water softener again you will need to return the valves to the original positions. Close the bypass valve by turning it so the wings of the knob are perpendicular to the pipe and open the inlet and outlet valves by turning them so the wings run parallel to the hoses.
For a demonstration on how to bypass your water softener, just take a look at our quick video guide.
