It’s the middle of the night and you hear water running in the basement.  You walk downstairs only to find water on the floor.  It’s coming from the water treatment equipment.   Aaaah!  Now what?  Who do you call?  What do you do?  The simple solution- bypass the water treatment equipment.

What is a bypass?  The main purpose of any bypass is to stop all water from entering the water treatment equipment.  A bypass is needed and used when service is being performed on your equipment, a leak has occurred, the equipment needs to be removed from the home, or the homeowner has left the home for an extended period of time.

How do I bypass my equipment?  There are different types of bypass valves that can be installed on any type of water treatment equipment.  Our company has installed two types of bypasses and each use the same concept.  In the past, we used gate valves with (2) blue valves and (1) red valve.  Currently, we use ball valves with handles.  The bypasses have one valve on each the inlet pipe and outlet pipe and one valve in between the inlet/outlet pipes.  Think of a bypass as the letter H.

To bypass water equipment using blue and red gate valves, the (2) blue valves need to be turned to the closed position) and the red valve needs to be turned to the open position.  If you are unsure which way to turn the valves, think of it this way: right -> tighten, left -> loosen.  To turn the water equipment back online, turn the (2) blue valves to the open position and the red valve to the closed position.

To bypass water equipment using ball valves, the ball valves on the inlet and outlet pipes need to be closed.  To do this, turn the handles on the inlet and outlet ball valves so they are not parallel with the piping.  Next, turn the ball valve in the middle of the inlet/outlet pipes so the handle is parallel with the pipe.  This will allow water to flow throughout the home, but not enter into the water treatment equipment.  This procedure needs to be done for each bypass corresponding to each piece of water treatment equipment.  Keep in mind, when a unit is bypassed, there will be hard water throughout the home.  When it is time to turn the water treatment equipment on to feed the house with treated water, simply reverse the handles so the inlet and outlet ball valve handles are parallel with the piping and the middle valve is not parallel with the piping.

Note: There are other types of bypass valves used within the industry such as a push/pull bypass or handles attached to the equipment.  If you have a bypass that is different from the above description, don’t hesitate to contact us.