Water Softener & Auto-Filter Connections

One important consideration you should make when choosing a water softener or automatic backwashing filter system is the connection to your existing plumbing. If you examine our water softener models and check their details and specifications, you will see upon check out that you can choose between 3/4-inch and 1-inch pipes and also the material of pipe you are connecting your softener to. The choices are either copper or PVC. The reason we give you these choices is because we supply bypass valves for all of our water softener and auto-backwashing filter systems and we want to make sure that they connect easily to your existing plumbing. Now take a look at our auto-backwashing filter systems and their details. Note that we do not provide for choosing a pipe material. That is because it does not really matter what material your pipes are. What matters is the size, and actually the size is not all that crucial either.

Here's an example. Suppose you are ordering a 24,000 grain Fleck 5600 on demand water softener. You will want to visit the specifications and details page before you buy so that you can choose your water pipe size and material. Suppose you have 3/4-inch copper pipes. When you are ready to purchase, you select the pull-down menu for "3/4-inch copper pipes". This feature takes all of the guess work out of which bypass valve to select as we will do it for you. Because we have chosen 3/4-inch copper pipes in this example, Water Value will send a 3/4-inch stainless steel bypass valve with your order. Why stainless steel and not copper? Because Fleck does not make copper or brass bypass valves anymore. While the old brass bypass valves did meet the EPA's definition of "lead free" brass, they did not meet the "lead free" requirements of some states such as California. So instead of sending PVC bypass valves to the various states that require it, Fleck decided on stainless steel to solve the problem. Autotrol on the other hand does not have the problem of choosing between stainless steel or PVC bypass valves. They only produce PVC bypass valves, solving the problem altogether.

So why doesn't Fleck make PVC bypass valves exclusively? I'm not sure. It is really not necessary to connect a stainless steel bypass valve to copper pipes. A PVC bypass valve can be used instead. We still provide stainless steel bypass valves as an option on our water softener systems at this time, but we will probably discontinue that option in the future. The PVC bypass valves offer better functionality.

A Fleck stainless steel bypass valve is operated by a single lever where the Fleck PVC bypass and the Autotrol bypass use two levers. One for the inlet water and one for the outlet water. One advantage to this method of bypass is the fact that you can disable your water treatment system yet allow it to backwash or regenerate in case of "calendar override" (which we will not get into at this time). If you are planning on leaving for vacation, you may not want water passing through your auto-backwashing filter, yet in the interest of keeping your media bed fresh, you're going to want to backwash on a regular basis. The two lever bypass valve lets you do this, but a single lever bypass valve will not.

It simply is not necessary to connect a stainless steel bypass to copper pipes. A PVC bypass comes with the same thread size as the stainless steel ones do. With a stainless steel bypass, you will need to run down to the hardware store and pick up an NPT (National pipe thread) sweat bushing to connect to your copper pipes. Well, you'll need to do the same thing with a PVC bypass valve too. So why use a single lever stainless steel bypass at all? There is no reason I can think of. The PVC bypass is much more corrosion resistant that stainless steel.

Now with the Autotrol systems, we still need to know what material of pipe you are connecting to because they offer both CPVC and sweat copper connectors. But so far as the Fleck systems go, there is really no reason to select stainless steel, especially if you may ever want to make use of the "half-way-bypass" feature mentioned above. That is the reason that we do not offer stainless steel bypasses on our Fleck auto-filter systems.

It's important to note that the new Fleck 7000 systems come only in 1 or 1-1/4 inch PVC configurations but rest assured that you will have no trouble connecting it to your copper pipes with the copper sweat bushing you're going to need to get at the hardware store anyway.

Now, I hope you don't think that this sounds like Water Value doesn't care about your plumbing connections, we care a great deal. We want to make your installation experience as painless as possible and we go to great lengths to ensure that this is so, but we cannot provide plumbing fittings for every situation you may encounter. Even those water treatment companys that boast "Water Softener Installation Kits" will admit that you're going to need to run down to the local hardware store anyway to make the proper connections. Nobody can anticipate every installer's needs when it comes to plumbing no matter how much we'd like to. For the most part, all you're going to need to connect to one of our water systems is a simple bushing.

Just as GM or Ford can sell you a car, they cannot teach you how to drive, but they do offer suggestions and examples and so do we. Before you buy any water softener or auto-backwashing filter system from us, be sure to check out our handly Water Softener - Auto-Filter Installation Instructions section.