Amateurplumber1
Member
It would be a lot easier to just leave everything in place, which would allow you to hook up the softener (with its own bypass), and completely isolate the softener and its bypass if necessary. Then just close the middle valve, leave the other two open, and use the softener's bypass alone until you have problems with it.
My problem is that I have been told not to use gate valves because they restrict flow, and more importantly, I have no idea how to solder and really dont feel like buying the tools to do it, haha. Nice title btw. Love working with computers, not so much plumbing.