Question for a plumber....

[Daniel Lee]

Getting ready to sell a house in Tucson, AZ. The water softener does not work. I do not want to repair the water softener. If I just remove the water softener and plug the threaded end (where it hooks up to water pipe will that be up to code? Does not leak with shutoff valve on off.

I don't have any other plumbing issues so I don't really want to call out a plumber if I don't too!

Thanks!

[JD Martin]

OK. I assume there is a piped bypass on the other side of that wall that we can't see, which is what allows you to have the valve turned off (that's visible in the top of the picture near the wall) and still have water to the house. If that is the case, you could just pull the softener out just the way it is and it wouldn't matter - *however*, if someone opened the valve on the other side, you'd have a flood. So what you would want to do is take the plastic softener bypass valve off and either cap both lines, or loop them. 

If you do not have a piped bypass in that house, on the other side of the wall, then you will have to loop the two copper connections. 

I don't know what your local code is, but if you have to loop them there's nothing easier than cutting the copper on both sides and looping it with a Sharkbite or similar push-fitting repair line. If you are not allowed to use push-on fittings, next easiest would be to cut both copper lines and solder 90s plus a stub on each one to tie them together. Last choice (for me) would be using threaded fittings and pvc/cpvc/pex line.