Water Softener Not Using Salt

Is the salt level really not going down?

Look at the water first. If your water is soft (soap lathers, no new spots on glass, test strips read low), and the salt is dropping slowly, that may be normal for your water use. If the water is hard and the salt hasn't moved in weeks, something's wrong.

SoftPro lists salt levels that stay the same for weeks, along with hard water coming back, as signs of a salt bridge. HomeGuide says the average softener needs refilling about once a month, and puts salt at $50 to $150 a year. A tank that stays full for months on hard water is a clear signal.

Likely causes

1. 1

   Cause 1: Salt bridge

   A salt bridge is a hard crust that spans the tank, often with an empty space between it and the water underneath. The salt on top never touches water, so it never dissolves. The tank looks full and the softener regenerates with plain water.

   Test it: push a broom handle straight down through the salt. GE says that if it hits something hard that isn't the bottom or the sides of the tank, it's probably a bridge. Tapping the side of the tank and hearing a hollow sound is another sign. To clear it, see how to break a salt bridge.

2. 2

   Cause 2: Salt mushing at the bottom

   Mushing is the opposite of a bridge. Impurities from low-purity salt dissolve and recrystallize into a thick sludge at the bottom of the tank, where it can clog the brine well. The softener draws some brine but not enough. The fix is to empty the tank completely, salt and sludge and all, scrub and rinse it, clean the brine well and float if the mush is severe, and refill with high-purity salt.

3. 3

   Cause 3: Clogged injector (nozzle and venturi)

   The injector creates the suction that pulls brine from the salt tank. GE lists a plugged nozzle and venturi as a reason a softener stops using salt. Whirlpool says a clean nozzle and venturi is a necessity for the softener to work properly. Sediment and iron from well water clog it fastest.

   To clean it, bypass the softener, unscrew the injector cap, and remove the screen, disc, gasket and flow plugs. Wash them, then reassemble in order with silicone grease on the O-ring and hand-tighten the cap.

4. 4

   Cause 4: Softener isn't drawing brine

   Fleck's manual lists the reasons a softener fails to draw brine: a plugged drain line flow control, a plugged injector or screen, low line pressure, or an internal leak. Its fix for low pressure is to raise it to 20 psi. On a well, that means checking the pressure switch cut-in setting. A kinked drain hose does the same thing. If the brine can't leave through the drain, it can't be pulled out of the tank.

   When a softener stops drawing brine, the water level in the salt tank often climbs too. If yours has, see brine tank full of water.

5. 5

   Cause 5: Softener isn't regenerating

   No regeneration, no salt use. Check that the display is lit, the clock is right, and the softener isn't in bypass. Whirlpool's fix for bypass valves in the wrong position is to move them back to service. Force a manual regeneration and listen for water running to the drain. If nothing happens, go to water softener not regenerating.

6. 6

   Cause 6: Settings

   A hardness setting that's too low, or a regeneration schedule set to every couple of weeks, will both cut salt use. GE's fix for water that's sometimes hard is to match the hardness setting to your water's grains per gallon.

New water softener not using salt

New softeners are often fine. A demand unit in a small household may take a while to run its first full cycle, and it uses little salt by design. GE suggests starting weekly salt checks a few weeks after installation.

If the new softener still hasn't used salt after a few weeks of normal water use, check the install: drain hose kinked, bypass left open, wrong hardness entered at setup, or a brine line that was never connected. Those are all install mistakes, and the installer should fix them.

Salt not dissolving in the water softener

Salt that sits in hard chunks or clumps usually means the wrong salt or a humid room. Whirlpool recommends nugget, pellet or coarse solar salt with less than 1% impurities, and warns against rock salt, block salt, granulated salt and ice-melt. SoftPro lists humidity, impure salt, overfilling and long gaps between regenerations as causes of bridging. Keep the tank between one-third and two-thirds full to cut the risk.

When to call a pro

Call for service when the bridge is cleared, the injector is clean, the softener regenerates on demand, and it still doesn't draw brine. That points to internal seals or the brine valve. HomeGuide puts typical water softener repairs at $150 to $600, plus $40 to $100 for the service call.