Princess A asked:
My husband died last year and I am finding a LOT of things around here need fixing…
Like my WATER SOFTENER…We had a bag of those sale pellets in there, never went DOWN and now most are ROCK HARD. I called Sears, who installed it like YEARS ago, but they failed to come by. LOL.
a FRIEND said to take out ALL the salt, but what a job that IS…About 1/3 way done. Been chipping it w a tool and a broom stick,
Is there an easier here?
Any ideas of why the salt is NOT going down> A clog maybe? I think it was installed in 1995…
My husband died last year and I am finding a LOT of things around here need fixing…
Like my WATER SOFTENER…We had a bag of those sale pellets in there, never went DOWN and now most are ROCK HARD. I called Sears, who installed it like YEARS ago, but they failed to come by. LOL.
a FRIEND said to take out ALL the salt, but what a job that IS…About 1/3 way done. Been chipping it w a tool and a broom stick,
Is there an easier here?
Any ideas of why the salt is NOT going down> A clog maybe? I think it was installed in 1995…
February 28th, 2010 at 7:14 am
sorry for your loss. running a home and all the things that go with it, is a tough job.
and now im really sorry about the sears thing, i work there doing service and we get overbooked all the time, but that doesnt excuse us not calling you to reschedule if we cant make it.
now for your softner, the salt may have whats called a salt bridge and yes you do have to remove the salt or at least get a hole thru it so when it cycles it can dissolve. if yours is installed properly it should have an overflow hose going to the drain, this is the second hose hooked up to the side of the tank. that will allow water to run out if it gets too full. the reason i say this is you can run water from your garden hose into the unit to flush out the hard salt until it is gone.
if you want to contact me at i can give you more info to get this thing working.
one more thing, does your tank have water that you can see in it? there should only be about 4 inches of water in it.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Yeah, it’s probably clogged. Those things are such a pain. Maybe a call to a local handyman can get things moving again, but always for a price. Sigh. Sorry I can’t be of more help. I guess the more salt you can chip out of there, the less time the repair guy will spend doing it for $50 an hour or whatever they charge these days, so hang in there, and best wishes!
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:08 pm
If the salt is that hard, it is likely that your husband found the softener wasn’t functioning properly, and turned the bypass valve so the softener isn’t actually doing anything.
Sometimes people don’t know how to clear a salt bridge, and figure the softener is broken, so they just bypass it.
March 4th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
That’s called a “Salt Dam”. It happens when your pellets get moist and turn hard. Once that happens, only the salt pellets under it will be used up, and the rest just hangs up there.
Once you have the dam cleaned out, be sure to buy a good quality salt pellet that says “Won’t dam” or words to that effect on the bag.
That should solve your problem. It just happens. Good to check it now and then and punch on the pellets to be sure they are not holding themselves up there, recreating your original problem. Usually you need to add pellets every two to four weeks anyway, dependent on how much water you use.