DIY guideWater quality

Top up the water softener salt

Check the salt in the softener's tank, break up any crust and add salt, so it keeps softening instead of quietly running out.

7 steps

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Lift the lid of the softener's salt tank: the wider tank, or the box beside the tall one.
The salt should sit above the water. Water showing above the salt, or a tank under a quarter full, means it needs salt.
Push a broom handle down into the salt. If it stops on a hard crust with a hollow under it, that's a salt bridge.
Tap the crust gently with the handle until it breaks and falls in. Don't hit the tank's sides.
Pour in the softener salt its manual names, to about half full.
Bags are heavy: lift with your legs, not your back.
Put the lid back to keep dirt out, and look again each month.
If water stays above the salt, or the water still feels hard with salt in, ask Handyman for a plumber.

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