The spots are back on the glasses, the kettle is crusting up again and the soap will not lather. When a softener that used to work stops softening, the cause is usually one of a short list. Some you can check in a few minutes with the lid off the brine tank. Others need someone who works on softeners every day.
First, confirm the water really is hard again
Scale, spotting and poor lather point to a softener issue. A rotten egg smell, orange staining or a chlorine taste point elsewhere. If you are not sure, we read the hardness before and after the softener on a repair visit. Two numbers settle it.
1. A salt bridge in the brine tank
The most common cause we see. Damp salt fuses into a hard crust with an empty space underneath. The tank looks full, but the water never touches the salt, so the resin never recharges.
How to spot it: the salt level has not dropped in weeks. Push a broom handle gently into the salt. If it hits a hard layer and then drops through, you have a bridge.
Can you check it yourself? Yes. Break the crust up carefully from the edges, without jabbing the tank walls, then run a manual regeneration.
2. An empty or mushy brine tank
No salt means no regeneration and no soft water. The opposite problem is salt mush, a sludge of recrystallized salt that blocks the brine from being drawn.
How to spot it: no salt visible, or wet, pasty salt at the bottom when you dig down.
Can you check it yourself? Topping up, yes. Clearing mush means scooping out the sludge and starting fresh, which is messy but safe. Our filter changes and maintenance visits include a brine tank clean if you would rather not.
3. The hardness setting is wrong or was never reprogrammed
A softener regenerates based on the hardness it has been told and the water the household uses. Set too low, the resin runs out before the next regeneration. This happens when a household grows, the water source changes, or the unit was set up with a guess.
How to spot it: the water is soft after regeneration, then turns hard before the next one.
Can you check it yourself? You can read the setting on the control head. Setting it correctly means knowing your actual hardness. On a repair visit we read it at the tap and program the softener from that number.
4. A clogged injector or brine line
The injector is a small nozzle in the control valve that draws brine from the tank. Sediment, salt debris and iron can block it, and a kinked brine line does the same.
How to spot it: the salt never drops, there is no bridge, and the brine tank may hold more water than usual.
Can you check it yourself? Checking the brine line for kinks is safe. The injector itself is best left to a technician, and it is a common job on our water softener repair calls.
5. The bypass valve was left open
If the bypass was turned for service or to fill a pool and never turned back, the house gets untreated water while the softener sits idle.
How to spot it: sudden hard water everywhere from a softener that looks normal. Your manual shows which valve position is service and which is bypass.
Can you check it yourself? Yes. Turn it back to service slowly, then run a tap to clear any air.
6. Resin fouled by iron or worn out
Iron and manganese in well water can coat the resin beads so they stop exchanging hardness, and chlorine on city water slowly breaks them down. Eventually resin wears out.
How to spot it: salt is being used but the water is still hard or only partly softened. Orange staining in the brine tank suggests iron fouling.
Can you check it yourself? Not really, as the tank has to be opened. If iron is the cause, add an iron and sulphur filter ahead of the softener or new resin will foul the same way. Our softener repair visits find out which it is.
7. A power outage reset the clock or regeneration time
An outage can reset the clock, so the softener regenerates during the day, sending hard water to the house while it does, or not on schedule at all.
How to spot it: the display time is wrong or flashing, often after a storm.
Can you check it yourself? Yes. Reset the time of day using the manual and confirm the regeneration time is set for the middle of the night.
When to call for help
If the salt, bypass and clock all check out and the water is still hard, the problem is inside the valve or resin tank. That is the point to book water softener repair. If the softener is old or undersized, a properly sized replacement may make more sense, and we will tell you honestly which. Either way, we reprogram from a real hardness reading, not a guess. We read the water before the softener and after it, and you see both numbers. Book a softener repair visit and we will tell you straight whether it needs a fix or a replacement.
Common questions
Why is my water softener using no salt?
Usually a salt bridge, a clogged injector or brine line, or a bypass left open. Check for a bridge first, since it is the most common cause and the easiest to clear yourself.
Why is there standing water in my brine tank?
Many softeners keep some water in the brine tank by design. Water that keeps rising, or a tank that is much fuller than usual, points to a brine draw problem such as a blocked injector or line, which needs a repair visit.
Can I fix a water softener myself?
Some of it. Breaking a salt bridge, topping up or cleaning out the brine tank, resetting the clock and checking the bypass are safe for most homeowners. Injector, valve and resin work is best left to a technician.