Your water softener has a container to fill with salt which is called the brine tank. Most people just think of it as the salt container as that’s where you add water softener-specific salt.
What happens to the salt in a water softener? The brine tank has water at the bottom to dissolve the salt and this concentrated mixture (brine) is then used to soften your water during regeneration.
If your brine tank runs out of salt, your water softener no longer produces softened water. Upon filling the tank with salt, it may take several days before softened water is again available throughout your home.
In the meantime, you will have hard water in your home and running through your pipes until the situation is rectified.
Does Running Out Of Salt Damage A Water Softener?
What happens if my brine tank runs out of salt, you might ask.
Depending on the water softener model you own, your automated system might warn you that you are low on salt and shut down until you refill the salt dispenser.
Older, less automated systems will just keep running but won’t produce softened water once the salt has run out.
Depending on how frequently your system regenerates and how much water your home consumes, it may take 1-3 days for soft water to be produced throughout your entire house once the salt has been refilled.
In rare cases, your brine tank can actually overflow although this typically only happens where there is a malfunction or blockage at the bottom.
What Happens If I Stop Putting Salt In My Water Softener?
The damage that you’ll do when you run out salt is more to your hair, skin, nail and to your water using appliances. Most water softeners will just keep running but not produce soft water when it runs out of salt. It won’t necessarily damage the water softener especially if you are able to refill the brine tank with salt quickly.
But over time, the insides of your pipes can calcify from hard water. Water stains can appear on faucets. Clothes won’t come out of the laundry as clean as when you were using softened water. You might require more detergent to clean them.
So the side effects from running out of salt are generally more on the lack of benefits that you will receive as you no longer have soft water rather than damage to your system.
How much salt should I put in the water softener?
Fill the brine tank to the top to the maximum allowed level if you aren’t planning on checking the tank regularly. At a minimum, it’s recommended to keep the brine tank at least half full of salt or at least several inches higher than the water level, at a bare minimum, if you check it regularly.
Check your instruction manual to be sure.
You don’t want to let your brine tank run out of salt but you also don’t want to overfill it either.
Here’s why.
Can I overfill a water softener with salt?
Yes, a water softener can be overfilled with salt. There’s no need to do this and it’s best not to.
While an older style softener with a very large container already offers you potentially months of salt capacity by filling it to the top, newer models may have smaller salt containers that do need to be filled more frequently.
But there are more specific reasons you shouldn’t overfill a water softener salt container as it can do the following which we’ll discuss below
Problems you can experience when filling your salt container
There are several reasons why underfilling your salt container can cause you trouble as we discussed above.
Several other problems can occur with your salt container when you overfill the container.
Salt bridge – A salt bridge occurs when salt gets stuck on the sides of the container and crusts over, blocking salt above it from falling to the bottom to dissolve into brine. This occurs as the salt beneath it dissolves and is used to produce brine. Your salt dispenser appears to be full when you look inside but in fact no or very little salt is entering the system as it’s effectively blocked at the bottom.
The excessive weight of the salt from the top can cause salt pellets at the bottom to jam up and cause a bridge which inhibits its ability to properly dissolve in the water at the bottom to be used as brine. No brine = no soft water.
To fix it you can gently knock the salt with a broom handle or other device to loosen it and when the pile of salt drops slightly, you’ll know you had a bridge. This should loosen the salt and get the system working again.
Salt mush – This is when salt water brine at the bottom of the tank gets very mushy just like it sounds. Over time, the salt mush can effectively block the system from properly regenerating and thus inhibiting your ability to receive softened water.
If knocking down the salt with a broom handle as mentioned above doesn’t help, it’s possible you have salt mush and will need to manually empty the salt container to see what the problem is.
Over time, an older water softener brine tank that has never been cleaned many eventually experience salt mush especially if you use lower quality or the wrong salt. Even good quality pellets can cause mush.
Inconvenience – This is another one I’ve experienced personally…I fill the salt container up regularly and tend to keep it very full near or at the limit. Then we experienced a problem that involves emptying the salt container to address the problem.
In our case, the salt container filled near the top with water due to a blockage so there was extra work involved to empty all the salt out to get to the blockage at the bottom and wash the salt container out.
There might be other reasons such as a leak or other damage that involves replacing the salt container that first involves emptying the brine tank of salt. The more salt you have, the more work you have to clean it out.
What maintenance does my water softener require?
Water softener maintenance depends on the model and brand you choose and how automated it is. A basic older style water softener might require washing and cleaning the brine tank from time to time to avoid salt mush as referred to above.
Replacing the resin beads in the pressurized tank is another task that might be required. Resin beads eventually wear out and turn into mush and can clog the system, causing the water flow to slow down or even stop completely.
I experienced this myself in an 10 year old water softener. I had to empty the tank of the mushy resin, wash it out and replace it with fresh resin.
A newer more automated water softener might also require a wash cycle along with a tablet added to rinse the system every 6 or 12 months.
All water softeners go through an automatic rinsing when regenerating but depending on the model your system might require extra work from time to time to maintain its level of fitness.
Summary
As you can see, you do walk a fine line between not filling a water softener salt container too frequently and not frequently enough.
You don’t want to run out of salt which is the topic of this article. But you also don’t want to overfill your salt container and cause some of the problems we refer to above.
If you have frequent problems with salt bridges, mushes and other issues, double check to see if you can find a better quality or more appropriate type of salt for your system. White pellets tend to work the best but check to see what your water softener manufacturer recommends.
To be safe, keep the salt container at least half full at all times in case you forget and don’t get around to filling it for awhile. That way you aren’t overfilling it but won’t run out either.
Also follow maintenance requirements as it will help to ensure the water softener functions at top condition and doesn’t have to be replaced prematurely.
Click here for more water softener related topics on this website that I’ve written about my personal experiences!