Since the salt is consumed by being dissolved by the water in the brine tank and then used up during regeneration, if the water softener isn’t using salt it either thinks it doesn’t need to regenerate or it isn’t regenerating and won’t be softening your water for your family. Check the most obvious items first: 1) How do you know it’s not working? Sometimes you might think it isn’t working but it actually is, the only way you know for sure is by having it tested. If you don’t have anyone locally that can test the water for you for hardness, just mail us a sample and we’ll test it for you for free! 2) Is your water softener using salt? 3) Is the water softener plugged in and the display illuminated? If not this video will help you with sorting that out. 4) Make sure your water softener is not bypassed. Check the built in bypass of the water softener and also check to see if there is an external bypass within the plumbing that may be open around the water softener. 5) If your water softener is a metered softener, run some water from a treated faucet in the house to see if the water softener is sensing flow, if not, your meter is not working. This video has more info on that topic. 6) Check to see if you have a salt clog or bridge. I have a great video here that shows you how to remove a salt clog. 7) Run the water softener through a manual regeneration. If it doesn’t start or stops part way through the regeneration cycle, either the motor has stopped working or the piston is seized inside the valve so you would either need to replace the motor, rebuild the valve or replace the water softener. 8) How old is your water softener? I have a great video here that you may want to check out but they do have a life span and it may just be worn out which means you will want to click this link to take advantage of our discount pricing and free shipping to replace your water softener. Please share this video https://youtu.be/ZG93k-_4pkA Check out all of our Water Softener videos here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmnBltD77jBUUVlBSGEM-WmGgGAPC8-Au