On Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:34:41 -0800, DW1015 wrote:

Ok, I'm RENTING a house that has hard water and has a water softener.
I had been in the house for a couple of months and realized that the
salt level in the softener never changed. The system IS NOT ON
BYPASS, I made sure of that, I'm getting water flow. When I went to
poke around in the salt, i realized that it is a solid block. It
looks like the pellets in the bag, but they are fused together. So
from about halfway down the tank to the bottom is a solid chunk of
salt. How can I break up/dissolve the salt without removing the
tank??? I am not going to pay a plumber to come out, and the owner of
the house doesn't feel it is worth his time/money. The hard water
bothers my skin, so I would like to find a way to fix this. Any
suggestions???

I wouldn't break up the salt pellets in the brine tank. You might
punture the tank that are usually plastic. My softener uses salt blocks.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/...pec ial=false
My guess is the timer is not set correctly.