"NickW" wrote in message
ps.com...
We moved into a house with one of these installed. There were no
instructions left for it.

Is it just a case of:

- making sure the relevant valves are open

Yes, usually there are three, one in, one out, and one bypass - the bypass
valve is situated between the inlet and outlet, before the other valves -
this should be OFF, the inlet and outlet should be on.

- making sure there is enough salt in there

Yup

- turning it on...?

We tried this and it continually kicks out water down its waste pipe.
Is this normal or is something wrong?

There are usually two waste pipes, one of them is an overflow, and one is a
drain - the overflow should not pass any water in normal operation, however,
if it has been played about with, it might do for the first cycle.

When you say constantly, how long did you leave it doing it?
When it is regenerating, ion exchange water softeners throw out water,
chucking out all the limescale.

Sparks...