You need to identify the system and you might find the manual you need here...

http://eculligan.com/service-manuals/manuals.php

The manual will cover basic operation.

A water softener sitting for an extended period of time is a bad thing. Seals can dry out and resin can foul.

For a minimum charge your Culligan dealer might send a tech out to estimate what returning the softener to service would cost. Then you would have that knowledge to start with.

Did you just not pit salt in the brine tank or is the softener bypassed?

Thanks justalurker. We did take your advice and had a Culligan service person come out yesterday and take a look. We had a extra tank which wasn't described in any of the manuals so we decided we needed an expert to tell us what was what.

As it turns out, the water softener is fine but the extra tank which is the acid neutralizer isn't. So we are going to continue with our bypass of the softener for now. We just can't cough up the $$$ for a new neutralizer at the moment and Culligan doesn't recommend running the softener without the neutralizer.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

If there's an acid neutralizer then your water has low pH which can damage plumbing, fixtures, and appliances.

Paying a plumber to repair pinhole leaks one by one and the damage the leaks can cause would be far more expensive than repairing the treatment hardware.

Could be that the neutralizer only needs new media which should not be that expensive.

What did the Culligan tech quote you?

It may be an expense you should consider seriously.