Water Softeners and Air Filtration Systems - What steps to do maintenance on a softener?

I seem to notice that our water isn't as soft as it used to be. I was wondering if there is something I could do to run manual maintenance on the softener.

The red dial on the panel has the following settings

Backwash
Brine and Rinse
Brine Refill and Purge
Service
Start (Could the start be the start of the entire cycle?) Should I set it there and hope it goes thru it's clean, recharge cycle manually?

I am new to this as we just bought the house about two months ago.

Also one more thing can is all salt the same? I was looking at Lowes and they carry like 5 different types. The water tastes fine but I would like to get something to allow the water to be a tad softer if possible?

Thanks for your help with this and your guidance!
Spankey

Sorry for jumping the gun gang. We bought this house from an older woman who lived alone. I just found this site here Guide to Water Softener Adjustment & Maintenance (http://www.inspect-ny.com/septic/Water_Softener_Maintenance.htm)

And read up on some info. My control panel looks near to this one but has a better time dial.

I set it to start to do a manual cycle and also set it to cycle every other day compared to the once a week it was originally set too. Every other day might be over kill so I will see how it goes (More salt consumption I presume) and then adjust to every 2 days from there if needed.

We noticed when we first moved in that the water was so slippery when showering and such. Then after about a month it got sticky and the slip was gone.

This compelled me to look into the softener and see what could be done.

Again, sorry for jumping the gun but maybe someone can use the above as a good read?

Spankey:)

This is a link for a manual.
http://www.ewateronline.net/images/pdf/Autotrol_155-440.pdf
What you need to know is....hardness level, iron level and total amount of resin to determine when the unit must regenerate. Guessing could be costly as far as salt cost.

Spankey that is an Autotrol 440 series timer. If you google image search it you can probably find the exact one you have and keep the picture to post here if you need help understanding how it works. It's a very simple design and easily adjustable.

There are electronic "meter controlled" timers available for that unit as well which are pretty easily installed if you are mechanically inclined and can do a little plumbing.

I'm a big proponent of the Autotrol brand (probably 90% of my company sales) as it is the best bang-for-the-buck professional valve on the market - in my opinion.

Thanks guys! It makes me feel a little better to know the control unit we have is a decent one!

I will read up on it.

Greatly appreciated :)