Guides
The long reads on this site
Every figure in these comes from a published source, named and linked beside it, or from the quote itself. If you are trying to work out what your own water actually needs, start with the hardness guide; if you are trying to work out what it costs, start with the cost guide.
Your number
Hard water in southeastern Wisconsin
What a grain is, why the groundwater here runs as hard as it does, and what each of the thirty-three towns publishes, with the utility named beside each one.
Read the guide →
Grooming
Does hard water affect a dog’s coat?
What hard water does at bath time, what the evidence does and does not support, and the sodium a softener adds.
Read the guide →
The process
From the quote to zero grains
Four stages, what each one involves and in what order, so you know exactly what you are agreeing to before you commit to anything.
Read it through →
Cost
What a water softener costs in Waukesha County
The one published installed price, what it covers, what salt and filters run, and how the one-page quote works.
Read the guide →
Drinking water
Reverse osmosis installation, town by town
Lake supply or wells decides whether reverse osmosis comes first or last. What the installation involves, and every town’s supply and figure.
See the RO page →
Waukesha
Water softeners in Waukesha
About 8 grains now, down from around 21. What the October 2023 switch changed, and what the city’s softener rule asks of a softener today.
See the Waukesha page →
Replacement
Replacing a water softener
When it is done, what a swap in the existing loop involves, and why the old tank’s size is not an input.
Read the guide →Settings
What to set your softener to, town by town
What Brookfield, Menomonee Falls, Waukesha, Hartford and West Bend publish, and how to turn a lab result into grains.
Read the guide →
Code
Timer vs demand softeners, and Wisconsin code
What the state plumbing code asks of a softener install, and why a timer unit wastes salt.
Read the guide →
Private wells
How to test your well water
Where Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee county well owners send a sample, and what to test for.
Read the guide →
Start here
Do you need a water softener?
What Waukesha County’s utilities publish for groundwater, and what Milwaukee Water Works says about lake water.
Read the guide →Salt
Potassium chloride or salt?
What SE Wisconsin sewer utilities say about the two, and what actually cuts chloride.
Read the guide →Free quote, by phone
Whatever you read first, the quote is free.
One short call, about fifteen minutes. We size from your town’s published number, or your well’s lab result, and your household, and you end the call with a one-page itemized quote.
- Free quote by phone
- Installed by a licensed WI plumber
- Softeners retested to zero