Franklin, Milwaukee County
Water softener installation in Franklin, WI
No single published figure · the quote starts from your house
Franklin gave up its own wells for Lake Michigan water bought from Oak Creek in the 1990s. The utility is now almost entirely on lake water, and neither utility in the chain publishes a hardness number.
Your water
Where Franklin gets its water
Franklin is served by the Franklin Water Utility, which buys treated Lake Michigan water from Oak Creek. Oak Creek draws and treats the water and Franklin distributes it. A small area along College Avenue buys directly from Milwaukee Water Works, and some older parts of the city are still on private wells.
The Franklin Water Utility publishes no hardness figure, and neither does Oak Creek, which supplies it.
Neither Franklin’s 2025 water quality report nor Oak Creek’s 2026 report lists hardness, so there is no published Franklin figure to cite, and we are not going to borrow a neighbor’s. The small area served by Milwaukee Water Works is on Milwaukee’s published figure, about 8 grains per gallon. Homes on private wells have no published figure at all.
Source: Franklin Water Utility 2025 Annual Water Quality Report; Oak Creek Water and Sewer Utility 2026 report; City of Franklin comprehensive plan
What Franklin homes usually need
- Free quote by phone
- Installed by a licensed WI plumber
- Softeners retested to zero
$3,950 installed for the ZeroGrain One: softener, activated carbon and the reverse-osmosis drinking tap. Installation by an independent licensed Wisconsin plumbing contractor is in that number, not added to it, and the date is set once the equipment is in hand and approved for use in Wisconsin (SPS 384). What a softener costs explains what the $3,950 includes. Swapping out an old unit is replacing a softener; the drinking tap is reverse osmosis installation.
Get your free quote
Takes about thirty seconds. We call you back the same or next business day.
In writing
Three things you get in writing
Every one of these is written on the quote or the agreement, not a promise on a call.
3 days
To change your mind
Three business days to cancel after you sign. Two copies of the cancellation notice come with the contract, filled in and dated.
0
Balance due before the install is complete
The agreement puts full payment at the completion of the install: the system in, running and your water retested at your tap.
30 days
The quote holds
One itemized page with every model named, so you can compare it against anyone.
A closer look
The ZeroGrain One, up close
The system in product renders: the softening tank and its brine tank, the drinking-water tap, and what is inside the tank, on one sheet.
Questions
Franklin water questions
Anything that is not here, ask it on the call.
Softening removes hardness minerals. It is not a health or safety treatment and we do not market it as one. On a private well, Wisconsin’s state-certified lab tests for bacteria and nitrates are a separate matter and not something we sell.
Lake water, bought from next door
Oak Creek draws and treats the water; Franklin buys it and runs the pipes. Neither report in that chain carries a hardness figure, so the call covers the house, the fixtures and what you notice, and the plumber reads your hardness at the tap on install day before anything is connected.
Two pockets that are different
A small area along College Avenue gets its water straight from Milwaukee Water Works, which publishes about 8 grains. And some properties in older parts of the city are still on private wells, where softening is the main job and the call asks for any lab result you already have.
How does the quote work in Franklin?
There is no single published Franklin figure, so we start from your house, not from a catalog: which supply your address is on, the fixtures and what you notice. One short call covers it, at no charge. If what we hear on the call points to softening, we size it from your household and the plumber programs it to the hardness read at your tap; if it points away from softening, the call says so plainly. On install day the plumber reads hardness, iron, pH and TDS at your tap before anything is connected, and on a softener install retests hardness at the end so you watch it read zero.
Free quote, by phone
A free quote by phone, anywhere in Franklin.
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