The numbers, in full
Specifications
Three systems, what each one is, and the standard it has to meet. Take this page to another company and ask them to match it line for line.
What is on this page, and what is not
Every row here is one of two things. Either it is a standard the equipment has to hold — which is true whichever manufacturer we buy from — or it is a figure off the sheet for the exact unit you are quoted, which is named on your quote with its certification listing so you can look it up yourself.
What you will not find is a media weight or a grain rating stated as though it were settled. We have not signed the supply agreement yet. When a row is not final, it says so here instead of borrowing a number from somebody else’s catalog.
If you are comparing quotes: ask for the model number and the certification listing, not the marketing name. A “48,000 grain” softener built on 1.2 cubic feet of resin only reaches that rating at a salt dose almost nobody actually runs. The honest comparison is cubic feet of resin, the valve, and the certification.
The three systems
- The ZeroGrain One — the whole house. Softener and activated carbon at the point of entry, plus the reverse-osmosis tap at the kitchen sink. $4,950 installed.
- The ZeroGrain Two — the well version. The same architecture with iron treatment ahead of the softener, for the private wells that carry it. Quoted from your test, because iron is the one variable that genuinely changes the design.
- The ZeroGrain Tap — reverse osmosis on its own, at the sink. Only sold where the feed water is already inside the membrane’s limits. See the next section.
Point of entry
The tank that does the work
One vessel, ten inches across and fifty-four tall, holding a mixed bed — softening resin and activated carbon together over a gravel underbed, so the hardness and the chlorine taste come out in the same pass. A brine tank sits beside it for the salt. It goes where the water enters the house, so everything downstream — the heater, the dishwasher, every fixture — gets treated water.
The valve is the part worth asking about. It is a ceramic-disc rotary valve, and it regenerates on the volume you have actually used rather than on a clock, which is the difference between a system that wastes salt every week and one that does not. Ceramic discs are also the part the manufacturer warrants for life.
A tank size is not a spec. Ask any company for the cubic feet of media, the valve and the certification listing — those three decide what it does, and a photograph of a cylinder tells you none of them. Ours are 1.5 cubic feet, a ceramic-disc rotary valve, and a certification listing named on your quote with the model number. Ask us the same three questions, and ask whoever quotes you next.
Illustration, not a photograph. The model and its certification listing are named on your quote.
Illustration, not a photograph. The model and its certification listing are named on your quote.
Point of use
The tap the drinking water comes off
A five-stage reverse-osmosis unit under the kitchen sink, rated fifty gallons a day, with a storage tank and its own dedicated faucet beside the main one. This is the tap that fills a glass, a kettle, a coffee maker — and the dog bowl, which is its own argument.
The faucet comes in brushed nickel, chrome, matte black, brushed gold or oil-rubbed bronze. It is the only part of this system you will look at every day, so pick the one that matches the sink rather than the one that matches the tank in the basement.
Filters are consumable and get changed on a schedule, not a warranty. Six to twelve months depending on your water and how much you drink.
| Stage | What it is | Standard | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Point of entry — softening | Cation-exchange resin, demand-metered valve | NSF/ANSI 44 | Sized from your measured hardness, iron, household size and peak flow. The quote names the model and its certification listing so you can look it up yourself. |
| Point of entry — filtration | Granular activated carbon | NSF/ANSI 42 | Chlorine taste and odor on city water. These are two jobs with two standards, not necessarily two tanks — on the city-water build the carbon shares the softening vessel as a mixed bed. On a well, iron treatment takes this position and gets its own. |
| Point of use — drinking water | Reverse osmosis, under the kitchen sink | NSF/ANSI 58 | A dedicated tap beside the main faucet. Feed-water limits apply — see below, because on most water around here they decide the whole design. |
| Installation | Independent licensed Wisconsin plumbing contractor | Wis. Stat. ch. 145 | Softener drain lines and RO reject lines are a direct connection to a drain, which Wisconsin treats as plumbing. The permit is pulled in the plumber’s own name. |
| Device approval | Wisconsin DSPS Permit to Operate | SPS 381.20 | Wisconsin approves water treatment devices before they are sold or installed in the state, separately from any national certification. We supply equipment that carries it. |
Standards are the NSF/ANSI numbers for each job. Wisconsin device approval is Wis. Admin. Code SPS 381.20; the plumbing requirement is Wis. Stat. ch. 145.
The line on the spec sheet nobody shows you
Every reverse-osmosis membrane has a feed-water table, and it is on page one of the sheet. A typical residential unit in this class specifies a maximum feed hardness of about seven grains per gallon, along with limits on iron, manganese, chlorine and pressure.
Read that number again against your own town. Brookfield publishes 23 to 34. Hartland’s Consumer Confidence Report calls its water approximately 23. Germantown publishes 24. Cedarburg publishes 21 to 24.
On any of those, a softener ahead of the membrane is not an upsell attached to the reverse-osmosis order. It is the reverse-osmosis unit’s own published feed-water specification, and running a membrane past it shortens the membrane’s life. That is the whole reason the ZeroGrain One is one system instead of two products.
If anyone quotes you reverse osmosis alone for a 23-grain well, ask them to show you the feed-water table for the unit they are selling. It is on page one of every spec sheet in this category, including ours. We will name the exact figure for your unit on your quote.
How the softener is sized
Four numbers, and the first one has to be measured at your own tap:
- Your hardness, in grains per gallon, read on the spot in front of you.
- Iron, because iron loads the resin and is treated ahead of it, not by it.
- Household size, which sets daily demand.
- Peak flow, which sets the valve and the tank diameter.
Multiply hardness by daily use and you have the grains the system removes between regenerations. Size it too small and it runs out on a Saturday with a full house; size it too large and it wastes salt every week forever. That is why the visit starts with the test and ends with the number, and never the other way around.
Every system starts with a measured number, not a catalog.
Get a quote
Free, at your kitchen table
Get the spec sheet for your house
We read your water at your own tap, then quote the exact models with their certification listings on one itemized page.
- We test. Hardness, iron, chlorine and TDS, read on the spot in front of you. Nothing leaves for a lab.
- We quote. One page, itemized, good for 30 days. Take it, compare it, sleep on it.
- A licensed plumber installs. Its own scheduled visit, permit pulled, and it is included in the price. A morning’s work.
- We retest to zero. On a softener install, the same test again, and you watch the number land.
In writing, before you sign: Wisconsin’s three-business-day right to cancel an in-home sale, no final payment until the system is installed and verified, and the complete written warranty. Terms apply.
Three things you get in writing
“Trust us” isn’t a policy. These are.
Every one of these is a document you can hold before you owe anything.