Questions and answers

Our City Water Package is $3,299 installed. That covers a whole-home softener with carbon filtration, a 5-stage drinking-water system at your kitchen sink, the permit where your town requires one, and tax. Homes on private wells or on water over 25 grains per gallon start at $4,499, quoted in writing after a water test.

Read what is included and what can change it.

The City Water Package covers three things:

• A whole-home system where your water comes in: it softens the water, and carbon filtration cuts down the chlorine taste and smell. It comes with a metered valve and a salt tank, plus the first fill of salt.
• A 5-stage reverse osmosis drinking-water system under your kitchen sink, with its own faucet.
• A standard installation by our plumbers, the permit where your town requires one, and water tests before we leave.

Tax is included. A few things can change a price, and they're all listed on How it works. Any that apply to your home go on your written quote before you sign.

Yes. The $3,299 City Water Package includes standard installation by our plumbers, the permit where your town requires one, and tax. Anything that could add to it is listed on How it works and goes on your written quote before you sign.

Chicago's water is hard (7.6 to 8.8 grains per gallon, the city's own figure), so a softener is a choice, not a need. That figure falls in the "hard" band of the U.S. Geological Survey hardness scale. Hard water leaves white crust on faucets and shower glass and builds up scale in water heaters. Whether that is worth fixing is your call. If it doesn't bother you, you don't need a softener.

Read Chicago's water report in plain English for the rest of the numbers.

It depends on how much hard water bothers you. Chicago's water measures 7.6 to 8.8 grains per gallon (the city's own figure), which leaves white crust on faucets and shower glass and builds scale in water heaters. If that does not bother you, skip the softener. If it does, ours is $3,299 installed, and the upkeep is checking the salt about once a month and changing the drinking-water filters about once a year.

What is included and what can change the price. On sodium, see how much a softener adds; on upkeep, what the system needs.

A softener swaps the hardness minerals (calcium and magnesium) for a small amount of sodium, which cuts scale. A carbon filter reduces the chlorine taste and smell. Our whole-house system does both where the water enters your home, so every indoor tap gets it.

The drinking-water faucet at your kitchen sink is a separate reverse osmosis system, for drinking and cooking.

See a softener, a carbon filter, reverse osmosis and a salt-free conditioner side by side.

A traditional softener swaps the hardness minerals (calcium and magnesium) for sodium, which removes the hardness. A salt-free conditioner does not remove the hardness minerals: the EPA says it conditions them to reduce scale buildup, and the Water Quality Association describes the same job as counteracting scale buildup without salt.

Whatever you consider, ask to see the certification listing for the exact model, because a certification covers only what its listing names. We install salt-based softeners. See all four side by side.

City water: no. Your town tests its water all year and publishes the results in an annual water quality report. On your Free Water Check we pull up that report with you. On install day, our plumbers also check your hardness and water pressure before connecting anything.

Private well: yes. A well has no utility report, so we won't guess. We test hardness, iron, pH and dissolved solids from a sample bottle at no charge, and point you to a certified lab for anything more, like bacteria, nitrate or radium.

If you pay a water bill to your city or village, you're on city water. That's true even if your town pumps its water from wells, like Joliet and Batavia do.

If you get no water bill and there's a pressure tank near where the water comes in (usually blue or gray, with a gauge), you're probably on a private well. Still not sure? Pick "Not sure" on the form and we'll work it out together.

No. Instead of a sales visit, you text us four photos:

• where your water line comes in, with the meter
• the spot nearby where the system would sit
• under your kitchen sink
• your countertop next to the sink

Our plumbers review them before install day, so there are no surprises. The install is the only visit.

About 4 to 5 hours for a standard install. Your water is off for about 1 to 2 hours of that, so fill a pitcher beforehand. An adult needs to be home the whole time.

Our plumbers. We install your system, test it in front of you, and show you how it works before we leave. Every install must pass our 9-photo, 4-water-test checklist. Inside Chicago, we use copper pipe.

Ask any company doing plumbing work in your home for its license number, then look it up on the Illinois Department of Public Health's plumbing license lookup. The lookup shows whether the license is current.

Yes. If your town requires a permit for the install, we pull it, and it's included in the package price.

The equipment carries its manufacturers' warranties. Your written quote lists the warranty terms for your exact equipment, so you can read them before you sign.

Yes, in two halves. You pay 50% when you book your install date, and the other 50% when the install passes our checklist: the 9 photos, the 4 water tests and your sign-off. Tax is included in the price.

Your written quote shows both amounts and when each one is due. Read it before you pay anything.

If you cancel before we order your equipment, we refund your booking payment in full. If we can't go ahead with your install, we refund it in full.

Every result in Chicago's 2025 Water Quality Report passed. Lead is the exception people ask about: the citywide 90th-percentile result was 8.2 to 9.4 parts per billion, under the federal action level of 15, but some individual homes tested above it, which is why the city offers free lead testing. The same report lists three monitoring and notification violations. Two were missed continuous checks on the cloudiness (turbidity) of individual filters, in April and May 2025, and the report says there were no issues with turbidity leaving the treatment plant. The third was a failure to certify to the state that annual lead service line notices had gone out; the city says they were sent in 2025. You can read it here: City of Chicago's 2025 Water Quality Report.

Lead is a common question. In Chicago, lead comes from older service lines and plumbing inside homes, not from the treatment plant, and the city counts about 412,000 lead or suspected-lead service lines (the city's service line inventory). A softener does not remove lead. Chicago residents can request a free lead test kit from the city.

The City of Chicago says it sampled its drinking water for PFAS in 2014, 2020 and 2024 (and for PFOS, one type of PFAS, in 2011), and that every study came back non-detect: if any PFAS was present, it was too low for the laboratory instruments to detect. Read the City of Chicago's PFAS findings page. We make no claim that our equipment reduces PFAS.

No, and we won't tell you it does. In Chicago, lead comes from older service lines and plumbing inside homes, not from the treatment plant.

If lead is your concern, start with a real test of your own tap. Chicago residents can request a free lead test kit from the city.

Whether a drinking-water system reduces lead depends on its certification. We won't say ours does until the exact model's certification listing shows it, and we send you that listing before you buy.

Not right now. A whole-home system ties into the building's plumbing, so it's the owner's call, and most condos share one water line with the whole building.

If you rent, a pitcher or faucet filter whose packaging lists lead reduction is a sensible step, and in Chicago you can request the city's free lead test. Own a two-flat or three-flat? Ask us. It depends on how the water lines run.

Check the salt tank about once a month and top it up when it's low. The drinking-water filters need changing about once a year, and we'll text you a reminder when it's time.

Chicago's single-family neighborhoods and the suburbs in Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane, Kendall, McHenry, Lake counties. The full list is on Service areas. Don't see your town? Ask. If we can't install there yet, we'll say so.