Most of the Denver metro has hard water. Not "a little spotty on the glasses" hard, but "the water heater is full of scale and the shower valve cartridge seized" hard. A softener sized for your house, and maintained, fixes that.
What hard water does to a house
Hardness is mostly dissolved calcium and magnesium. When water is heated or evaporates, those minerals come out as scale. That's the white crust on faucet aerators and shower heads, but the expensive part is what you can't see:
- Water heaters collect sediment on the bottom of the tank, run longer to heat through it, and wear out sooner. Tankless heat exchangers scale up and lose flow.
- Valves and cartridges in faucets, toilets, and shower valves stiffen and start to drip.
- Fixtures and glass spot and etch, and soap doesn't lather well.
How hard your water is depends on which utility supplies it, and some cities blend sources that change through the year. Your water provider publishes hardness in its annual water quality report, and we can test it at your tap. Our guide compares providers: How hard is the water in your Denver-area city?
Softener, filter, or both?
They solve different problems. A water softener swaps hardness minerals out through ion exchange, which stops scale. A whole-home carbon filter removes chlorine or chloramine taste and odor but does nothing for hardness. Plenty of houses want both: the filter first, then the softener. If your only complaint is taste at the kitchen sink, a point-of-use filter or reverse-osmosis unit under the sink may be all you need.
Signs your softener isn't doing its job
- Scale is coming back on faucets and shower glass
- The salt level in the brine tank hasn't dropped in weeks, or there's a hard crust (a salt bridge) on top
- The control valve shows an error, or the clock is wrong after a power outage
- Water pressure dropped after the softener went in, which can mean the resin bed or bypass valve is the problem
- The unit is 15 years or older and needs constant resetting
What we do
- Water hardness testing at the tap, so the softener is sized to your water and household, not guessed
- New softener installs with a bypass valve, proper drain connection, and a loop for the outdoor faucets so you're not softening sprinkler water
- Whole-home filtration, and under-sink reverse osmosis for drinking water
- Softener repair: control valves, injectors, brine lines, bypass valves, and salt bridges
- Replacing old units, and hauling the old one away
You get the price before work starts. If your current softener just needs a part or a cleaning, we'll tell you that instead of selling you a new one.
Protect the water heater, too
Even with a softener, a tank water heater lasts longer with a periodic sediment flush and an anode rod check. If your heater is already 8 to 10 years old, it's worth looking at both together. Water heater repair and replacement →
From our Google reviews
“Great communication and flexible on scheduling around delivery delays, worked clean, and reasonably priced.”
“These folks installed a water heater and a house water filter for us—they were very nice and everything looks and works great.”