How it works
Five steps, in the same order, for every home.
Test, design, licensed install, retest, care. The order matters. Equipment chosen before anyone knows what’s in the water is a guess, and you deserve better than a guess.
Step 1: Test before anyone recommends anything
On a private well: a certified-lab panel
Nobody tests a private well for you. The utility rules that cover city water don’t apply, so the only way to know what’s in your well is to send a sample to a state-certified laboratory.
A typical well panel looks at:
- Bacteria (total coliform and E. coli), which decides whether disinfection belongs in the design.
- pH, because acidic water can corrode copper plumbing and changes which filters will work.
- Iron and manganese, the usual causes of orange and black staining.
- Hardness, the only reason to consider a softener.
- Arsenic, lead, nitrate and other metals, where the right equipment depends on the exact number.
- Radon and uranium where local geology makes them worth checking.
North Carolina has required testing of newly constructed wells since 2008, but hardness, radon and uranium aren’t on the required list (NC Department of Health and Human Services). If you have a new-well report, it’s a good start, not the whole picture. See how to read new well test results.
On city or town water: start with your utility’s own report
Every community water system publishes an annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). It lists what the utility tested for, what it found, and how that compares with federal limits. It’s the most thorough test of your water you’ll ever see, and it’s free.
We read it with you. For most Charlotte-area city homes the useful questions are about taste, chlorine odor, disinfection byproducts and, in some towns, PFAS. Hardness usually isn’t one of them.
We add a home-specific test only when the CCR can’t answer the question. The common case is lead in an older home, because lead usually comes from household plumbing, not the utility’s mains.
Compare our testing options or see the Charlotte-area water report.
32 mg/L
Charlotte Water hardness
About 1.9 grains per gallon, soft by USGS standards. One reason testing comes before any softener talk.
Source: Charlotte Water, 2025 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report (2025)
21%
Union County wells above the arsenic limit
Of 2,993 private-well samples. You can’t see, smell or taste it, so only a lab test answers the question.
Source: NC Division of Water Resources, Union County Groundwater Assessment Report (2015)
What you won’t see from us: TDS meters, color-change drops or electrolysis demos presented as proof of contamination. They don’t measure what they appear to. Here’s why we don’t use them.
Step 2: Design follows the results
Water treatment equipment is specific. A filter built for iron won’t touch arsenic. Arsenic treatment depends on which form of arsenic is present. Acidic water needs to be neutralized before some filters will work. A softener sized for one hardness level is the wrong size for another.
That’s why the design comes second. Once we have results, we map each finding to the equipment that addresses it, and we leave out anything your results don’t support. Then we put it in a written quote that lists each piece of equipment, what it’s for and which NSF/ANSI standard it’s certified to.
Sometimes the honest design is nothing at all, or a single drinking-water system at the kitchen sink. If that’s the answer, that’s what we’ll tell you.
Where designs usually land
- City water, taste or chlorine: carbon filtration or a kitchen RO
- Wells with staining or low pH: neutralizers and iron filters
- Multiple lab-confirmed issues: a combined well package
Step 3: A licensed independent plumber installs it
We sell equipment, service plans and testing. We don’t do plumbing work. Tying a whole-house system into your home’s water supply is plumbing, and in North Carolina and South Carolina that work belongs to a licensed contractor.
So the installation is a separate agreement directly between you and an independent plumbing contractor licensed in your state. The plumber quotes the installation, schedules it, pulls any permit your jurisdiction requires, and stands behind their own workmanship. You pay the plumber for the installation and us for the equipment.
We coordinate the handoff so the right equipment is on site and the plumber has the design. But the contract for the work, and the license that covers it, are the plumber’s.
Step 4: Retest to confirm it works
Every system is certified to reduce specific things under test conditions. Your water isn’t a lab bench, so we check. After the system has been running, we test the treated water for the same things that drove the design: iron on an iron filter, arsenic on an arsenic system, pH after a neutralizer.
If the numbers aren’t where they should be, we find out why, whether that’s a setting, a sizing issue or something the first test didn’t catch. You get the retest results in writing, next to the originals, so you can see the difference for yourself.
Step 5: Care, so it keeps working
Filters load up, resin wears, UV lamps age. Treatment that worked well the first year can drift if nobody looks after it. Our optional Care Plan covers scheduled filter changes, an annual certified-lab test and priority service.
It’s optional. If you’d rather handle maintenance yourself, we’ll give you the schedule and the part numbers. Care Plans also cover systems you already own, whatever the brand.
Questions about the process
Do I have to buy anything after the test?
No. The test result is yours to keep. If your water doesn't need treatment, we'll tell you that in writing, and that's the end of it.
Why don't you just recommend a system at the first visit?
Because the right system depends on numbers we don't have yet. Iron, manganese, pH, hardness and arsenic each change what equipment makes sense and how it's sized. Guessing first and testing later is how homes end up with the wrong equipment.
Who installs the equipment, and who do I pay for it?
An independent plumbing contractor licensed in your state installs it under a separate agreement directly with you. Our quote covers equipment, service plans and testing only. The plumber quotes, schedules and warranties their own installation work.
Is city water tested the same way as a well?
Usually not. Your utility already tests its water and publishes the results every year in a Consumer Confidence Report. We start there, then add a home-specific test only when there's a reason to, such as an older home where lead from household plumbing is a question.
What happens after installation?
We retest to confirm the system is doing what it's certified to do. After that, an optional Care Plan covers filter changes, an annual certified-lab test and priority service.
Start with step one.
Tell us about your home and water source. We’ll tell you which test makes sense, and only recommend what the results support.