(704) 773-5121 Book my free water test

Water Filtration and Softening in Charlotte, NC

Here is the thing most water companies working in Charlotte will not tell you: the city’s water is soft.

Charlotte Water’s 2025 report puts total hardness at 32 milligrams per litre, about two grains per gallon, which sits comfortably inside the soft band. If someone is quoting you a water softener for a house on Charlotte city water, ask them to show you that number before they show you a price.

We install water filtration and softening across Mecklenburg County at two published rates, $2,900 installed for a city home and $4,500 for a well, and we run a free test that ends, fairly often, with us telling you that you do not need us.

Charlotte Water, 2025 report

What is actually in Charlotte’s water.

Charlotte Water draws from Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman in the Catawba basin, treats it at three plants named Franklin, Dukes and Vest, and moves about 125 million gallons a day through more than 4,664 miles of pipe. Nothing below is printed without the report it came from.

Hardness and disinfectant

The two numbers a salesperson should show you first

  • Soft. Total hardness 32 mg/L, range 27 to 35, unregulated. That is about 1.87 grains per gallon by our own conversion, and no utility here prints grains.
  • Free chlorine, not chloramine. Running annual average 1.04 ppm, range 0.47 to 1.60, against an MRDL of 4.0. The word chloramine does not appear in the document.
  • Fluoride 0.65 ppm, range 0.04 to 0.81, against a limit of 4.

Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report · read it

Disinfection byproducts

What chlorination leaves behind

  • Trihalomethanes 63.7 ppb at the highest locational running annual average, against an 80 ppb federal limit. Individual locations ran 17.2 to 77.4.
  • Haloacetic acids 22.9 ppb, range 10.4 to 24.5, against a 60 ppb limit.
  • Both compliant. Neither is zero. Carbon filtration is what reduces them.

Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report · read it

PFAS, lead and violations

The part most companies get wrong

  • PFOA and PFOS were not detected. Three unregulated compounds were: PFBA 2.1, PFHxA 2.2 and PFPeA 2.5 parts per trillion. None of those three carries a federal limit.
  • Lead: 90th percentile non-detect, but one site above the 15 ppb action level, across a range of ND to 44 ppb.
  • Charlotte Water on its own service-line inventory: “To date, no lead pipes have been found.”
  • “During 2025, we received zero drinking water violations.”

Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report · read it

Two of those numbers are worth stopping on. Trihalomethanes at 63.7 ppb are what is left after chlorination does a necessary job, and the Environmental Working Group’s health-based benchmark for the same compounds is far lower than the federal limit. Those benchmarks are set by an advocacy organisation and are not enforceable standards, and Charlotte met every federal standard. Whether you filter is a judgment about the standard you want in your own house, not a question about whether the utility is doing its job. And lead is not a Charlotte Water problem. It is a plumbing problem, and EPA says so plainly: the most common sources are lead pipes, faucets and fixtures inside the building. If your house was built before 1986, the fixtures in it are the variable, and that is one of the things a test at your own tap can tell you.

Published pricing

Two standard rates. Both on this page.

A house is either on city water or on a well, so there are two prices. They are the same in every house we install in, they are the same on the invoice, and they do not move because you seem interested or because it is a Friday afternoon.

If you are on city water

The city water system

$2,900installed · about $121/mo, 24 months at 0%
  • Whole-house filtration plus softening, at the point water enters the house
  • Treated water at every tap, shower, ice maker and appliance
  • Takes down chlorine and the trihalomethanes disinfection leaves behind
  • Licensed install, tested before we leave, old equipment hauled away
  • Lifetime tank and valve warranty
Book my free water test
If you are on a well

The well water system

$4,500installed · about $188/mo, 24 months at 0%
  • Multi-stage treatment for iron, manganese, sulfur, sediment and low pH
  • Built for Piedmont bedrock wells in York, Lancaster, Union and Gaston
  • Softening sized to the well’s hardness reading, where it genuinely earns its keep
  • Same install standard, same warranty
  • Lifetime tank and valve warranty
Book my free water test

A premium national dealer quotes $7,500 to $11,000 for a comparable full system in this market. Ours are $2,900 and $4,500, installed, published. We are not going to characterize that gap with an adjective.

Market survey of the Charlotte metro, July 2026, compiled from Angi, HomeAdvisor, HomeGuide and published Culligan, Kinetico, RainSoft and EcoWater dealer quotes

Custom is quoted, and it usually costs less. If your house needs less than the standard system, a drinking-water system but no softening, say, that is quoted on its own and it lands under the standard rate. The standard is a ceiling for a typical house, not a starting point.

Every price we publish, installed: $2,900 city mixed-bed system with RO · $3,500 dual-tank city system with RO · $4,500 well system · $2,300 coconut-carbon or $2,500 catalytic-carbon system with RO, no softening · $700 tankless RO on its own. See the full pricing page for what each rate covers and what it costs to own.

Nobody publishes a lower installed price. Find one, we’ll beat it.

That stands against both rates, the $2,900 and the $4,500.

Published, installed, like-for-like, Charlotte metro. Show us a competitor’s own published installed price for a comparable whole-home system in our service area and we will beat it. It has to be a number they printed, not one somebody said in a kitchen, because a price nobody will print is not a price.

Send us the page

What we usually recommend in Charlotte

For most homes on Charlotte city water: carbon filtration at the point of entry, and reverse osmosis at the kitchen tap. The first handles chlorine and its byproducts at every shower and every faucet. The second handles what you drink and cook with.

Not a softener. At 32 mg/L there is very little for a softener to remove, and putting one into a Charlotte city home is the single most common piece of over-selling in this market.

The exceptions are real, though. If you are on a private well in the outer parts of the county, or you are seeing scale or staining that the city numbers do not explain, the answer changes, and the only way to know which situation you are in is to measure it.

Charlotte areas we serve

Uptown, Dilworth, Myers Park, SouthPark, Ballantyne, University City, NoDa, Plaza Midwood, Steele Creek, Highland Creek, Providence, Cotswold, Elizabeth, Madison Park, Berewick, and the rest of Mecklenburg County. Same two rates everywhere on that list, with no travel surcharge and no county-line pricing.

Where to go next

How the free test works

About 45 minutes, at your own kitchen tap. We read hardness, chlorine, total dissolved solids, pH and iron while you watch, and you keep the readings whether you buy anything or not. Nobody here works on commission.

  1. Book the test

    Pick a time, including weekday evenings and Saturday mornings. It takes about 45 minutes and it costs nothing.

  2. We measure

    Hardness, chlorine, total dissolved solids, pH and iron, read at your kitchen tap while you watch. You keep the readings.

  3. You get a number

    The standard rate if the standard build is what your water needs, or a smaller custom number if it is not. Plus the running cost for the first year. Written down before we leave.

  4. We install

    Usually inside the same week. Licensed install, tested on the spot, old equipment hauled away.

Charlotte questions, answered with the report

Is Charlotte’s tap water hard?

No. Charlotte Water’s 2025 report puts total hardness at 32 mg/L, about two grains per gallon, which is in the soft range. Most Charlotte homes on city water do not need a water softener, and we will tell you so after we test.

Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report

Is Charlotte’s tap water safe to drink?

Charlotte Water recorded zero drinking water violations in 2025 and meets every federal standard. “Legal” and “the standard you want in your own house” are different questions, though. The same report puts trihalomethanes at a 63.7 ppb system-high running average against an 80 ppb limit, and carbon filtration reduces them.

Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report

Does Charlotte’s water have PFAS?

Charlotte Water’s 2025 report shows PFOA and PFOS were not detected. Three unregulated PFAS compounds, PFBA, PFHxA and PFPeA, were detected at 2.1 to 2.5 parts per trillion, and none of those three carries a federal limit. The 4 ppt limit EPA set in April 2024 covers PFOA and PFOS. Reverse osmosis removes PFAS from drinking water if you want them out regardless.

Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report · EPA PFAS national primary drinking water regulation, April 2024

All questions

Get your free water test.

Takes about 45 minutes. You get the readings, the recommendation and the price in writing: the standard flat rate if the standard build is right, a smaller number if it is not, and nothing at all if you do not need us.

Call or text
(704) 773-5121
Email
hello@standardwaternc.com
Hours
Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm · Sat 9am to 2pm
Service area
Charlotte, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill, Concord, Gastonia, Monroe, Indian Trail, Waxhaw, Weddington, Marvin, Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Indian Land and Lake Wylie. Full list
Standard rates
City water system $2,900 installed, about $121 a month at 24 months, 0%. Well water system $4,500 installed, about $188 a month. Custom is quoted, and it usually costs less.

Book my free water test

Takes 30 seconds. No obligation.

Every price published, installed. Pick the closest one — the free test confirms it, and custom is quoted and usually costs less.

100% free · No obligation · We will tell you if you do not need us

Call Free water test