Most of Matthews is on Charlotte Water. Not all of it.
The Town of Matthews says so on its own utilities page: the majority of the town’s water and sewer comes from Charlotte Water, and a small portion is served by Carolina Water Service of North Carolina. Two different suppliers, two different reports, in the same town.
So the first useful question in Matthews is not “what filter do I need.” It is “whose water am I actually drinking.” Your bill answers it in about ten seconds, and it changes the rest of the conversation.
These are the published figures for the system that serves the majority of Matthews. If your bill says Carolina Water Service of North Carolina, this page’s numbers are not yours, and that is worth knowing before anybody quotes you anything.
It is Charlotte Water, so these are Charlotte’s numbers
Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report · read it
What chlorination leaves behind
Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report · read it
The accurate version
Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report · read it
Short version: soft water at 32 mg/L, chlorine disinfection, trihalomethanes at a 63.7 ppb system-high running average against an 80 ppb limit, PFOA and PFOS not detected, zero violations in 2025. Practically, that means you do not need a softener. You may well want carbon filtration for the chlorine and its byproducts, and reverse osmosis for what you drink.
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.
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.
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.
On Charlotte Water: carbon filtration at the point of entry, reverse osmosis at the kitchen tap, and no softener.
This is where the conversation changes completely.
Two independent peer-reviewed studies of North Carolina groundwater put Union County at roughly one well in five over the federal arsenic limit. The larger of them, drawing on more than 5,100 state-laboratory tests of Union County wells, found 1,003 of 5,154 tests at or above the 10 ppb limit, with a maximum detection of 303 ppb. The statewide rate is about 2.25%.
Union County’s own environmental health department explains why: the county sits on the Carolina Slate Belt, which it says has “a greater number of drinking water wells with arsenic than other regions.”
This is not theoretical. In 2019 the county told households on one Indian Trail street not to drink or cook with their well water after arsenic testing.
Arsenic has no taste, no colour and no smell. It is not something you notice. It is something you test for, in a laboratory, because no field kit finds it.
Add the general Piedmont pattern USGS documented, radon, low pH, manganese and iron, and a well on this side of Matthews genuinely warrants testing whether or not you ever buy a system from anyone.
Eaves et al., NCWELL database, Science of the Total Environment 2022 · Sanders et al., Environment International 2012 · Union County Environmental Health · WCNC, 27 August 2019. Attributed to the peer-reviewed studies, not to NC DEQ.
Downtown Matthews, Sardis, Providence Plantation, Brightmoor, Callonwood, Stonecrest, Mint Hill, Indian Trail, Stallings and Weddington.
About 45 minutes, at your own kitchen tap. Hardness, chlorine, total dissolved solids, pH and iron, read while you watch. You keep the readings whether you buy anything or not. Arsenic and bacteria need a laboratory, and we will point you at the right one.
Pick a time, including weekday evenings and Saturday mornings. It takes about 45 minutes and it costs nothing.
Hardness, chlorine, total dissolved solids, pH and iron, read at your kitchen tap while you watch. You keep the readings.
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.
Usually inside the same week. Licensed install, tested on the spot, old equipment hauled away.
Most of Matthews is served by Charlotte Water. The Town of Matthews notes on its own utilities page that a small portion is served by Carolina Water Service of North Carolina. Your water bill tells you which one you are on.
Town of Matthews Utilities · Charlotte Water, About Us
On Charlotte Water, no. The 2025 report lists total hardness at 32 mg/L, which is soft. On a private well toward Union County it can be quite different, which is why we measure rather than assume.
Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report
Yes. Peer-reviewed analysis of state laboratory data found roughly 19.5% of Union County well tests at or above the 10 ppb federal arsenic limit, against a statewide rate near 2.25%, with a maximum detection of 303 ppb. Arsenic has no taste, colour or smell, so a laboratory test is the only way to find it.
Eaves et al., NCWELL database, Science of the Total Environment 2022 · Sanders et al., Environment International 2012
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.
