Published pricing

Two standard rates. Both on this page.

A city house and a well house are the two things a house can be, so there are two prices. There is no form in front of this page. Below is what is inside each of those numbers, what each piece costs to run, and the case where you should not buy it.

Whole-house filtration and softening tanks

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
Takes down chlorine and the trihalomethanes disinfection leaves behind
Lifetime tank and valve warranty

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If you are on a well

The well water system

$4,500installed · about $188/mo, 24 months at 0%

Multi-stage treatment for iron, sulfur, sediment, low pH and bacteria
Softening sized to the well’s hardness reading, plus a licensed install
Lifetime tank and valve warranty

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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.

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. Financing is 24 months at 0%, about $121 a month on the city rate and about $188 on the well rate.

Whole home

Complete Home System

Whole-house filtration plus softening, installed at the point where water enters the house. Every tap, every shower, the ice maker, the water heater and the washing machine.

What it takes out

Chlorine and the trihalomethanes disinfection creates, sediment, and the hardness minerals that scale your fixtures and shorten the life of a water heater.

What it costs

This is the equipment behind the $2,900 city water standard, installed, roughly $121 a month on 24-month 0% financing. Lifetime tank and valve warranty.

Who should skip it

If your only complaint is the taste of drinking water and you are on city supply, a reverse osmosis unit under the kitchen sink is the cheaper right answer, quoted well below the standard rate. We will say so.

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Softening

Water Softener

Ion exchange that pulls calcium and magnesium out of the supply. It is the fix for scale on fixtures, film on glassware, soap that will not lather and a water heater that dies early.

Where it genuinely earns its keep

Private wells, and outlying addresses where hardness actually measures high. That is most of the Piedmont well belt around Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Union, Gaston and Cabarrus.

Who should skip it

Most Charlotte city customers. Charlotte Water reports total hardness of 32 mg/L, about 1.9 grains per gallon, which is soft. A softener will also not fix a taste or chlorine complaint.

Charlotte Water 2025 Consumer Confidence Report

Running cost

Salt. Budget for a bag every four to eight weeks depending on household size and hardness. The real figure for your house goes on the written quote. A softener on its own is quoted under the standard rate.

Check your hardness first

Two ways to fix the drinking water

Both sit at the kitchen sink. Both use reverse osmosis, which is the equipment class that actually removes PFAS and the leftovers of chlorination. The difference is flow rate, cabinet space and price.

Tankless

HW800 AlkaPro RO

Seven stages, 800 gallons a day, pH balanced on the way out, and no storage tank under the sink. Water is made on demand, so the flow keeps up with filling a pasta pot and you get the cabinet back.

Takes out: PFAS, the trihalomethanes left over from disinfection, lead picked up from a home’s own plumbing, and the dissolved solids behind an off taste.

Skip it if: the whole-house system already fixed what bothered you. This is an upgrade, not a requirement.

Quoted separatelyon its own or added to a standard

Under sink

5-Stage Reverse Osmosis

Sediment, carbon, the membrane, then a polishing stage before the tap. It is the simplest defensible answer to a taste complaint on city water, and it is the one we recommend most often to Charlotte homes.

What it covers: one tap. Coffee, ice, cooking water, the dog’s bowl. It does not treat your showers and it is not meant to.

Running cost: filter changes roughly once a year, membrane less often, and the real figure goes on your written quote.

Quoted separatelytankless RO included; $700 on its own

Well specialist

Well Water System

$4,500 installed. Multi-stage treatment sized to what your well actually contains, plus softening. Iron, manganese, sulfur odor, sediment and low pH are the usual suspects in Piedmont bedrock.

Nobody tests this for you

A private well has no utility, no annual report and no violation notice. Whatever is in it has been in it, quietly, for as long as you have owned the house. The rate is still published, because the equipment is still standard.

What we look for here

Iron and manganese staining, low pH eating copper pipe, sulfur odor, sediment, and bacteria. Peer-reviewed testing of Union County wells found arsenic at or above the federal limit in 19.5% of tests, which is a lab test rather than a strip.

Eaves et al., NCWELL database, Science of the Total Environment 2022 · Sanders et al., Environment International 2012

The standard rate covers the standard build

$4,500 installed, about $188 a month at 24 months, 0%. The rare well that needs lab-confirmed arsenic or bacteria treatment gets that named as its own line at the test, in writing, and never afterwards. If we did not name it at the test, we do not add it later. That is what makes the ceiling real, and if your well needs less than the standard build, you pay less.

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Not sure which of these you need?

That is the entire point of the free test. We measure, you keep the readings, and one of the possible answers is that you should not buy anything from us.

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