Water treatment in Las Vegas and Clark County

Water treatment is the broader category that water softening sits inside. Softening deals with hardness minerals. Filtration deals with taste, odour, chlorine and sediment. Drinking water systems deal with what comes out of one tap for consumption.

They solve different problems, and buying the wrong one is how people end up disappointed with an expensive system.

Start with what the water actually is

Valley water is hard, it is treated, and it is safe to drink. The treatment decisions follow from that.

• Las Vegas tap water is published at 280 parts per million as calcium carbonate, which works out to about 16 grains per gallon. (Las Vegas Valley Water District, Water Quality Summary)
• About 90 percent of valley drinking water comes from Lake Mead, with the rest drawn from a groundwater aquifer under the Las Vegas Valley. (Las Vegas Valley Water District, Water Sources)
• Calcium and magnesium are the two minerals behind hard water, and the water district is clear that neither is a health risk. Hard water is an equipment and fixture problem, not a safety problem. (Las Vegas Valley Water District, Water Quality FAQs)

Matching the system to the complaint

• Scale, spots, crusty fixtures, soap not lathering: an ion exchange water softener
• Chlorine taste or smell at the tap: carbon filtration, whole home or point of use
• Grit or cloudiness: sediment filtration, often as a pre-filter ahead of everything else
• Wanting better drinking and cooking water specifically: reverse osmosis under the sink
• Protecting a tankless heater or a commercial kitchen: softening, sized for the equipment
• Everything at once: a staged system, sediment then carbon then softener, with RO at the kitchen tap

On reverse osmosis

RO pushes water through a semi-permeable membrane and produces genuinely excellent drinking water. It is a point of use system, normally under the kitchen sink with its own small tap, and it is not a whole home solution.

Feeding an RO unit softened water is the usual advice, because hardness fouls the membrane and shortens its life. The two systems complement each other rather than competing.

Straight talk on what treatment does not do

A softener does not purify water or make unsafe water safe. A carbon filter does not remove hardness. A salt free conditioner does not soften. And no system installed in a valley home changes what the water district delivers to the meter.

Anyone telling you a single box solves every water complaint is overselling. Get the complaint diagnosed first.

All makes and models

Plumbers in our network work on all makes and models for this service. We do not claim an authorised dealer relationship with any manufacturer, and we will tell you if a part for a discontinued unit cannot be sourced.