New Berlin water softeners, for the houses still on a well
Since July 2009, New Berlin’s city water has been Lake Michigan water bought from Milwaukee Water Works, at about 8 grains per gallon, and the utility’s own advice is that city customers should no longer need a softener. For city water, that advice is fair. Houses on private wells never got the lake water. They still pump the same groundwater the city drew from before 2009, which the utility put at 18 to 32 grains.
Call (262) 599-6261Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pm
What is included
- A whole-house softener with the brine tank it needs, sized from your water’s hardness and your household size
- An RO tap for drinking water at the sink in your kitchen, included with every softener and never sold as a separate item
- Installation work by a contractor carrying a Wisconsin plumbing license
- Water tested before any pipe is touched, then tested again at the kitchen tap until no hardness shows
- The price is quoted during the call, and no salesperson visits
- Phone quotes from 7 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, Monday to Friday
New Berlin water hardness
Source: New Berlin Water Utility; Milwaukee Water Works published hardness
What changed for New Berlin in July 2009
In July 2009 the city stopped relying on its own groundwater and began buying its entire supply from Milwaukee Water Works, which draws from Lake Michigan. The New Berlin Water Utility treats none of it.
Milwaukee puts the hardness of that lake supply at 137 milligrams per liter, inside a range of 112 to 142, or about 8 grains per gallon. The New Berlin utility’s literature gives 8 to 10.
The utility’s advice for city water, taken at its word
The New Berlin Water Utility says customers on city water should no longer need a softener. We will not argue with it, and this site is not here to change your mind.
If you are on city water and want a softener anyway, you are welcome to call. You will get a plain answer about whether it is worth it at about 8 grains, and no push either way.
On a private well, 2009 changed nothing
Houses on their own wells did not get the lake water. They draw from the same aquifer the city pumped before 2009, and the utility’s published figure for that groundwater was 18 to 32 grains per gallon.
That is very hard on the USGS scale, where the very hard band begins above 180 milligrams per liter. It is the kind of water softening exists for.
A softener from before 2009 may still think it is on a well
If your house was on city water before July 2009, a softener put in before then was most likely set up for the old groundwater, 20 grains and more. The water coming in now is lake water at about 8.
Resetting it for today’s water is worth doing even if you never buy a thing from us.
What a softener does with well water
At 18 to 32 grains, hardness shows up as spotty glassware, a film on fixtures and scale building inside water heaters. A softener exchanges that calcium and magnesium for sodium. Buy potassium chloride for the brine tank and the exchange runs on potassium instead.
The resin is recharged by salt from the brine tank each time the softener regenerates.
Common questions
I am on New Berlin city water. Do I need a softener?
The utility says customers should no longer need one, and we take that at face value. City water is Lake Michigan water at about 8 grains per gallon. If you still want a softener, ask on the call and you will get a plain answer.
I am on a private well. How hard is my water likely to be?
No one publishes a figure for a single well. The groundwater the city pumped before 2009 was published at 18 to 32 grains, and private wells draw from that same aquifer. Your own lab results are the number the quote starts from.
How do I find out whether I am on city water or a well?
Give the address on the phone, or tell us there is a well on the property. Either one tells us which supply the quote starts from.
What comes with the softener?
An RO tap for drinking water at the sink in your kitchen. Every whole-home softener includes one, and it is never sold as a separate item.
Will someone come to the house to price it?
No. The price comes by phone, and nobody in sales ever visits. The only visit is the plumbing contractor’s, on install day.