How To Tell Where Your Water Comes From
Sometimes it can be a little tricky to figure out where your water comes from. And knowing where your water comes from is an important step to figuring out your water hardness or for determining other aspects of your water chemistry. We can help you figure this out!
There are two basic water sources:
- City / Municipal Water
- Private Water Supplies
It's usually easiest to figure out if you have a City / Municipal supply, so we'll start there. Generally, you'll know if you have City or Municipally supplied water because:
- you pay a water bill
- you have a water meter somewhere on your property that records how much water you use
Here are two examples of a Water Bill:
If you don't pay a water bill, and you don't have a water meter, then you very likely have a private water supply. Examples of a private water supply are wells, cisterns, rooftop collected water, lake water, pond water, and river water.
Knowing whether you have a City / Municipal or Private water supply will help you know how to figure out your water hardness and/or water chemistry. And once you have this information, selecting the model and proper size water softener is easy!
City / Municipal Water
If you're getting your water from a city or municipality you'll want to visit their website or contact them by email or phone to ask them about the water chemistry. They should be able to tell you the hardness of the water and any other water chemistry data you request. We also publish a list of the water hardness for many of the cities and towns in Canada. If you live in a City or Town in Canada that's not on this list you can also contact us and we'll find this info for you and add it to our list.
Private Water Supply
If it turns out you have your own private water supply, there won't be anybody you can contact to figure out the hardness or water chemistry. But here are some ideas on how you might be able to figure this out:
- The real estate documents from when you bought the property might contain a comprehensive water report
- You can take your water to an accredited laboratory
- You can get the free Softener Prep Kit from Aquatell to test your water