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Home » Cincinnati » Cincinnati Plumbing » Whole-Home Water Filtration
Cincinnati’s tap water is safe to drink. Greater Cincinnati Water Works meets or exceeds every federal and state drinking water standard, conducts approximately 600 quality tests daily, and publishes an annual consumer confidence report that lays out exactly what’s in the water. But safe and optimized aren’t the same thing and for Cincinnati homeowners, the gap between the two mostly comes down to hardness.
According to GCWW’s own published water quality data, the Richard Miller Treatment Plant, which supplies approximately 88% of Cincinnati’s drinking water, delivers water at an average hardness of 126 mg/L, or 7 grains per gallon. The Charles M. Bolton Plant, supplying the remaining 12%, averages 140 mg/L, or 8 grains per gallon. That puts Cincinnati in the moderately hard to hard range – enough to affect soap performance, appliance lifespan, water heater efficiency, and the long-term condition of fixtures and supply lines throughout the home.
Arlinghaus installs whole-home water filtration and softening systems throughout Cincinnati and Hamilton, Butler, and Clermont Counties. As a licensed plumbing company, not a water-treatment-only specialist, we can install your filtration or softening system and handle anything else we find along the way, in one call, with 7,000+ reviews and a 4.9-star rating and Best in Cincinnati recognition behind the work.
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Fall leaves + root growth = October sewer backup season. Know the warning signs before it's an emergency.
Some signs point clearly toward a water quality issue. Others are easy to attribute to something else:
If more than one of these sounds familiar, a whole-home system addresses the source rather than the symptom.
At Arlinghaus, it all starts with passion. We’re a family-owned business specializing in electrical, plumbing, heating, and air conditioning services. With years of experience and a team of certified residential contractors, we provide reliable services that homeowners can depend on.
We’re proud to serve the communities of Northern Kentucky, Southeast Indiana, and Greater Cincinnati, Ohio areas, with an office based in Northern Kentucky and the Sharonville, Cincinnati area. We love our region, which blends the warmth of happy small-town charm with the variety and excitement of big-city life.
Our award-winning, expertly trained team has over 7,000+ five-star reviews. We’ve been voted the Best in Cincinnati for Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning, Best of the North by Cincy Magazine, and Best of NKY for 10 consecutive years, which means our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction is recognized year after year.
It all starts with passion. Arlinghaus is proud to be a trusted, family-owned plumbing and HVAC company in the Kentucky, Cincinnati, and Indiana areas.
It all starts with passion. Arlinghaus is proud to be a trusted, family-owned plumbing and HVAC company in the Kentucky, Cincinnati, and Indiana areas.
GCWW’s published water quality report answers the question directly: the Richard Miller Plant averages 126 mg/L (7 grains per gallon) of hardness, and the Bolton Plant averages 140 mg/L (8 grains per gallon). The mineral content is primarily calcium and magnesium and not a health risk, but the source of most of the practical water quality complaints Cincinnati homeowners experience.
GCWW also notes that hardness does not affect the safety of water. What it does affect is how that water interacts with everything it touches in your home: pipes, fixtures, appliances, and your skin. A whole-home water softener addresses the calcium and magnesium load before it reaches any of those systems. A whole-home filtration system can address taste, odor, and other dissolved compounds depending on the system type.
On PFAS: GCWW’s 2024 water quality report notes that PFAS compounds were not detected in Miller water, the source of the vast majority of Cincinnati’s treated drinking water. If PFAS is a specific concern, we recommend reviewing GCWW’s current published data and discussing point-of-use filtration options with your technician.
We’re a family-owned business with deep roots in the Erlanger, Kentucky, and Greater Cincinnati communities. Our commitment to quality service and customer satisfaction has made us a trusted name in the area for years. Here’s a little more about what makes our electrical company stand out:
Family-Owned and Operated:
We’re proud to be a local business that puts the community first.
Experienced Team:
Our team is fully certified, highly trained, and passionate about what they do.
Comprehensive Services:
From minor repairs to full installations, we handle all residential needs.
Customer-First Approach:
We focus on clear communication and friendly service every step of the way.
Satisfaction Guarantee:
We're not happy until you’re happy — every job comes with a satisfaction guarantee.
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These three systems address different problems and are often confused with each other:
Water softeners use an ion exchange process to remove calcium and magnesium from the water before it enters your home’s supply lines. They address hardness directly, scale buildup, soap performance, appliance wear, but are not designed to filter other dissolved compounds or improve taste and odor.
Whole-house filtration systems treat all the water entering the home for a broader range of compounds, sediment, chlorine, chloramines, and other dissolved substances that affect taste and odor. They don’t soften water in the traditional sense but can meaningfully improve the overall quality of water at every tap.
Reverse osmosis systems use a semi-permeable membrane to remove a wide range of dissolved substances, including minerals, at the point of use, typically under a kitchen sink. An RO system produces high-purity water for drinking and cooking but doesn’t treat the whole home’s supply. It’s often used alongside a water softener rather than instead of one.
Many Cincinnati homeowners benefit from both a softener and a filtration or RO system, softening addresses the hardness that affects appliances and fixtures, while filtration or RO addresses taste and drinking water quality. Your technician will assess your specific situation before recommending a configuration.
In homes with modern PEX supply lines, mineral scale accumulates primarily on fixtures and in appliances, manageable, but still costly over time. In older Cincinnati homes, where roughly 40.8% of housing stock dates to before 1940 and original galvanized steel supply lines are still common in neighborhoods like Northside, Walnut Hills, and Clifton, scale buildup has an additional surface area to work with inside the pipes themselves.
Galvanized lines that have already narrowed from internal corrosion are further compromised by mineral scale accumulation. Softened water reduces the ongoing mineral load on those lines, slowing the process. It won’t reverse existing corrosion, but it does reduce the rate of ongoing deterioration on plumbing that has decades of wear already built in.
For older Cincinnati homes still running on original supply infrastructure, a water softener is less of a comfort upgrade and more of a protective measure.
Whole-home water softener and filtration system installation is typically a straightforward, single-visit job with no concrete work, no major structural access, and in most cases no permit required for standard softener or filtration installation.
Where permit requirements do apply, for example, when installation involves modifications to supply line configurations or other plumbing work that falls under the City of Cincinnati Department of Buildings & Inspections’ scope, Arlinghaus handles that coordination. We assess what’s needed before any work begins and make sure the installation is compliant and documented.
Most systems are installed at the point where the main water supply enters the home, before it reaches the water heater or any distribution lines, ensuring the entire home’s water supply is treated from a single installation point.
Cost varies based on the system type and what your home’s plumbing configuration actually requires. The main factors:
Arlinghaus provides upfront pricing after assessing your home – you know the full cost before any commitment is made. For homeowners combining a softener with a filtration or RO system in the same visit, financing is available to make the full configuration approachable rather than piecing it together over time.
Water treatment specialists focus on the filtration or softening system itself and the good ones do it well. What they typically can’t do is address anything else found during the installation visit. An old shutoff valve that won’t close, a corroded fitting on the supply line, a pressure issue that suggests a bigger underlying problem, these require a licensed plumber, not a referral to a second company.
Arlinghaus is a licensed plumbing company that installs water treatment systems as part of a full-service plumbing operation. When we install your softener or filtration system, we’re assessing the entire supply line entry point, not just the connection for the new equipment. If we find something that needs attention, we handle it in the same visit rather than scheduling a follow-up with a different trade.
A water test is the most reliable starting point. Call Arlinghaus to schedule a visit anywhere across Cincinnati and Hamilton County, we’ll assess your home’s water supply and give you an honest recommendation before any commitment is made.
We believe that one of life’s greatest gifts is the ability to celebrate one’s place in a thriving community, with family and friends, where everyone shares a common set of goals and dreams. We are fortunate to work and live in great communities throughout Kentucky, Cincinnati and Indiana, areas that have welcomed and embraced us over the years. We are happy to give back to those communities through a variety of initiatives, some very public, others totally private. We’re a people-first company.
