Water Softener in Bowie, MD

Signs a Bowie home could use softer water

• Chalky film on glass shower doors and faucet aerators that clog
• A water heater that rumbles or pops as it heats
• Spotty glasses even with rinse aid in the dishwasher
• A tankless heater throwing scale or flow errors
• An existing softener that uses salt but no longer seems to work

Two water systems in one city

The City of Bowie runs its own water system, built by the Levitt Corporation in the early 1960s, for neighborhoods such as Buckingham, Kenilworth, Somerset, Tulip Grove, Whitehall and Yorktown. That water comes from five city wells drawing on the Magothy, Patapsco and Patuxent aquifers, and the city treats it to take out naturally occurring iron and manganese before chlorinating it. The rest of Bowie is on WSSC Water, which treats Potomac and Patuxent river water at its filtration plants.

Neither utility's annual report gives Bowie owners a simple hardness figure to program a softener with, so a test at the kitchen faucet is the practical starting point. If you are on city water and still see orange or dark staining, mention it: the city already treats for iron and manganese, so staining may point to something inside the house, such as an old heater or fixtures, rather than the supply. The city water plant (301-809-3060) can answer questions about its treatment.

What affects the cost

• The hardness you measure and the number of people in the house, which set the resin size
• Whether a bypass loop already exists or the main has to be cut and rerouted
• Distance to a floor drain or laundry standpipe for the regeneration line
• An outlet near the unit for the control head
• Hauling away an old softener or brine tank
• Extras such as a sediment prefilter or a drinking water filter at the sink

What happens when you call

You'll be connected with an independent plumber who works in Bowie. Say whether your bill comes from the City of Bowie or WSSC, roughly when the house was built (the city's median home dates to about 1981), and where the main shutoff sits. In Prince George's County, plumbing permits come from WSSC Water Permit Services rather than the county, so a new install that changes the supply piping can be checked with WSSC before work starts.