Water Softeners in Aurora: Hard Water, Sized Right

Aurora water is hard. Not as hard as some. We size for that.

Aurora gets Lake Ontario water blended with York Region groundwater wells. The latest York figure is 130 mg/L, about 7.6 grains per gallon. That is hard, at the lower end of Health Canada's hard band. It is not very hard, and anyone who tells you it is has not read the table.

Lower end of hard still means scale. Crusted faucets in Aurora Heights, cloudy shower glass in Bayview Northeast, a tankless heater in a newer home that needs descaling sooner than it should. You already know it is there. A water softener fixes it.

The honest part: at this hardness a smaller softener does the job. We size it to the number and your household, and we tell you so. A bigger tank than you need just costs you more salt and more water.

Iron is low here, 0.013 mg/L, and sodium is 20.7 mg/L. The water is treated, monitored and safe. Hardness is a scale problem, not a health problem. We read your hardness before we install and again after, at the same tap, so you see the difference.

• Softeners sized for Aurora's lower-end hard water
• Hardness read before install and after, at the kitchen tap
• Salt-free conditioners as an honest alternative
• Carbon filtration for chlorine
• Reverse osmosis and lead testing in older downtown homes
• In-depth well water testing for rural wells

A softener sized for Aurora water

At 130 mg/L, about 7.6 grains per gallon, Aurora water is hard enough to crust fixtures and shorten water heater life, but it is not the extreme water you find in some York Region towns. That changes the sizing. A compact water softener handles most Aurora households, and we program it from the reading at your tap, not a guess.

Existing softeners in Aurora that have stopped keeping up are usually a reprogram or rebed, not a replacement. And if you only want scale protection for a tankless heater without salt, a salt-free conditioner is a fair option at this hardness. We will tell you what each does and does not do. Curious what else is in the supply? Read what is actually in York Region tap water.

Rural wells on the Aurora concessions

Head east or west onto the rural concessions and homes are on private wells. York Region's table does not cover those, and we will not guess at a number for your well. Start with in-depth well water testing: bacteria, nitrates, iron, sulphur, hardness and the rest.

Then we treat in order. Iron comes out before the softener, because a softener fed iron-bearing water fouls early. Our piece on iron and sulphur in well water covers why the order matters, and our well water treatment page walks through the stages, from iron filters to UV.

Chlorine, lead and RO in Aurora

A carbon stage on the main takes the chlorine out for the whole house. For the kitchen tap, reverse osmosis removes lead in the older downtown homes, sodium from the softener, and the PFAS and pharmaceutical residue some households ask about.

We lab test for lead in pre-1990 homes before recommending RO, so the decision is based on your result.