Softeners for Mequon's private wells
Most of Mequon draws its water from private wells, so for this city the well page is the main page. A well has no utility report behind it, and the hardness that counts is the one measured in your house.
Call (262) 829-5961Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pmWhy nobody publishes your well's number
A utility reports its hardness because thousands of homes share the same supply. A private well serves one household, so the only report on it is one that you, or a past owner, paid a lab to run.
Lab reports often list hardness in milligrams per liter. Divide by 17.1 to get grains per gallon. The USGS calls anything above 180 milligrams per liter, or 10.5 grains, very hard.
The rock under the city
Mequon wells draw Ozaukee County groundwater from carbonate rock, the same rock the municipal wells in neighboring Cedarburg pump from. Hardness is the calcium and magnesium dissolved in that water, and how much a given well carries is a question only a test can settle.
Iron turns up in well water too. If a lab has measured it in yours, bring that number to the call with the hardness.
What softening does on a well, and what it leaves alone
In a softener, calcium and magnesium are exchanged for sodium, or for potassium if potassium chloride is what you pour into the brine tank. The brine tank holds the salt that recharges the resin each time the softener regenerates.
Bacteria and nitrate are a different matter from hardness, and a softener is not made to treat either. The Wisconsin DNR's guidance is to have a private well's water checked for bacteria yearly, at minimum, and that holds whether or not your house has a softener.
What to read us from a well report
Three lines cover it: the hardness figure with its unit, the iron figure if the lab measured one, and the date the sample was drawn.
Having no report at all does not hold up a quote. Just mention the well, and the hardness is measured at your tap before the softener is connected, which in a Mequon well house may be the first reading anyone has taken.
Common questions
My well has never been tested. Can I still get a quote?
Yes. Tell us it is a well and give us the address. The water is tested before any work starts, and the yearly bacteria test the DNR recommends is a separate lab test of its own.
Salt or potassium in the brine tank?
Either one. With sodium chloride the softener trades hardness for sodium; with potassium chloride it trades hardness for potassium. The choice is yours.
Does the 8 grain figure apply to my well?
No. It describes the utility's purchased lake water. A private well has its own hardness, and no one publishes it.