Raleigh Water Treatment & Water Filtration
Explore Raleigh drinking-water information, whole-home water treatment, reverse osmosis, PFAS filtration, private-well treatment and in-home water evaluations from East Coast Water Quality.
Start With What You Want to Improve at Home
Raleigh homeowners can start with their municipal water report, a specific household concern or the type of treatment they are considering. Private wells are handled separately because well-water conditions can vary from one property to the next.
Water Quality Report
See where Raleigh drinking water comes from, how the city treats it and what the latest annual report shows.
View Raleigh water report →Water Problems
Review city-water contaminants, disinfectants, taste, odor, hardness and other concerns using current local information.
Explore Raleigh water problems →Reverse Osmosis
Learn about highly filtered drinking and cooking water from a dedicated faucet, with refrigerator connection where practical.
Explore Raleigh reverse osmosis →Water Conditioners
Compare whole-home treatment for hardness, scale, spotting and appropriate chlorine or chloramine reduction.
Explore Raleigh water conditioners →PFAS Water Filters
Compare specialized whole-home and drinking-water options for homeowners concerned about PFAS.
Explore Raleigh PFAS filtration →Well Water Treatment
Find treatment guidance for iron, sulfur odor, acidity, tannins, hardness and other private-well conditions.
Explore Raleigh well-water treatment →Free Water Test
Schedule an in-home evaluation for hardness, chlorine, pH and other common household water conditions.
Schedule a Raleigh free water test →All Water Systems
Compare East Coast Water Quality’s whole-home, drinking-water and private-well treatment systems.
View all products →Falls Lake and Lake Benson Supply Raleigh Drinking Water
Raleigh Water’s 2025 annual report identifies Falls Lake in northern Wake County and Lake Benson in Garner as the city’s drinking-water sources. Falls Lake water is treated at the E.M. Johnson Water Treatment Plant, while Lake Benson water is treated at the Dempsey E. Benton Water Treatment Plant.
Raleigh’s 2025 report lists chloramines, chlorine, fluoride, haloacetic acids and total trihalomethanes among the regulated substances detected in the latest sampling tables, with no violations reported for those listed results. The detailed Raleigh Water Quality Report page explains the numbers and how regulatory limits differ from third-party health-based guidelines.
Whole-Home Treatment and Drinking-Water Filtration
A water conditioner, reverse osmosis system and PFAS-focused filtration are built for different treatment goals. The right choice depends on whether you want to improve water throughout the house, focus on drinking water or address a specific contaminant concern.
Whole-Home TreatmentRaleigh Water Conditioners
Treat water throughout the home while addressing hardness and the supported chlorine or chloramine treatment provided by the selected system configuration.
- Treats showers, sinks, laundry and appliances
- Helps reduce hardness-related scale and spotting
- Professionally installed for the home’s plumbing layout
Drinking-Water TreatmentRaleigh Reverse Osmosis
Get highly filtered drinking and cooking water from a dedicated faucet, with a refrigerator connection available when the location and plumbing make it practical.
- Targets a broad range of dissolved contaminants
- Improves drinking-water taste and clarity
- Provides a convenient alternative to bottled water
Targeted FiltrationRaleigh PFAS Water Filters
Compare specialized whole-home PFAS treatment with reverse osmosis drinking-water filtration based on the level of protection you want in the home.
- Whole-home and point-of-use options
- Designed for targeted contaminant reduction
- System selection based on the treatment goal
Iron and Sulfur Need the Right Well-Water Treatment
Private-well water is different from Raleigh municipal water and should be evaluated property by property. Iron may be dissolved or already oxidized, while a rotten-egg sulfur odor requires a different treatment approach than ordinary water softening.
The North Carolina well-water video below explains why the form and level of iron matter, why sulfur needs oxidation, and why iron should be addressed before equipment intended for other well-water conditions.
Municipal water and private wells need separate recommendations.
Raleigh Water treats a regulated public supply before distribution. A private well is an individual source, so treatment should be based on the conditions and testing appropriate to that property.
How to Treat Iron and Sulfur in North Carolina Well Water
Read Transcript
How to remove my sulfur or my iron in my North Carolina well water.
Guys, whether you're in Pasquotank County, across the Virginia line, Currituck County, we can keep going down the coast and come west. A lot of you are facing generally about the same thing in most well water. There are tannins and other things that you run into, and of course we could put out a long list.
This video is really targeting the sulfur and the iron, what to look for, and how to treat it. We'd always advise you, if you want a free consultation, give us a call. We can do a lot of things over the phone. Sometimes we do have to test in person to see whether this is oxidized iron, ferrous iron, or ferric iron.
Some of you guys, when you're moving into the home, they require you to have that well water test, and it's usually just a bacterial test. They don't care whether you can do a load of laundry or not. They just want to know if you have salmonella or E. coli. That's basically one of the main tests that you have to get done, even for refinances and things like that.
This video is just geared to point you in the right direction a little bit and to also give you a little bit of comfort that, as crazy as that water may seem, it may be coming out orange, all of it's treatable.
Water's water. It was at some point in a really nasty state whether you're on city water or well water. The city does a lot of the things that we're going to do here prior to them sending it through all the pipes and coming into people's homes.
With iron, there are two types: ferrous and ferric iron. You want to know whether or not this iron is oxidizing early or not, and then the level of iron. You can remove a little bit of iron, especially when you get into dissolved iron. Up to about two parts of iron is kind of a good number to be thinking about. I would stop trying to remove that with a water softener after that. It has to be dissolved iron.
We are the exclusive representative for over 25 to 27 Lowe's all the way down the coast, even getting west off the coast of North Carolina. We come behind people doing it themselves all the time. The associates, we love them in Lowe's and we love them in Home Depot and other places. They're doing their best with the knowledge they have, and sometimes they tell you, "Yeah, get this system here."
Especially for the sulfur, we were mainly talking about the iron to start off with, but that's a gas. You cannot take that out with a water softener. Yes, some things happen over the first two or three weeks, especially if you've got a carbon system or something. They'll help you for two or three weeks. Then you start to see those things get saturated, but that gas has to be oxidized out.
Back to the iron. If you're ever really over two parts of dissolved iron, I'd really be looking into an exclusive iron system. Behind me, you can see the Protector Series Iron Sulfur Breaker. It is a beast. It does oxidize and take out all of the iron, and we do a lifetime warranty on that equipment. It's a one-year labor warranty. Five years down the road, we couldn't stay in business if we couldn't get our labor covered if you had to have something done to it.
These machines will take out all the iron. Especially if you have any sulfur with that iron, we're straight going to that. It'll do both of those at the same time without using any salt.
It's not softening the water. That's a big difference. If we go back to taking out two parts or less of dissolved iron, you can do that with the water softener if it's not oxidized iron.
Again, we're only a phone call away. This doesn't have to be overwhelming, taking a bunch of crazy notes.
I will tell you, for the people that shop online and really go look at all the Chinese equipment on there that says Aqua this, H2O this, if their equipment was quality, they would have a dealer putting them in. As a water treatment company, I can just tell you, you can't stay in business if you're not using quality equipment because of the service costs when you have to honor those warranties and come back and come back and come back. Two or three calls and you took the profit out of your transaction already.
Using quality equipment is paramount when you're messing with iron. Iron ends up being like a tar or resin. It sticks to about everything it touches. Then it starts to accumulate on itself.
But ferric iron, if you have oxidized iron, let's just say that water's even slightly coming out orange, get water softener out of your vocabulary. You're going to have to go to an iron system that exclusively removes the iron before you ever run that into a water softener or anything else that you're going to try to filter out.
When you get into the iron, pH does need to be at least 6.0. One of the things, if you're chasing multiple problems, just know that you always have to take that iron out first. If you're chasing tannins, if you're chasing hardness, all of that equipment will be destroyed with iron if you don't remove it first.
In the spirit of trying to keep these videos short and sweet, we're going to close that out right there. Just keep in mind, with the sulfur, the Iron Sulfur Breaker here will take out all of that at one time. It doesn't use salt. In the most extreme circumstances, sometimes we have to upsize those.
We use these systems for irrigation as well. We'll go on these 20-foot irrigation wells in neighborhoods where they're staining their sidewalk, staining their house, and we'll use those systems to take that out as well.
Again, it's awesome because they don't use salt. I hope this video helps you guys out. Give us a call. Check out our videos. We have a ton of videos for all kinds of situations, especially with well water.
We try to make these videos educational, not blasting you with a product the entire time you're sitting here trying to learn something and having to close out screens and all that stuff.
Hope you enjoyed it. Any more questions, check us out or give us a call. Thanks.
What You'll Learn in This Video
- The difference between ferrous dissolved iron and ferric oxidized iron in North Carolina well water
- Why a water softener may handle small amounts of dissolved iron but is not appropriate for higher levels or oxidized iron
- Why sulfur cannot be removed with a water softener and needs to be oxidized
- How an Iron Sulfur Breaker can remove both iron and sulfur without using salt
- Why pH needs to be at least 6.0 when treating iron with an iron-removal system
- Why iron needs to be treated before other well-water problems such as tannins and hardness
Professional Installation With Long-Term Support
Raleigh Service
East Coast Water Quality serves Raleigh homeowners with water-treatment consultations, installation and service.
Professional Installation
Insured work performed under a Master Plumbing license for proper system placement and connection.
Ongoing Maintenance
Service is available for reverse osmosis filter changes, sanitation and continued system performance.
What ECWQ Homeowners Say
The ECWQ reviews page does not currently list a Raleigh-specific written testimonial, so these experiences are from customers in other North Carolina service areas and are labeled with their actual locations.
★★★★★“Clarity of water improved within 5-7 days. Reduction to almost zero buildup on shower cap and in toilets. Finally, the laundry smells fresher since the systems been installed.”
Robert — New Bern, NC
★★★★★“I have noticed a complete difference in water quality. Showering leaves me feeling clean. Ice and water quality are crystal clear.”
Austin — Jacksonville, NC
★★★★★“Overall satisfied.”
Bryanni Franco — Jacksonville, NC
Raleigh Water Treatment Questions
Where does Raleigh drinking water come from?
Raleigh Water identifies Falls Lake in northern Wake County and Lake Benson in Garner as its drinking-water sources. Falls Lake water is treated at the E.M. Johnson Water Treatment Plant, while Lake Benson water is treated at the Dempsey E. Benton Water Treatment Plant.
Does Raleigh use chlorine or chloramine?
Raleigh normally uses chloramine for distribution-system disinfection. The city states that it switches to chlorine-only disinfection during March each year, which can make a chlorine taste or smell more noticeable for some customers.
Is Raleigh water hard?
Raleigh’s 2025 annual report lists total hardness as 25.2 ppm as CaCO3, with a reported range of 21.9 to 35.3 ppm. Whether you want whole-home conditioning still depends on your household goals and the water measured at your home.
Does a standard water softener remove PFAS?
No. A standard water softener is primarily designed for hardness minerals. PFAS concerns require filtration specifically supported for PFAS reduction, such as an appropriate PFAS-focused whole-home system or reverse osmosis drinking-water treatment.
What does ECWQ’s free in-home water test check?
ECWQ’s free in-home evaluation can check hardness, chlorine, pH and other common household water conditions. It is not a certified laboratory analysis for contaminants such as PFAS, lead, arsenic, nitrate or bacteria.
Do you treat private well water around Raleigh?
Yes. Private-well treatment should be based on the conditions at that specific property. Iron, sulfur odor, pH, tannins, hardness and other concerns may require different equipment or treatment order.
Find the Right Water Treatment System for Your Raleigh Home
Schedule an in-home water evaluation or explore the Raleigh guide that matches your municipal-water or private-well concern.
Virginia:
Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Williamsburg, Smithfield, Gloucester, Yorktown, Poquoson, Isle of Wight, Carrollton, Seaford, Grafton, Franklin, Emporia, Cape Charles, Courtland, Wakefield, Windsor, Naval Air Station Oceana, Naval Station Norfolk, Langley Air Force Base, Fort Eustis, Fort Monroe
North Carolina:
Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Apex, Burlington, Wake Forest, Garner, Greenville, Jacksonville, Goldsboro, New Bern, Clayton, Kinston, Elizabeth City, Havelock, Hope Mills, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Laurinburg, Lumberton, Henderson, Tarboro, Morehead City, Washington, Oak Island, Kill Devil Hills, Carolina Beach, Moyock, Shallotte, Williamston, Hampstead, Beaufort, Surf City, Whiteville, Newport, Ahoskie, Edenton, Swansboro, Plymouth, Emerald Isle, Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, Windsor, Sneads Ferry, Hubert, Hertford, Rocky Point, Manteo, Atlantic Beach, Camden, Castle Hayne, Bayboro, Maysville, Riegelwood, Creswell, Vanceboro, Oriental, Roper, Aulander, Rich Square, Currituck, Winton, Corolla, Camp Lejeune
Hampton Roads VA / Northeast NC
3400 Airline Boulevard, Portsmouth VA 23701
757-966-7600
Jacksonville NC / Morehead City NC
2582 NC-24, Newport NC 28570
252-777-5151

Wilmington NC / Leland NC
1026 Appleton Way NE #130, Leland, NC 28541
910-807-2300

Raleigh-Durham NC / Garner NC
313F Highway 70 East, Garner, NC 27529
919-238-9900