Water softener help for Kingman and Mohave County

How it works

1. Call or send a request

   Tell us your community, where your water comes from, and what you're seeing.

2. We connect you

   Your call goes to an independent water treatment company that serves the Kingman area.

3. They call you back

   They test the water, recommend equipment and quote the work directly.

Who is this for?

Homeowners in Kingman, New Kingman-Butler, Golden Valley, the Hualapai Mountain communities and nearby parts of Mohave County who are tired of hard water, or who already have a softener that needs attention. That includes people on city water, homes served by Mohave County's Golden Valley Improvement District, households on a private well, and families who haul water to a storage tank. The right equipment is different for each, so the first question a good installer asks is where your water comes from.

Is Kingman water hard?

Yes, as a rule. Kingman sits in the Hualapai Valley between the Cerbat and Hualapai mountains and runs on groundwater. When the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality studied the Hualapai Valley basin, it found the groundwater was generally slightly alkaline and hard to very hard, and that deep wells in the valley alluvium are the main supply for the City of Kingman and outlying housing developments. Hardness was also higher at sites drawing from hardrock than from the valley fill, which is one reason two homes a few miles apart can see very different results.

For your exact number, look at the City of Kingman's annual water quality report (the Consumer Confidence Report) or contact Kingman Public Works if you're on city water. Well owners should get a lab test. Our Kingman hard water guide explains how to read the result.

How hard is "hard"?

The U.S. Geological Survey classifies water by its hardness as calcium carbonate: up to 60 milligrams per liter is soft, 61 to 120 is moderately hard, 121 to 180 is hard, and more than 180 is very hard. Softener companies usually talk in grains per gallon, and one grain per gallon equals about 17.1 mg/L. The USGS also notes that hardness is not a health concern. It's a nuisance, and an expensive one: heated hard water leaves calcium carbonate scale that shortens equipment life, raises water-heating costs and can clog pipes.

Signs hard water is costing you

• White crust on faucets, showerheads and the tops of fixtures
• Spots and film on dishes and glass shower doors
• Soap and shampoo that won't lather well, and soap scum in the tub
• A water heater that rumbles, pops or loses capacity
• Evaporative cooler pads and misters that crust up fast
• An existing softener that uses no salt, or water that's hard again even though the unit is running

What does a softener actually do?

A water softener is an ion exchange system. Water flows through a tank of resin beads that trade sodium or potassium for the calcium and magnesium that cause hardness. When the resin fills up with hardness minerals, the control valve runs a regeneration cycle: it flushes the beads with brine from the salt tank and sends the rinse water to a drain. NSF/ANSI Standard 44 is the certification that covers residential softeners, so it's a good thing to look for on a spec sheet.

A softener does one job. It doesn't remove arsenic, fluoride or most dissolved salts. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension says plainly that softening systems remove calcium and other minerals but do not remove arsenic. If your water has something besides hardness that you want gone, you'll need a filter or reverse osmosis system as well, and a softener in front of an RO unit often helps it last.

Softener, filter or reverse osmosis?

• Water softener for scale, spots and soap problems throughout the house. Installation, repair and replacement.
• Whole-house filtration for chlorine taste, sediment from a well or storage tank, or a specific contaminant a test turned up. More on whole-house filters.
• Reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink for drinking and cooking water, including for wells where arsenic is a concern. More on RO systems.

Desert installs have their own quirks

A lot of Kingman-area softeners live in a garage or on an outside wall near where the main line enters the house. Kingman's winter nights often drop to freezing, so an exposed softener, its fill line and its drain line need protection. In summer, a unit in direct afternoon sun takes a beating, and plastic parts and control heads age faster. A good installer will look at where the brine and backwash water will drain, whether there's a loop for a softener already plumbed in, and whether the spot has power for the control valve.

Are you a water softener company?

No. Kingman Water Softeners is a referral service. We connect you with an independent water treatment company that serves your address, and that company tests, quotes, installs and stands behind the work. Read our tips for hiring a water treatment company and the Kingman hard water guide before you sign anything.

Areas we cover

• Kingman
• New Kingman-Butler
• Golden Valley
• Hualapai Mountain area

Planning ahead? Read our Kingman hard water guide.