Water Softener in Burke, VA

How hard is the water in Burke, really?

Fairfax Water says most of its customers get water from its own Potomac and Occoquan plants and some get Potomac water treated by the Washington Aqueduct. Which one reaches your street isn't spelled out by address, so the published ranges are a guide. At the Potomac plant, total hardness ran from about 70 to 185 mg/L, roughly 4 to 11 grains per gallon; the Occoquan plant ran about 77 to 147. Either way you're in moderately hard to hard territory, and a tap test gives the exact setting for a softener.

Our house is from the 1970s. Does that change anything?

The median Burke home dates to about 1979, from the era of Kings Park and Burke Centre. Many have had their original water heater replaced at least once, and the area around the main can be crowded with old valves, a pressure regulator and patched copper. A plumber installing a softener will usually add a bypass valve so the unit can be serviced without shutting off the house, and may suggest swapping a stiff main shutoff while the water is off. Basements and utility rooms in these homes generally have a floor drain, which makes the regeneration line easy.

Will it change the taste of our water?

Not much. A softener removes calcium and magnesium; it doesn't touch the disinfectant. Fairfax Water uses chloramines from about July through March and free chlorine from about April through June, so the chlorine smell in spring has nothing to do with the softener. A carbon filter, either whole-house or at the kitchen sink, handles taste. If anyone in the home watches sodium, the softener can run on potassium chloride, or the plumber can leave the kitchen cold tap unsoftened.

A short local note

Fairfax County requires lawn irrigation systems to have a testable backflow assembly checked every year. If you're cutting a softener into the main, tee irrigation off upstream so the lawn isn't using softened water. For permit questions on new or relocated piping, Fairfax County Land Development Services handles Burke; like-for-like replacements in the same spot are exempt.