The person behind The Water Helper
Rachel, independent tester
I buy my water treatment gear with my own money, install it in my own house and measure it. What I publish is those measurements — not impressions, and not a manufacturer's talking points.
Why this register exists
It started with very hard water at home: a scaled-up kettle, white marks on everything, a water heater on its last legs and tap water that tasted of chlorine. I bought my first softener, got several choices wrong, and worked one thing out: most of the pages you find online are sales pages dressed up as advice.
What changed it was a number. My own utility publishes a report every year, by law, and almost nobody reads it — it arrives as a folded insert and goes straight in the bin. So I decided to keep the register I would have wanted to find: what each utility actually reported on one side, lead, PFAS, nitrate, arsenic and disinfection byproducts included; what that justifies buying on the other; and my own measurements to connect the two.
How I test
- I buy it, I don't borrow it.
- Nothing here was loaned by a brand in exchange for a review. What I test, I paid for: that is the only way to stay free to say bad things about it.
- I install it and live with it.
- Whatever I fit at home runs for weeks before I write a word about it. Not an afternoon of unboxing, and not a review written off a spec sheet.
- I measure, I don't just get impressions.
- Hardness and chlorine before and after, TDS, salt bags counted, flow rate, taste. Dated numbers you can check against your own. For lead, PFAS and arsenic I do not improvise: I publish what the utility's certified lab reported.
- I say when I have not tested something.
- I cannot fit six softeners in one house. Most of the models I recommend are picked on their specifications rather than bench-tested, and every page that cites them says so.
What I earn, and on what
Some links on this site are affiliate links: if you buy through them I earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. That is what pays for the gear I test and for hosting the 20,673 water reports.
It changes nothing about what I write. I advise against affiliate products when they deserve it, and I say when a softener is pointless at your address — which it is below 7 grains per gallon. No plumber and no brand pays to appear here.
What I cover
A question, or a piece of gear you want tested ?
I try to answer everyone. Tell me what you would like to see measured.
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