North-central West Virginia · Buying guide
How to compare water treatment companies
There are other water treatment companies working this part of West Virginia, and some of them are good. We are not going to tell you we are the only one. What we will do is answer the six questions a buyer should be asking — so you can hold anyone, including us, to the same six.
The six questions
Our answers on the left. What to ask everyone else on the right.
Print this if it helps. We’d genuinely rather you bought a good system from someone else than a bad one from us.
1. Can you give me a price before you visit?
Mountain Water Co.
Call or fill out the form and tell us about your home — town supply or well, and what you are seeing — and we will tell you which system fits and what it costs. What we will commit to is that you get the full number in writing before anything is booked — never a figure that moves on the day.
Ask anyone else
Ask for the number before you book anything, and ask whether it can change on the day. A company that will only talk money in your living room is telling you something about how the close works.
2. Do I have to sit through an in-home presentation?
Mountain Water Co.
No. Call or fill out the form and we will tell you which system fits and what it costs. We are not going to run a presentation at you.
Ask anyone else
Ask how long to set aside. If the honest answer is three hours, that is a sales process, not advice.
3. What size am I being quoted, and why that size?
Mountain Water Co.
A softener is sized from your hardness result and how many people live in the house. We will tell you the number we sized it to and why.
Ask anyone else
Ask for the grain capacity and the reasoning behind it. “It is our best system” is not a reason. Also worth knowing: a salt-free conditioner has no grain capacity at all — it prevents scale, it does not soften. Anyone quoting you grains on a salt-free unit is confused, or hoping you are.
4. What are the components, specifically?
Mountain Water Co.
Every one is on our published spec sheets: the tank, the valve, the resin and the carbon, each with its manufacturer named. You get the same sheet in writing before you buy, not a brand sticker and a handshake.
Ask anyone else
Ask which resin and which valve, by name, and ask who manufactures them. A brand sticker on the tank is not a component list, and plenty of companies put their own badge on hardware they did not make.
5. What does the warranty cover, part by part?
Mountain Water Co.
It is published as a table, part by part: lifetime on the tanks, the ceramic discs and the dry parts; 5 years on the control valve, circuit board and media; 1 year on reverse osmosis systems and on installation labor. The exclusions are on the same page.
Ask anyone else
Ask for it broken down by component, and ask specifically whether labor is included and for how long. Plenty of warranties sold as covering everything for life turn out to cover parts only, from day one, and labor is the expensive part of a call-out.
6. What does it cost me after year one?
Mountain Water Co.
Salt for the brine tank, and filter changes on a reverse osmosis unit. On a well system with iron or sulfur treatment the upkeep is more than that, and we will tell you what it is before you buy rather than after.
Ask anyone else
Ask the annual running cost and whether there is a trip fee once the first year is up. This is the number that quietly separates a good deal from a bad one over ten years.
One more thing
The industry’s worst habits, named
If you see any of these, it isn’t a red flag about that one salesperson. It’s how that company is built.
The price that drops if you sign tonight
A price that falls by thousands because you hesitated was never the real price. Real pricing doesn't care what day it is.
Testing your water to frighten you
The precipitate demo — where tap water turns orange in a jar — shows dissolved minerals, which is what hard water is. It is not evidence your water is toxic. It is theater, not science.
'Lifetime warranty' with nothing behind it
Ask which components and whether labor is included. If the answer isn't a table, there isn't one.
Financing quoted as the price
'$97 a month' is not a price, it's a payment. Ask for the cash number and the total you'll pay over the term. Both.
Then go and ask everyone else the same six.
Most homes we can quote right over the phone. Get our number first — it makes every other conversation easier.
System info and pricing
Find the right water system
Call or fill out the form and tell us what you're seeing — scale, stains, a smell, city water or a well. We'll tell you which system fits your home and what it costs. There's no system that fits every house, and sometimes the answer is that you don't need one.
- Call or fill out the form
- City water or private well
- Monongalia, Marion & Harrison