Las Vegas Hard Water: The Complete Homeowner Guide

What hard water is and how it is measured

Hard water is water that carries a high level of dissolved minerals, mainly calcium and magnesium. The U.S. Geological Survey explains that groundwater and rivers pick up these minerals as they move through soil and rock. Hardness is not a health concern, but it is a nuisance: it fights soap, leaves white crust on fixtures and builds scale inside anything that heats water.

Hardness is reported two ways, and you will see both on Las Vegas water reports and equipment spec sheets:

• Parts per million (ppm) or milligrams per liter (mg/L): the measure used by utilities and labs, expressed as calcium carbonate.
• Grains per gallon (gpg): the unit water softeners are programmed in. The Water Quality Association uses 1 grain per gallon = 17.1 mg/L (ppm).

To convert, divide ppm by 17.1 to get grains per gallon, or multiply gpg by 17.1 to get ppm. For example, 291 ppm divided by 17.1 is about 17 gpg.

The USGS classifies water by hardness in mg/L as calcium carbonate:

The grain figures above are our conversions of the USGS ranges using 17.1 ppm per grain. Every major water supplier in the Las Vegas Valley falls in the top row: very hard.

Where Las Vegas hard water comes from

About 90% of Southern Nevada’s drinking water comes from Lake Mead, which is fed by the Colorado River. The rest comes from groundwater. According to LVVWD, the calcium and magnesium in our water are carried into Lake Mead by the mineral-dense Colorado River, and they do not pose a health risk.

Those minerals stay dissolved through treatment. Utilities treat the water to meet drinking water standards and add chlorine as it leaves the treatment plants to protect it on the way to your tap, but they do not soften it. That is why a brand-new home in Summerlin gets the same crusty faucets as a 1970s ranch house downtown. For the full picture, see where your Las Vegas water comes from.

Groundwater is a factor in some areas. North Las Vegas blends in water from its own wells, and the USGS study of Pahrump Valley describes groundwater moving through valley-fill sediments and carbonate rock, the same calcium and magnesium minerals that make water hard.

How to test your water for hardness

Start with your utility’s annual water quality report. Community water systems must send customers a Consumer Confidence Report every year, and it lists average hardness for your system. That is a valley-wide average, though, and it will not tell you about your own plumbing or whether your current softener is working.

1. Look for the signs: white crust on fixtures, spots on dishes and soap that will not lather.
2. Try a home test: test strips and the soap-bottle test give a rough reading. Our post on how to test for hard water at home walks through each method.
3. Get a free in-home analysis: we test hardness and other key factors at your tap, which is the number a softener should be programmed to. See diagnosing your water for common symptoms and what they mean.
4. Use a certified lab for health questions: for private wells, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection notes that private well water quality is not regulated by the state, so owners should test through a certified lab.

Curious about dissolved solids too? Our post on TDS in Las Vegas tap water explains what a TDS meter can and cannot tell you. Unfamiliar terms are defined in our water treatment glossary.

Choosing, sizing, costs and maintenance

For most Las Vegas homes, the question is not whether to treat hardness but which combination fits your goals. A common setup is a softener or salt-free system for the whole house, plus reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink. If you mainly want better-tasting water, start with our posts on why Las Vegas tap water tastes like chlorine and whether you can drink Las Vegas tap water.

Sizing a water softener

A softener has to remove a set number of grains of hardness each day. Penn State’s method multiplies people in the home by gallons used per person per day and by hardness in gpg. As an example using Penn State’s 75 gallons per person per day, a family of four on 17 gpg water needs to remove about 5,100 grains a day. Your actual use may differ. Our water softener size calculator runs the math with your numbers.

Efficiency matters too. The EPA WaterSense factsheet recommends demand-initiated regeneration, which regenerates based on actual use instead of a fixed schedule, and products certified to NSF/ANSI 44.

Costs

Prices vary with system type, home size, plumbing and installation details, so we quote after testing. Our posts on water softener cost in Las Vegas and reverse osmosis system cost in Las Vegas explain what drives the price. Weighing an upfront purchase against spreading the cost out? Read rent vs. buy a water softener, and ask us about monthly plans and 100% financing. If bottled water is a big line item, try our bottled water savings calculator and see reverse osmosis vs. bottled water.

Maintenance

• Keep salt in the brine tank: check it regularly and break up any hard crust so the softener can regenerate.
• Match settings to your water: program the softener to your tested hardness. Henderson’s report suggests 16 to 19 gpg for its customers.
• Change filters on schedule: RO filters, membranes and carbon cartridges lose performance over time. SNWA warns that poorly maintained systems can make water quality worse.
• Watch for warning signs: spots returning, low pressure or resin beads in the water. LVVWD notes that orange or brown beads can mean media breakthrough from a softener. See signs your water softener needs service.
• Flush the water heater: even with treatment, periodic flushing helps remove sediment.

Businesses with bigger demands, such as car washes, restaurants and hotels, can learn about our commercial water treatment systems.