Affordable and reliable softeners. Family owned since 1979.
Every figure below comes from JEA's own published reports. Nothing here is our estimate.
Hardness varies a lot inside Jacksonville. JEA's lowest-reading ZIPs (32065, 32234) come in at 120 mg/L / 7 gpg. The highest (32081) reads 372 mg/L / 22 gpg — more than three times as hard. Two houses fifteen minutes apart can genuinely need different answers, which is why we test at your tap rather than quoting from a map.
JEA states it plainly: “We receive 100 percent of that water from one of Florida's most treasured resources — the Floridan aquifer.” That aquifer is porous limestone, which is calcium carbonate. Groundwater sitting in it dissolves exactly the minerals that make water hard.
JEA's treatment does a lot of things well. It disinfects with chlorine, uses ozone at two plants to strip out the hydrogen sulfide that gives Northeast Florida well water its rotten-egg smell, and meets every federal health-based standard. What it doesn't do — because no utility is required to — is remove hardness.
So the water arriving at your house is safe and legal, and it is also carrying up to 372 milligrams of dissolved calcium and magnesium per liter. Those two facts are not in conflict. One is about health; the other is about your water heater.
Twenty-seven substances have been detected in JEA water. Six of them sit above a health guideline selected by the Environmental Working Group from a federal or state public health authority. Here is each one, what it was measured at, and what the guideline is protecting against.
| What's in the water | In JEA water | Health guideline | What the guideline protects against, and who set it |
|---|---|---|---|
Total trihalomethanes Chlorination byproduct |
52.2 ppb | 0.15 ppb 348× over |
Cancer. Four chemicals that form when chlorine meets organic matter during treatment. The 0.15 ppb figure is a one-in-a-million lifetime cancer risk level from a peer-reviewed EWG study.3 |
Haloacetic acids (HAA9) Chlorination byproduct |
22.4 ppb | 0.06 ppb 374× over |
Cancer. The nine-acid group, formed the same way. One-in-a-million lifetime cancer risk level, peer-reviewed EWG study. No federal legal limit exists for this group.3 |
Haloacetic acids (HAA5) Chlorination byproduct |
16.2 ppb | 0.1 ppb 162× over |
Cancer. The five federally regulated acids within that group. Same one-in-a-million basis.3 |
Bromate Ozonation byproduct |
1.00 ppb | 0.1 ppb 10× over |
Cancer. Forms when source water containing bromide is treated with ozone — which JEA uses at two of its plants. Guideline from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.3 |
Radium (226 + 228) Naturally occurring |
0.28 pCi/L | 0.05 pCi/L 5.6× over |
Bone cancer and other cancers. A radioactive element that occurs naturally in the Floridan aquifer, which is where all of JEA’s water comes from. Guideline from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.3 |
Arsenic Naturally occurring |
0.03 ppb | 0.004 ppb 7.5× over |
Cancer. Occurs naturally in Florida groundwater. Guideline from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment; the federal legal limit is far higher, and JEA is well inside it.3 |
OtterSoft Water
Otter Soft Water is part of the UDI family — UDI Water, United Hydro and Otter Soft Water. Three names, one company, one job: clean water in Southeastern homes. The people installing your system, stocking your parts and answering your service call have been doing exactly this since 1979.
At 15 to 22 grains per gallon across much of the city, Jacksonville is exactly the situation a three-function conditioner is built for — hardness high enough to damage appliances, plus free chlorine you can taste.
Softens out the calcium and magnesium, refines through activated carbon to take out the chlorine taste and odor, and filters through silica for clarity. 30,000 grain capacity with a Fleck 5600 metered valve, backed by a 5-year warranty. The carbon stage is also the one that works on the chlorination byproducts in the table above, and the system is sized to the hardness we measure at your tap — which in Jacksonville can differ threefold between one ZIP and the next.
An under-sink reverse osmosis unit for drinking and cooking water. This is the one that addresses what a softener cannot — worth considering if the table above concerns you, or if your household has been buying bottled water out of habit. Sold separately from the softener.
RO detailsNot sure whether you're in range? Put your ZIP in the form below and we'll tell you straight away — and we'll tell you what JEA reports for that ZIP while we're at it.
Readings above are a selection from JEA's published ZIP-code table. JEA notes the samples were taken between October and December; check the JEA page for the current table before relying on any single figure.
Tell us who you are and when suits you. A local Otter technician calls to confirm, then brings your price in writing — before you spend $THOUSANDS more at the national brands.