Water softeners in Brandon
Brandon's city water changed when its treatment plant expanded. Here's what that means for your softener.
Brandon sits about five miles east of Sioux Falls along the Big Sioux River and Split Rock Creek, and had 11,048 residents in 2020. It's home to the Big Sioux Recreation Area and a lot of newer housing. If you live in town, the biggest softener question right now is whether your settings still match the water coming out of the tap.
What changed at Brandon's water plant
Brandon's water is groundwater from city wells, averaging about 967,000 gallons a day in the city's 2024 drinking water report. The engineering firm on the plant expansion, AE2S, describes doubling capacity with a 2,000 gallon-per-minute addition that includes reverse osmosis softening on half of the water, aiming to cut hardness by 50 percent, plus aeration for iron removal and filtration for radium removal. A Water Conditioning and Purification article in 2025 reported that the RO system lowers hardness from about 24 grains to about 12, and quoted a local water treatment business owner saying most equipment in town would need to be recalibrated.
Why recalibration matters
A softener set for 24 grains on 12-grain water regenerates far more often than it needs to. That means more salt, more water down the drain and more wear. Twelve grains is still hard, so softeners still make sense in Brandon, but the setting should match a current test.
Outside city limits
Rural homes around Brandon may be on Minnehaha Community Water Corp, which blends its own well water with water bought from Lewis and Clark, or on a private well. Each has different water, so test before you set or size anything.
Common jobs in Brandon
- Resetting softeners after the plant change
- Downsizing or replacing oversized units
- Iron filters on rural wells
- RO drinking-water taps
Common questions
Do I still need a softener in Brandon?
Probably, but at a lower setting. Reports on the plant expansion put treated water at about 12 grains, which is still hard.
Should I change my softener settings?
If your softener was set before the plant expansion, have the water tested and the unit reset to the current hardness.
Services in Brandon
- Water softener installationA new softener sized to your supply, whether city water, Lewis and Clark, rural water or a well.
- Water softener repairFix softeners that stopped softening, won't regenerate, use no salt or leak in the basement.
- Water softener replacementReplace an old, worn or oversized softener with one sized and set for the water you have now.
- Iron and sulfur filtersFilters for orange stains, black specks and rotten-egg odor, mostly on rural water and private wells.
- Reverse osmosis drinking waterUnder-sink RO for drinking and cooking water in softened homes and on private wells.
Nearby areas
Scale on everything? Softener not keeping up?
Call and get connected with a water treatment company that works in Sioux Falls and nearby towns.