Water softeners in Sioux Falls
Softener help for homes on City of Sioux Falls water, from central neighborhoods near Falls Park to newer subdivisions in Lincoln County.
Sioux Falls is the rare city that tells you what to set your softener to. The city's annual water report for 2025 lists total hardness at 250 ppm, made up of 133 ppm calcium hardness and 117 ppm magnesium hardness, and gives a water softener setting of 15 grains per gallon. The 2024 report listed 270 ppm and 16 grains, so the number moves a little from year to year.
Where Sioux Falls water comes from
The city draws from the Big Sioux Aquifer, the Middle Skunk Creek Aquifer and, at times, the Big Sioux River, and it buys water from the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System. At the city's Water Purification Plant, a 2021 Dakota News Now tour described tanks that soften the water by about 50 percent before filtration, fluoride and chlorine. So city water is already partly softened, and still hard enough that most homes run a softener.
City water versus Lewis and Clark water
The same report lists Lewis and Clark water separately: 168 ppm total hardness, a 10-grain softener setting, and 82 ppm sodium compared with 34 ppm for city-treated water. The report's service map shows a blended supply area. If you're not sure which water reaches your house, call the city's water division or test at the tap before you set the softener.
Homes across the city
Sioux Falls had 192,517 people at the 2020 census and more than 83,000 housing units, from early 1900s houses near downtown to new construction on every edge of town. Older homes may have scale built up in water heaters and galvanized lines; newer ones often have a softener loop plumbed in the basement or utility room.
Common jobs in Sioux Falls
- Setting softeners to the city's published grain number
- Replacing aging units in basements
- Repairing softeners that stopped regenerating
- Adding an RO tap for drinking water
Common questions
What should I set my softener to in Sioux Falls?
The city's 2025 water report lists a water softener setting of 15 grains per gallon for city water and 10 grains for Lewis and Clark water.
Does Sioux Falls soften its water?
Partly. The Water Purification Plant softens the water by about half, but it is still hard enough that many homes use a softener.
Services in Sioux Falls
- 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.