TapMatch

Chicago, Illinois

Lake Michigan water from the Department of Water Management. Chlorine residual is what the 2025 Water Quality Report is for. This file does not invent a hardness number from a ranking site.

Cited chemistry for ChicagoA chart of numbers printed on the utility report, each labeled with its unit. Missing numbers are left off.Chlorinefree chlorine residualWQR
Cited numbers from the utility report. Length follows the printed value against a labeled scale — not a health ranking. If the report has no number, it is not on the chart.
  1. Chlorinefree chlorine residual

On the report

Water utility
Chicago Department of Water Management
Hardness
Not printed as a grains number we would copy off a third-party hardness site. Open the 2025 Water Quality Report. — Chicago DWM 2025 Water Quality Report page
Disinfectant
Chlorine is the residual disinfectant on DWM’s annual Water Quality Report (free chlorine as Cl2 on the certified table). Vendor pages that say chloramine are not this city’s sentence. — Chicago DWM 2025 Water Quality Report
Brine / salt to the sewer
No district prohibition found in current research. No Chicago or MWRD residential softener ban like LACSD Measure S turned up. Ask the sewer agency on the bill before you cut a brine drain.

Also around here

Extra context besides the utility report and the chart above — geology, an unregulated table, or a published study. Not a second set of printed tap numbers.

What actually fits

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If a dealer is selling hardness equipment

Two tall mineral tanks and a black brine tank of a salt-based water softener, plumbed with copper pipe in a garage.
Salt-based softener: two mineral tanks and a brine tank.
A single tall tank with no brine tank, installed in a laundry alcove next to a washing machine.
Salt-free conditioner: one tank, no salt bin.

Open the current CCR for grains. This file does not invent a number from a ranking site. A salt softener needs a drain if it is legal at the address.

Shop salt-based softenersShop salt-free conditionersShop water test kits

If the shower just smells like the pool

A single black whole-house carbon tank with a control head, installed in a garage and connected to copper pipe.
Whole-house carbon tank. No brine tank.

That is chlorine. A whole-house carbon filter with an NSF/ANSI 42 chlorine claim is the usual match. A softener will not take chlorine out.

Shop whole-house carbon

If you are shopping a PFAS listing for the kitchen

Under-sink reverse osmosis system with a white storage tank, filter canisters, and colored tubing in a kitchen cabinet.
Under-sink reverse osmosis: filters, tank, and a second faucet.

The under-sink RO we actually run is Cloud RO — NSF/ANSI 58, kitchen tap, not a whole-house tank. Check the exact listing if PFAS is why you are shopping. Waterdrop is a tankless option if you want that path. A certifier-listed pitcher is the cheap first step. Nobody is paying for a medical claim.

Shop Cloud ROShop Waterdrop reverse osmosisShop PFAS-listed pitchers

If you have not tested the tap

A homeowner kit is a start. It is not a state-certified lab. Use a certified lab when the decision is expensive.

Shop water test kits

Sources

  1. Water Quality Reports — City of Chicago DWM. Accessed 2026-08-31.

Updated August 31, 2026. A city file is chemistry we can cite plus the sewer rule. No invented detections.