Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia Water Department. Moderately hard to hard depending on the plant. Chloramine.

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.

Hardness101–169 ppm by plant
Chloraminein distribution

On the report

Water utility: Philadelphia Water Department
Hardness: 2025 report: Baxter avg 101 ppm / 6 gpg; Belmont 151 ppm / 9 gpg; Queen Lane 169 ppm / 10 gpg. The department calls that moderately hard or hard by service area. — PWD 2025 Drinking Water Quality Report
Disinfectant: Chloramine (chlorine, then ammonia before the water leaves the plant). — PWD 2025 Drinking Water Quality Report
Brine / salt to the sewer: No district prohibition found in current research. No PWD sewer ban like Measure S turned up. Ask the Water Department / sewer side of the bill.

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.

MicroplasticsWHO’s 2019 review examined studies that found microplastic particles in treated tap and bottled water in many places. That is a published-occurrence finding, not a number from this city’s water-quality report, and we do not invent a particles-per-liter count for the tap.Microplastics in drinking-water — World Health Organization
PFASEPA’s Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule required community systems this size to test 29 PFAS and lithium in 2023–2025. Open the UCMR 5 Data Finder for this PWS. This file does not invent a detection.Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

What actually fits

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If soap will not lather and the glassware looks chalky

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 salt-based softener is the thing that actually removes hardness. Size it from your grains and how much water you use, not bathroom count. It needs a drain.

Shop salt-based softeners

If you only want less scale and you hate salt bags

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.

A salt-free conditioner changes how scale sticks. It does not soften. Soap and spots stay closer to untreated. No brine line.

Shop salt-free conditioners

If the water tastes like pool-plus-ammonia

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.

Catalytic carbon with a chloramine claim (NSF/ANSI 42 for chloramine). Regular chlorine carbon is the wrong box.

Shop catalytic carbon for chloramine

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 RO Shop Waterdrop reverse osmosis Shop 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

2025 Drinking Water Quality Report — Philadelphia Water Department. Accessed 2026-08-31.

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