Article content

We were peppered with questions following the tale of an Ottawa woman slapped with a $6,000 lien on her home to fulfill the contract on a water softener system sold by a door-to-door agent.

Patsy Miller was required to pay out the entire 120-month rental on the system, even though she sold the Barrhaven home after 17 months and no longer had any use for the softener. She felt deceived by the sales agent, who left the impression the city’s water is loaded with harmful contaminants. This, of course, is false.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Q&A: Do you need a water softener if you live in Ottawa? Back to video

So here follows some useful 411 on the city’s H2O.

Q: If I’m hooked up to the city’s main water system, do I need a water softener?

A: No. Ottawa’s water is considered “very soft” at source, the Ottawa River, because of the waterway’s geology. Water hardness is a measure of the dissolved amounts of calcium and magnesium. For comparison, Ottawa’s main supply has about 30 mg/L of hardness (very soft), compared to a communal well like Carp’s — also city-run — with 225 mg/L, termed “moderately” hard.