Kind Water Co installs under-sink reverse osmosis in Davenport, Bettendorf, LeClaire and Eldridge — $897 for a tank system, $997 tankless, installed all-in. The same systems and installed prices apply across the river in Moline, Rock Island and East Moline.
Tank reverse osmosis, $897. Filtered water is held in a small storage tank under the sink, and the system needs no electricity. It suits most kitchens, and it is the only version we install on a private well, because wells run high dissolved solids and a tankless unit loses pressure.
Tankless reverse osmosis, $997. No storage tank, so you keep more of the cabinet and get continuous flow. It suits homes on city water with an outlet under the sink; if the garbage disposal already uses that outlet, an air switch that frees it up is $200.
Both prices are all-in: equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty, with 0% financing and $100 off for military and first responders. Both systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58 for total dissolved solids only, and each one treats a single tap — the water you drink and cook with.
Installation is a single visit of about two to three hours, done by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind. What happens at your sink:
Upkeep: annual service is $199 a year for a tank system and $249 a year for tankless. The yearly visit replaces all three RO filters and includes a water test and a full system check.
We install on the Iowa and Illinois sides of the Quad Cities. Pick your city for local details:
Every other community we cover is listed on our Quad Cities service area hub. Travel is quoted before you agree: the first 50 miles from our Des Moines or Marion office are free, then $1 a mile. The free in-home test measures hardness, iron, total dissolved solids and a nitrate screening reading at your own tap; bacteria, arsenic, lead and PFAS need a certified lab, and so does a nitrate result you plan treatment around. If an existing softener is the problem rather than the drinking tap, see water softener repair in the Quad Cities.
The hardness figures in the next sections come from Iowa American Water and describe the Iowa side of the river only.
Ask two Bettendorf neighbors how hard their water is and both of them can be right. Iowa American Water publishes tap hardness across this district at 136–350 mg/L (7.9–20.4 grains per gallon).
That range is the most useful thing on the utility's quality sheet, and it is also why most of the water advice you hear around here is useless. The top of it is roughly two and a half times the bottom. A figure your brother-in-law read off his own report, or a number a salesperson quoted from a job across town, describes that address — not yours, even on the same system and the same street.
Iowa American does deserve something for printing a real spread instead of a tidy single figure; Marion's annual report publishes no hardness number at all, and neither does Coralville's. A range is the more honest way to describe a system that genuinely varies. It just leaves the last step of the work to you.
The whole-home side of that hardness is covered on our Quad Cities service area page. This page is about the drinking tap — and about the only number that should govern a purchase: the one measured at your own sink.
The USGS sorts hardness into four bands. Iowa American's published range never reaches the two softer bands and straddles both hard ones, which is exactly why an "average for the Quad Cities" would mislead you. One grain per gallon equals 17.1 mg/L.
| USGS band | mg/L | Grains per gallon | Does the published Quad Cities range reach it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soft | Under 60 | Under 3.5 | No — nothing on this system is reported that low |
| Moderately hard | 61–120 | 3.6–7.0 | No — the entire published range sits above this band |
| Hard | 121–180 | 7.1–10.5 | Yes — the bottom of the range, from 136 mg/L up |
| Very hard | Above 180 | Above 10.5 | Yes — and the top, 350 mg/L, is nearly double the threshold |
Two households can both be telling the truth when one calls the water here manageable and the other calls it punishing. They are describing different rows of the same table. Our hardness-by-city guide sets those numbers beside the rest of the state.
A water softener has to be sized and programmed to your address. At 8 grains it is a different machine — different capacity, different salt bill, different regeneration schedule — than the same unit at 20 grains. Guess high and you buy salt you never needed; guess low and you run out of soft water halfway through a Sunday.
An under-sink reverse osmosis system is the exception. It sits beneath one sink and pushes water through a membrane, and its job description does not change based on where the house upstream landed in Iowa American's range. In a district this variable, that is a real advantage: it is the one thing you can decide to buy before anyone has measured anything.
Two limits, stated plainly. An RO treats one tap — the water you drink and cook with — so it will not do a thing about the shower glass or the water heater. And nobody should quote you a percentage for your specific glass of water: NSF/ANSI 58, the standard reverse osmosis systems are certified against, sets its bar at 75% or better total dissolved solids reduction. That is what the standard requires to certify, and nothing more. Nitrate is a separate question, and our systems make no claim about it: they are certified to NSF/ANSI 58 for total dissolved solids only. At the treatment-system level, EPA lists reverse osmosis among the best available technologies for nitrate — a statement about the technology, not a product claim. Iowa State University Extension notes that nitrate is odorless and tasteless — one more thing a certified lab test tells you and your tongue cannot.
Tank RO, $897. A small storage tank lives in the cabinet alongside the filters. No electricity, and it goes into the great majority of homes we do here.
Tankless RO, $997. No storage tank, so you keep the cabinet space and get continuous flow — but it needs an outlet under the sink. In plenty of kitchens that outlet is already taken by the garbage disposal or wired to a wall switch. A garbage-disposal air switch is $200 and frees it up. We will say the quiet part out loud: that air switch is a deliberately thin-margin item. It is not a money-maker for us. We install it because it is what makes tankless possible.
City water is what puts tankless on the table at all. On a private well toward Eldridge or in rural Scott County we install the tank version only — wells run high dissolved solids and a tankless loses pressure. Two smaller items: a specialty or digital faucet is $200, and a fridge or ice-maker line runs $300 (tankless) or $350 (tank). We say both hard facts about that line first — it is impossible if your sink is in an island, and even when it is not, whether the run reaches the refrigerator cleanly is close to a coin flip nobody can predict from the driveway.
All-in means equipment, taxes, a lifetime parts warranty and installation by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind. Annual service covers all three RO filters, a water test and a full system check. 0% financing is available, and there is $100 off for military and first responders. Nothing here expires; the price is the price. Our Iowa reverse osmosis cost guide shows the same numbers with the reasoning behind them.
One line we would rather you hear now than read on an invoice: the first 50 miles from our Des Moines or Marion office are free, and past that travel is $1 per mile. The Quad Cities sit outside that radius, so a Davenport or Eldridge quote carries a travel line, and you will see the exact figure in writing before you decide anything. Most national brands will not publish a price at any distance — compare ours to theirs and draw your own conclusion.
If what actually bothers you is how the drinking water tastes, the $897 system by itself is a perfectly legitimate stopping point. Plenty of homeowners here buy exactly that and nothing else, and we will not talk anyone up to a whole-home system they did not come looking for.
Budget two to three hours. The work is done by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind — they mount the unit inside the cabinet, tap the cold line, set a dedicated drinking faucet at the sink deck (a hole may need drilling if the countertop has no spare), and run a small drain connection. Then it gets flushed, tested and demonstrated. Coverage is lifetime on parts, five years on media and one year on labor; we are insured and bonded. After that it is one service visit a year.
Given how wide that published range runs, guessing from somebody else's report is the one approach that makes no sense here. We will come to your Davenport, Bettendorf, LeClaire or Eldridge home, measure what is actually at your tap, tell you what we find — including when the answer is "you need less than you thought" — and leave a written quote. No pressure, no obligation. Call 319-319-6566, email hello@kindwaterco.com, or get an instant quote online.
$897 for an under-sink tank system and $997 for tankless, installed all-in — equipment, taxes, a lifetime parts warranty and installation by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind. Annual service is $199 a year on a tank system and $249 on tankless, covering all three filters, a water test and a full system check. 0% financing is available.
Yes. The same under-sink systems go in on the Illinois side at the same installed prices: $897 for a tank system and $997 tankless, installed by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind. Moline, Rock Island and East Moline each treat their own water, so Iowa American Water’s hardness figures do not describe those homes. Travel past the first 50 miles is $1 a mile, quoted before you agree.
Because the system genuinely varies. Its tap water quality data lists 136–350 mg/L, or 7.9 to 20.4 grains per gallon, across the district. The top is roughly two and a half times the bottom, so a figure quoted from another Davenport or Bettendorf address is not a number you can size anything from.
Yes, and we would rather say so up front. The first 50 miles from our Des Moines or Marion office are free; beyond that, travel is $1 per mile. The Quad Cities fall outside the free radius, so quotes here carry a travel line, and you will see the exact figure in writing before you agree to anything.
No. Reverse osmosis treats one tap, so it improves drinking and cooking water and nothing else. Spotting, film and scale are hardness at every fixture in the house, which is a water softener's job. If taste is your only complaint, the $897 system on its own is a perfectly reasonable place to stop.
No. We install tankless reverse osmosis on city water only. Private wells in rural Scott County tend to run high in dissolved solids, and a tankless unit loses pressure under that load, so a well home gets the $897 tank system.
Whole-home water softening, filtration, and reverse-osmosis drinking water — professionally installed and built to last a lifetime.
Serving Des Moines, Polk County & homes across Iowa
Kind Water Co is a d/b/a of Zero Cap Investments LLC · 600 SE 15th St, Des Moines, IA 50317
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