Colfax treats its water one way: it adds chlorine. EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Information System lists two active treatment plants for the Colfax water supply, and both records carry the same two entries, chlorination and liquid sodium hypochlorite. There is no softening, no iron filtration and no aeration. Apart from the disinfectant, what comes out of the town’s shallow wells is what comes out of your tap. That makes Colfax the clearest unsoftened town we know of near Des Moines.
| Colfax at a glance | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Who supplies the water | Colfax Water Supply, PWSID IA5009056, 2,305 people served (EPA SDWIS). The 2024 Census estimate for the city is also 2,305, up from 2,256 in 2020 |
| Where it comes from | City wells in the alluvial aquifer, 54 to 57 feet deep (Iowa DNR Source Water Tracker) |
| Softened at the plant | No. Both active plants list chlorination and sodium hypochlorite and nothing else (EPA SDWIS) |
| Hardness on record | 447 mg/L, about 26.1 grains per gallon, in the only hardness sample on file: a special sample taken after chlorination on 30 March 2011 (Iowa DNR Drinking Water Portal) |
The Iowa DNR portal holds exactly one hardness result for Colfax. It was taken on 30 March 2011, labelled “Well #1 (’66) or #2 (’72) after treatment”, and it read 447 mg/L. Divide by 17.1 and that’s about 26.1 grains per gallon. The USGS calls anything over 180 mg/L very hard, and this is about two and a half times that line.
It’s a single sample, and it’s fifteen years old, so we treat it as a starting point rather than a verdict. What keeps it meaningful is the treatment record. Because the plant only chlorinates, “after treatment” in Colfax is effectively raw well water with disinfectant added. Well water can drift over the years, which is why we still want a fresh reading from your tap, but nothing at the plant has been taking hardness out in the meantime.
Compare that with the bigger systems to the west. In Des Moines, the water works lime-softens at its main plants before water ever reaches a tap. Elsewhere in Jasper County, Prairie City softens by ion exchange. Colfax does neither, so the softening step, if your house gets one, happens in your basement.
Hard water leaves its calcium and magnesium wherever water heats up or dries out. In a water heater it settles as scale on the bottom of the tank and on electric elements, and that layer is what you hear popping when the burner runs. On shower glass and faucets it’s the white film that comes back a few days after you clean. In the dishwasher it’s the cloudy spotting on glasses. Hard water also makes soap work harder, so you use more detergent, shampoo and dish soap to get the same lather.
Water this hard also changes how a softener has to be sized. A household’s daily softening load is hardness multiplied by water use, so 26-grain water loads a resin bed about three times as fast as 9-grain water. Size the tank too small and it regenerates constantly; size it right and it barely gets noticed. That’s why we size from a test at your sink and the number of people in your house, not from a brochure. Our signs you need a water softener guide is a fair way to check what you’re already seeing.
Several well systems around Des Moines, Carlisle and Mitchellville among them, run aeration and filtration at the plant. Colfax’s record shows neither step. We don’t have an iron figure for Colfax’s wells, and we won’t invent one. If the wells carry iron, the plant isn’t filtering it, which is why iron is one of the three things our free test measures.
Iron matters for more than stains. It’s what puts the orange tint in a toilet tank or a load of white towels, and our note on orange staining shows what that looks like. It also coats softener resin and quietly costs it capacity, so a softener sized right on paper starts acting like a smaller one. In Colfax, any softener should be specified with the iron reading in hand, not hardness alone.
Against the federal limit of 10 mg/L for nitrate (measured as nitrogen), Colfax’s finished water peaked at 6.0 mg/L on 20 January 2026, the highest of 23 detections since 2021. The most recent reading, on 21 July 2026, was 3.2 mg/L. Your utility’s annual water quality report lists its nitrate results, and a certified laboratory can test your own tap.
We want to be plain about two things. A water softener doesn’t remove nitrate. And our free in-home screening measures hardness, iron and total dissolved solids (TDS). It doesn’t test for bacteria, nitrate, arsenic, lead, PFAS or radium; those need a certified laboratory, and we’ll point you to one. EPA lists reverse osmosis, ion exchange and electrodialysis as best available technologies for nitrate. Our RO units are certified to NSF/ANSI 58 for total dissolved solids and are not certified for nitrate reduction, so we don’t claim a nitrate result for them.
Colfax is a town where a whole-home softener is the likely recommendation rather than the exception. Every price is all-in: equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty.
Maintenance is $199 a year for a tank-RO home and $249 for a tankless-RO home. A diagnostic service call is $199, or $99 for a known-issue trip plus the part. Financing is 0%, and military and first responders take $100 off. Travel is free for the first 50 miles, then $1 a mile, and we quote it before we come. Start with our instant quote, or ask for a written one.
Outside town, acreages around Colfax draw private wells with no plant at all, not even the chlorine. Our well water setup is a dual-tank system at $3,450, or $3,800 with tank RO, with UV at $700 and sediment pre-filtration at $500 as add-ons. We fit tank RO rather than tankless on a well, because high dissolved solids cost a tankless unit its pressure. For bacteria and nitrate, start with a county lab test, often free through Iowa’s Private Well Grants program. Our free well water testing guide covers how.
Kind Water Co is licensed and insured. Our softeners are built from NSF/ANSI 44 certified components and our reverse osmosis systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58. Installation is by licensed local plumbing professionals we vet, schedule, and stand behind. Our pricing is published and all-in, and when the only public number for a town is fifteen years old, we would rather measure yours than lean on it.
The last hardness sample on record for Colfax is from 2011. Yours can be from this week. We come to you, measure hardness, iron and total dissolved solids at your kitchen sink, and leave you the readings and a written quote at no charge, whichever way you decide. Book your free in-home water test, or get numbers now from our instant quote.
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No. EPA SDWIS lists two active treatment plants for the Colfax water supply (PWSID IA5009056), and both show chlorination with liquid sodium hypochlorite and nothing else. There is no softening, iron filtration or aeration step, so hardness in the wells reaches the tap.
The only hardness sample on record read 447 mg/L, about 26.1 grains per gallon. It was a special sample taken after chlorination on 30 March 2011 (Iowa DNR Drinking Water Portal). It is one sample and it is old, but because the plant only chlorinates, nothing in treatment removes hardness. A fresh test at your tap gives today’s number.
Against the federal limit of 10 mg/L for nitrate (as nitrogen), Colfax’s finished water peaked at 6.0 mg/L on 20 January 2026, the highest of 23 detections since 2021, and read 3.2 mg/L on 21 July 2026. A water softener doesn’t remove nitrate, and our in-home screening doesn’t test for it; a certified laboratory can test your own tap.
From city wells in the alluvial aquifer, 54 to 57 feet deep (Iowa DNR Source Water Tracker). The 2011 hardness sample was labelled “Well #1 (’66) or #2 (’72) after treatment”. The Colfax water supply serves 2,305 people (EPA SDWIS).
A Kind Water Co softener is $2,500 all-in, including equipment, installation, taxes and a lifetime parts warranty, or $2,850 paired with reverse osmosis. The XL build is $2,800, or $3,150 with RO. Softeners use NSF/ANSI 44 certified components and RO systems are certified to NSF/ANSI 58. Financing is 0%, with $100 off for military and first responders. Travel is free for the first 50 miles, then $1 a mile, quoted before we come.
Every number on this page comes from a public record. Here is where to open each one yourself.
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