What's in your utility's water, from its own reports, and the filter or softener that fixes what bugs you.
Tap water around here is treated, tested and regulated, and every utility below publishes a report on it each year. What most people actually want to fix is the taste, the smell, the spots on the shower door, or simply having water they enjoy drinking. Those problems have straightforward answers, and the right one depends on which water you have. Start with whichever of these sounds like your house.
My water tastes or smells like chlorine. Why it happens, why it gets worse some springs, and what removes it.
Spots, scale, crusty fixtures, dry skin. That's hardness, and a filter won't fix it.
I want better drinking water. Reverse osmosis or a simpler under-sink filter, and how to choose.
Whole house or under the sink? What each one treats, and the combinations that make sense.
I'm on a well. Different water, different first step.
Look up my water. What's in your utility's water, from its own reports, and what actually helps.
Utilities add a disinfectant so water stays clean all the way through miles of pipe to your faucet. Manatee County, the City of Bradenton and Sarasota County use chloramine, which is chlorine combined with a little ammonia so it lasts longer in the pipes. The City of Sarasota uses plain chlorine. Either one can leave a taste or smell you notice in a glass of water or a pot of coffee.
If the smell suddenly got stronger in April or May and you live on Sarasota County water, there is a reason. Sarasota County switches to free chlorine for a few weeks in some springs to clean out its pipes: April 10 to May 14 in 2023, and April 22 to May 6 in 2025, when residents compared it to pool water. The County says the water stays safe to drink during the switch (Suncoast Searchlight, May 2025). Manatee County's reports describe no such switch. Its seasonal complaint is different: an earthy or musty taste when algae bloom in Lake Manatee, which the county says happens two or three times a year, mostly in late spring and early summer, for two to four weeks at a time. It notified customers in July 2023 and June 2024, and says the water remains safe during these blooms (Manatee County odor fact sheet).
A rotten-egg smell is usually a different story. According to Manatee County's fact sheet, it most often comes from a drain trap or the water heater, not the water main. If it only happens on the hot side, start with our water heater page.
What helps: activated carbon. Ordinary carbon removes chlorine well. Chloramine is harder to remove: it takes catalytic carbon, or more carbon and more contact time, which is why a whole-house carbon filter uses a large 20-inch cartridge rather than a small one. For drinking and cooking water, an under-sink filter or a reverse osmosis system handles taste at the kitchen tap. For the shower and every other tap, it takes a whole-house carbon filter at the main line.
Two practical notes from the utilities: if anyone in the house uses home dialysis, talk to your doctor or equipment supplier about chloramine, and if you keep fish, use a water conditioner labeled for chloramine.
That white crust on faucets, the film on the shower glass and the spots on your dishes are hardness: dissolved calcium and magnesium. Hard water isn't a health problem, but it leaves scale behind wherever water evaporates or gets heated, including inside your water heater.
Manatee County's water is hard, and how hard varies. In 2025 the county measured total hardness from 106 to 279 mg/L, roughly 6 to 16 grains per gallon (Manatee County, 2025 data). The U.S. Geological Survey classes anything above 180 mg/L as very hard (USGS). The top of that range has climbed in recent reports, from 165 mg/L in 2019 to 222 in 2021, 259 in 2024 and 279 in 2025. The county blends Lake Manatee water with deep wells, so your water can test differently from your neighbor's across town or from one season to the next.
Sarasota County softens its water at the plant, down to about 120 to 125 mg/L (around 7 grains per gallon), which its own report still calls hard (Sarasota County, 2025 report). The City of Sarasota softens its well water too. The City of Bradenton doesn't publish a hardness figure, so a quick test at the house is the way to know.
What helps: a water softener, which trades the hardness minerals for sodium as water passes through it. No filter, carbon or sediment, removes hardness. Softened water lathers more easily and rinses cleaner, and many people notice the difference on their skin, hair and towels. It isn't a medical treatment, but it does make the daily stuff easier. A softener does add some sodium, about 8 mg/L for every grain of hardness it removes (NDSU Extension). If you watch your sodium, pair the softener with a reverse osmosis system at the kitchen sink for drinking water.
Reverse osmosis is the most thorough answer for the water you drink and cook with. It pushes water through a membrane that holds back most dissolved solids, the minerals and salts that give water a flat, salty or heavy taste. Carbon stages before and after the membrane take care of chlorine taste. Reverse osmosis systems are certified under NSF/ANSI 58, which requires a tested reduction in total dissolved solids; certified systems can also carry claims for lead, fluoride, arsenic and cysts (NSF).
Where you live changes how much difference you'll taste. Manatee County water is low in sodium, about 15 mg/L in 2025. City of Bradenton water runs much higher, about 81 mg/L in 2025, and its total dissolved solids measured 550 mg/L, above the 500 mg/L guideline the EPA sets for taste and appearance rather than health (City of Bradenton, 2025 report). The City of Sarasota reported 88 mg/L of sodium in its most recent sample. In those homes, a reverse osmosis system makes the most noticeable difference in a glass of water.
The simpler option is an under-sink 3-stage filter: a sediment stage and two carbon stages with their own faucet, no storage tank and no water sent to the drain. It's a good fit when the goal is better-tasting water without chlorine. It doesn't reduce dissolved solids or sodium the way reverse osmosis does.
If PFAS is the reason you're asking, the local data is reassuring and worth knowing. Manatee County tested for 29 PFAS through 2024 and found all of them below EPA's reporting levels (Manatee County UCMR 5 notice), and the City of Sarasota reported none detected in 2023 and 2024 (City of Sarasota, 2024 report). The regional authority that supplies most of Sarasota County's water reported PFOA up to 5.2 and PFOS up to 4.3 parts per trillion in 2023 monitoring (Peace River Authority, 2025 report). EPA's limit for each will be 4.0 parts per trillion, with compliance due in 2029 and a proposed extension to 2031 (EPA). Monitoring results like these are not compliance results. Filters can be certified for PFAS reduction under NSF/ANSI 53 and 58 (NSF), and if PFAS is your reason for buying one, ask to see that certification for the exact system, including ours.
What reverse osmosis doesn't do: it treats one tap, fills a small storage tank rather than running at full faucet speed, and sends some water down the drain as it works. It does nothing for your shower or your water heater.
License and gas certification, pipe materials, warranty — the difference between a plumber who finds the real problem and one who just sells inventory.
The question is where you want the water to change. Under the sink means the water you drink and cook with. Whole house means every tap, the shower, the laundry and the water heater.
Our whole-house setup is two large 20-inch filter housings where the water line enters the house. The first holds a sediment cartridge, which catches sand, grit and rust flakes and protects everything after it. The second holds a carbon cartridge, which reduces chlorine taste and smell at every tap, including the shower. Chloramine takes catalytic carbon, so ask which cartridge you're getting. Neither one softens water or removes dissolved minerals. For hardness, the whole-house answer is a softener.
The combinations we recommend most often:
Nobody should sell you a system before asking what's in your water and what's bothering you about it. If you already have a water treatment quote from another company, we'll review it with you for free.
Plenty of rural homes in east Manatee County and around Parrish run on private wells. A private well has no utility and no annual report. You're the utility. The Florida Department of Health recommends testing a private well for bacteria and nitrate at least once a year and for lead about every three years, using a state-certified lab (Florida Department of Health). Your county health department can help: see DOH-Manatee or DOH-Sarasota.
The most common well complaints in Florida are about how the water looks, smells and feels: hardness, orange iron stains and a rotten-egg sulfur smell. The Department of Health notes that sulfur bacteria are not harmful and that iron bacteria are not known to cause disease, even though both are a nuisance (FDOH fact sheet). Start with a lab test, then choose equipment for what the test shows. Sediment filters and softeners often help on well water. If your water needs treatment we don't install, we'll say so.
First, find your utility. It's printed on your water bill. A Bradenton mailing address doesn't mean City of Bradenton water: homes with a Bradenton address outside the city limits are usually on Manatee County water. Each summary below comes from that utility's own annual water quality report, and the year is the year the samples were taken. Every regulated result we cite below meets current federal limits.
Who's on it: unincorporated Bradenton, the Manatee County side of Lakewood Ranch, Parrish, Ellenton, Anna Maria, Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach. Palmetto and Longboat Key buy their water from Manatee County, and some of it is blended into the north end of Sarasota County's system.
Where it comes from: about two-thirds from the Lake Manatee reservoir and one-third from deep Floridan aquifer wells, treated and disinfected with chloramine.
What helps: a softener for scale; carbon for chloramine taste, either under the sink or for the whole house; reverse osmosis if you want the cleanest-tasting drinking water. Sources: 2025 Water Quality Report, 2025 additional water quality information, UCMR 5 notice (2024 sampling).
Where it comes from: the Bill Evers Reservoir on the Braden River, blended with water stored underground in the city's storage wells. It is disinfected with chloramine, and the plant also uses chlorine dioxide.
What helps: reverse osmosis is the standout here, because it reduces the sodium and dissolved solids that shape the taste. Carbon handles the chloramine. A quick hardness test at the house should come before anyone talks about a softener. Source: City of Bradenton 2025 Water Quality Report.
Palmetto buys its water from Manatee County, so the source, hardness, sodium and PFAS results are Manatee County's (above). Palmetto tests its own pipes for disinfection byproducts. In 2024 the highest running averages were 49.5 parts per billion for trihalomethanes and 46.3 for haloacetic acids, within the limits of 80 and 60. The same products fit as for Manatee County. Source: City of Palmetto water quality reports.
The Town of Longboat Key buys its water wholesale from Manatee County, so start with the Manatee County summary above. The town publishes its own report for the pipes it runs; ask Town Hall for the latest copy.
Who's on it: the Sarasota County side of Lakewood Ranch, including Waterside, and much of north Sarasota County outside the city.
Where it comes from: a blend. In 2025, 59% came from the Peace River regional authority, 28% from the County's own wellfield plant, and 13% from Manatee County. It is disinfected with chloramine, with a switch to free chlorine for a few weeks in some springs.
What helps: carbon for chloramine taste, and especially for the spring free-chlorine weeks; reverse osmosis for drinking water; a softener if the scale still bothers you. Sources: Sarasota County 2025 Water Quality Report, Peace River authority 2025 report.
Who's on it: the city, including St. Armands and Bird Key.
Where it comes from: wells in the Floridan aquifer, treated by reverse osmosis and ion-exchange softening at the plant, then disinfected with free chlorine all year (about 1.4 mg/L on average in 2025).
What helps: because this is chlorine rather than chloramine, ordinary carbon works well for taste and smell, under the sink or for the whole house. Reverse osmosis lowers the sodium in your drinking water. If trihalomethanes are your concern, ask for a filter certified for VOC reduction under NSF/ANSI 53. Sources: City of Sarasota 2025 report, 2024 report.
Good for: drinking and cooking water with much lower dissolved solids and sodium, plus chlorine taste removal. Not for: the shower, the laundry or scale anywhere other than the kitchen tap. It sends some water to the drain while it works and fills a small storage tank.
Good for: better-tasting drinking water with less chlorine, from its own faucet, with no tank. Not for: dissolved solids, sodium or hardness.
Good for: sediment protection and chlorine taste and smell at every tap (chloramine needs a catalytic carbon cartridge), including the shower. Not for: hardness, dissolved minerals or sodium.
Good for: hardness, which means less scale on fixtures, glass and dishes, and less inside the water heater, plus easier lathering. Not for: chlorine, taste or PFAS. It adds some sodium and needs salt.
Every one of these systems needs a little attention, and we do that work. Filter cartridges load up over time, and how fast depends on how much water you use and what's in it. As a general guide, under-sink prefilters and 3-stage cartridges are usually changed about once a year, and a reverse osmosis membrane lasts a few years; the manufacturer's schedule for your system is the one to follow. Whole-house cartridges last as long as your water and your household let them, and a drop in water pressure is the usual sign one is due. A softener needs salt in its brine tank, and how often depends on your hardness and how much water you use. Call us when it is time and we will take care of it.
Air & Energy has been working on homes around here since 1983. Your system is installed by an Air & Energy plumber, an employee in a marked truck, and backed by our one-year workmanship warranty. We're a Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor, license CFC1429106. Estimates for new installations are free, and larger jobs are quoted in writing before work starts.
Is the tap water around Bradenton and Sarasota safe to drink?
The utilities here are regulated and test their water constantly, and every regulated result we cite on this page meets current federal limits. Filtration is mostly about taste, smell and scale. Look up your utility.
Is Manatee County water hard?
Yes. In 2025 it measured roughly 6 to 16 grains per gallon, which runs from moderately hard to very hard. Here's what fixes it.
Why does my water smell like a pool in the spring?
If you're on Sarasota County water, the County switches to free chlorine for a few weeks in some springs to clean its pipes. A carbon filter takes care of the smell.
Will a whole-house filter remove chloramine?
It takes catalytic carbon, or plenty of carbon and contact time. That's why whole-house carbon filters use large cartridges. Ask what's in the cartridge before you buy.
Does a water softener make my water salty?
It adds some sodium, about 8 mg/L for each grain of hardness removed. Most people don't taste it. If you watch your sodium, drink from a reverse osmosis tap.
Do I need a water test before buying anything?
You need to know what's in your water. On city water, the utility's report covers most of it, and a quick hardness test at the house fills in the rest. On a well, start with a lab test.
The taste, the smell, the spots or the bottled water you're tired of carrying in: tell us which, and tell us which utility is on your bill. We'll suggest what fits and put the estimate in writing. Call (941) 778-0773 or request a visit online.