If you want a water filter installed in Miami, we're starting in Miami-Dade County and can help with homes on city water. You call, send a few photos, and get one written price for a named system. A local plumber does the install. WASD's 2025 report covers monitoring data from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025, and that report is the main public record of what comes out of the county's treatment plants. The county's documents simply don't name the City of Miami as a service area, so WASD most likely serves your address, but your water bill is the only way to know for sure (miamidade.gov).
Two systems worth comparing
Whole-house filter
A whole-house filter is installed where the water line enters the home, so it reaches all the fixtures after that point. Hose bibs and irrigation lines often branch off before the filter, so those are usually not covered. If you want filtered water at the kitchen tap and the shower, this is typically the way to get both. How a whole-house filter works explains what to expect from one.
Under-sink reverse osmosis
An under-sink RO system sits inside one cabinet and feeds a dedicated faucet, usually at the kitchen sink. It treats only that one point of use. If your main concern is the water you drink and cook with, an under-sink system is a simpler install than a whole-house unit. Whole-house filter or reverse osmosis: how to choose walks through the tradeoffs.
What the utility's report says about your water source
According to WASD's 2025 report, Miami-Dade's drinking water comes from groundwater drawn mainly from the Biscayne Aquifer, with a smaller number of wells from the Floridan Aquifer. WASD runs three regional treatment plants: Alexander Orr Jr., John E. Preston, and Hialeah. It also runs the Hialeah Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant and five smaller plants that make up the South Dade Water Supply System. The Alexander Orr Jr. plant uses lime treatment to reduce hardness, then disinfects and filters the water, as WASD's 2025 report describes. The Hialeah Reverse Osmosis plant uses reverse osmosis, then adjusts pH, degasifies the water, and adds chlorine before the water enters the distribution system, according to WASD's 2025 report. WASD's 2025 report prints one results column for the whole main system, so it does not show differences between what comes out of each plant north and south of SW 8 Street. If you want to understand the report itself, how to read your utility's annual water report is a good place to start.
A note on hardness in Miami
WASD's 2025 report prints no hardness figure for the main system or the South Dade system. Florida DEP's 2024 sample file shows calcium hardness medians at the plant entry points of 45.3 mg/L at Hialeah, 69 mg/L at Alexander Orr Jr., and 81.3 mg/L at Preston. Those figures are from DEP's 2024 sample file. Those are calcium hardness figures only; total hardness runs higher than calcium hardness alone. The DEP file has no total hardness row for WASD's main system. If you want a hardness figure that applies to your address, the most direct way to get it is to ask the utility. If you're wondering whether a softener makes sense at all, water softener or water filter: what's the difference? and does Miami have hard water? cover that question without pushing you toward a product.
How to get started
We're starting in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Coverage depends on which plumbers we have confirmed in your area. Right now we work with homes on city water. If you're on a private well, tell us when you call and we'll be straight with you about whether we can help yet. We don't publish prices or model names on the site. You call, send a few photos of where the water comes in or of your open sink cabinet, and we give you one written price for a named system. We only give an install date once a plumber has confirmed it. Reach us here to get started, or visit the Miami-Dade County page if you want broader county information first.
Where these facts come from
[permit rules pending plumber and counsel review] [plumber network pending]
