Cahaba Water Co.
Chlorine handled at every tap. Nothing you didn't ask for.
One carbon filter on your main line. It reduces chlorine taste and odor at every tap in the house.
Cahaba Whole Home Essential is a treatment level. It is not a package, and it is not a size. We put a carbon filter on the main water line coming into your house. So the shower, the bath and the laundry get the same water as the kitchen. A softener is not automatically included. A drinking-water system is a separate choice you can make later.
Size is the other decision — S, M, L or XL. We set it from measurements taken at your house.
- 01Full bypass
The house keeps running during service. The bypass is the same at every treatment level.
- 02Pentair Fleck metered control
The tank rinses itself clean, a cycle called a backwash. It runs on the water you use, not on a clock. There are no cartridges to change.
- 03Jacobi AquaSorb activated carbon
This is the right material for chlorine. How much of it goes in the tank is the size question, not this one.
Essential
decided separately
included
at a published price
This page answers one of them.
Treatment level and system size are two separate questions. Each one gets its own answer. A big house does not automatically need more treatment. A house that wants full treatment does not automatically need a big system.
Treatment level
What does this homeowner want or need treated?
Answered here. Cahaba Whole Home Essential is carbon filtration for the whole house. It reduces chlorine taste and odor at every tap. Softening and drinking-water treatment are not part of it.
System size
How much water does this house use at its busiest moment?
Answered separately, at your house. We measure the service line, which is the pipe bringing water in from the street. We count the fixtures that actually move water. We measure your water pressure two ways: standing still, and running. Never square footage, home value or ZIP code.
A finished build carries both answers in its name. Treatment level first, then size.
Cahaba Whole Home Essential ‑ MEssential is not the small system. Take a big house with six bathrooms, where the only complaint is the chlorine taste. Essential at XL can be exactly right: a large system doing one job very well. Now take a small house with two bathrooms, where the owner wants everything: filtered water at every tap, softer water, our best drinking-water system, and UV. That house needs a wider treatment level at a smaller size. Neither one is an upgrade over the other.
The chlorine you can smell in the shower.
What carbon does well, and what it does not.
Central Alabama Water (formerly Birmingham Water Works) disinfects the water with free chlorine. That is effective, it is required, and it is why the water is safe to drink. It is also why a hot shower can smell like a swimming pool.
A carbon filter on your main line reduces that chlorine before it reaches any tap. The tank also rinses itself out to the drain, a cycle called a backwash. It runs on the water you use, not on a clock. Nothing needs changing on a schedule, and no cartridge clogs up and slows your water down.
Where we are careful. Carbon reduces chlorine taste and odor well. The musty taste some summers bring is a different matter. That taste comes from geosmin. When the whole house is running, the water moves past the carbon too quickly for much contact time. So a whole-home filter reduces that musty taste only partially. An under-sink reverse-osmosis system is what reliably fixes taste at the tap you drink from. We would rather tell you now than let you find out in August.
And what it deliberately leaves open.
Every row below is one of two things. Some are treatment answers, which this level gives. The rest are size answers, set when we visit your house. We do not guess at those to fill the page.
And when a different one is the honest answer.
When Essential fits, and when it does not.
- Chlorine in the shower or the laundry is what you notice
- You want the whole house treated, but nobody has shown you that you need a softener
- Your hardness test does not support fitting a softener
- You would rather add a drinking-water system later. It would be its own decision, at its own price
- Your test and your goals call for a softener. That is Cahaba Whole Home Complete Whole home
- You want a system designed around your house. It can add UV, pressure control or monitoring. That is Cahaba Whole Home Signature Whole home
- Drinking water is your only real concern. A Cahaba under-sink RO Drinking water on its own may be the whole answer
- You are on a private well. That is a different problem, and we will say so
None of those is a bigger system. They are different answers to the treatment question. The size question is answered the same way every time.
Reduces chlorine taste and odor at every tap in the house
Protects equipment and fixtures further down the line from constant chlorine
Sized to measured peak demand and pressure, never to square footage
Not a softener — it does not reduce hardness
Reduces summer musty taste only partially when the whole house is running
Not presented as a certified complete system unless that assembly is documented as one
Not a statement that Birmingham water is unsafe. It is disinfected, monitored and meets the standards
Questions we get about this.
Does Cahaba Whole Home Essential include a water softener?
What size is Cahaba Whole Home Essential?
Can I add a drinking-water system to Cahaba Whole Home Essential?
What does Cahaba Whole Home Essential cost?
Right level. Now the size.
Size is settled at your house, not at a desk. We look at the pipe coming in from the street, the fixtures, and the measured pressure. Often the answer is smaller than people expect.