If you have a white film on the shower glass, spots on the faucets or crust around the showerhead, the first question is whether it is your water or your cleaning. In Philadelphia the water half has a real answer, because the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) publishes hardness for each of its three treatment plants, and the plant that serves your block changes the number. This guide sets those numbers next to what a cleaning visit does and does not do about them.
The water figures come from PWD’s 2025 drinking water quality report, published in 2026, and its drinking water FAQ, both read on October 26, 2026. Fixture and stone care comes from the makers’ and the Natural Stone Institute’s own published pages, named where they are used. The visit lists and prices come from our published booking checklist and catalog as of the same date.
The short answer
Philadelphia’s water is hard enough to leave a film where it dries, and how hard depends on your plant. PWD’s report says: “Philadelphia’s water is considered ‘moderately hard’ or ‘hard’, depending on your service area.” Its 2025 one-year average was 101 ppm (6 grains per gallon) at Baxter, 151 ppm (9) at Belmont and 169 ppm (10) at Queen Lane. A regular cleaning wipes and cleans your fixtures. Mineral crust that has built up is a different job, and the only line on our checklists that names lime is worded “Attempt Removal of Rust, Lime, or Calcium.” The rest of this guide shows how to find your plant, what to do between visits, and which tier fits what you can see.
Which plant serves your block
PWD runs three plants. Per the report, “Baxter pulls water from the Delaware River. Queen Lane and Belmont draw from the Schuylkill.” The text that goes with its service-area map reads: “Queen Lane serves the Northwest, Baxter serves the Northeast, Far Northeast, and much of North Philly. South Philly, Center City, and areas where their service areas meet receive a mix from both plants. Belmont serves everything west of the Schuylkill, though most of that area also receives some of the Baxter/Queen Lane mix.”
That is as precise as the public text gets. PWD does not publish a ZIP-code table, and we will not make one up: guessing a plant from a ZIP code would be inventing a fact. The report’s own instruction is “Use this map or enter your address to see where your water is treated,” so open the address tool on PWD’s 2025 report page, find your plant, then come back to the table below.
The 2025 hardness numbers
| Plant | Draws from | Average | Lowest | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter | Delaware River | 101 ppm (6 gpg) | 72 ppm (4 gpg) | 121 ppm (7 gpg) |
| Belmont | Schuylkill | 151 ppm (9 gpg) | 99 ppm (6 gpg) | 204 ppm (12 gpg) |
| Queen Lane | Schuylkill | 169 ppm (10 gpg) | 119 ppm (7 gpg) | 270 ppm (16 gpg) |
These are PWD’s figures, each plant’s one-year average, minimum and maximum from the report’s hardness table. ppm is parts per million and gpg is grains per gallon; the report’s glossary says “One grain per gallon is equal to 17.1 parts per million.”
PWD’s FAQ gives its own scale: “Soft water has about 1 grain of mineral per gallon. Moderately hard water has about 3 to 7 grains of minerals per gallon. Very hard water has over 10 grains per gallon.”
Our reading, not PWD’s: by that scale Baxter’s average of 6 grains is moderately hard. Belmont’s 9 sits in the stretch between 7 and 10 that the scale does not name. Queen Lane’s 169 ppm works out to 9.9 grains (169 ÷ 17.1), right at the line where “very hard” begins, and Queen Lane’s highest reading, 16 grains, and Belmont’s, 12, were past it. So it is wrong to call the whole city hard or the whole city moderate. The FAQ’s general line, that Philadelphia tap water is typically “around 100 to 150 parts-per-million,” is lower than Queen Lane’s 2025 average, so for your own block the per-plant report is the closer source.
Hardness also moves through the year. Queen Lane’s readings ran from 119 to 270 ppm in 2025, and the FAQ explains why that can happen: “Depending on natural conditions, hardness could be higher or lower.”
What it does in a bathroom
PWD describes hardness as “the quantity of minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, in water,” and says “Very hard water leaves calcium scale or mineral deposits behind when it is heated up, and often needs to be softened.” In a bathroom that shows up wherever a drop dries: a haze on shower glass, spots on a chrome faucet, a crust on the face of the showerhead.
The fixture maker Kallista says it plainly in its care and cleaning sheet: “Allowing water to evaporate on metal will form water deposits.” Our reading is that water carrying more dissolved minerals leaves more of them behind per drop, which is why the same bathroom can look different on a Queen Lane block than on a Baxter block. We have no data on how much different, and we will not guess.
Do you need a softener?
PWD’s FAQ answers this for the city: “Home treatment devices are generally of little use in Philadelphia unless you have special needs, such as a laundry service that would benefit from softer water.” It adds that a device should be certified, and that “they should display an NSF seal.” We do not sell or recommend a softener, so the City’s line is the one we pass on. If film is the only complaint, the habits below cost nothing.
One bottle, different answers: should you use vinegar?
The usual advice is vinegar. The people who make the surfaces disagree, so which answer applies depends on what you are cleaning.
| Surface | Source | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Shower glass | VIGO, a shower-door maker, on its care page | “Recommended cleaning solution for hard water and soap scum is to use 50/50 water and vinegar solution.” |
| Matte black or other powder-coat faucet | Kallista care sheet | A soft damp cloth with mild dish soap or a 50/50 water and vinegar solution (the sheet’s wording, paraphrased). |
| Polished nickel, brushed bronze and other PVD finishes | Kallista care sheet | “Do not use cleaners containing ammonia, bleach or acid.” |
| Marble, limestone, travertine | Natural Stone Institute | “Vinegar should never be used on calcareous stones such as marble, limestone, or travertine.” |
| Granite | Natural Stone Institute | “Do not use vinegar as a cleaning agent without consulting your stone supplier as to the mineralogy of your particular granite” |
Read that as: the label on your fixture decides, not the bottle. If you do not know the finish or the stone, leave the vinegar out. The sources do agree on the parts that cost nothing. For metal, Kallista says “Ideal cleaning technique is to always blot dry any water from metal surfaces.” For glass, VIGO’s published routine is “Squeegee after each use to prevent water spots,” plus a weekly clean with a mild, non-abrasive, ammonia-free glass cleaner. And for a stone bath, the Natural Stone Institute’s care page says “Clean stone surfaces with a neutral cleaner, stone soap, or a mild liquid dishwashing detergent and warm water.”
If your bathroom has marble, vintage tile or any stone, tell your cleaner. Our bathroom cleaning page says “We use pH-appropriate, non-acidic cleaners on marble, porcelain, and vintage tile.”
What each tier lists for the shower and fixtures
Our booking checklist is the published list of what a visit includes. For the showerhead and fixtures, three lines matter, and each tier’s list is built on the one below it. The full lists are in our guide to what each tier adds.
| Tier | The line on the checklist |
|---|---|
| Standard Regular Cleaning | “Clean Showerhead, Faucets, and Handles” |
| Standard Deep Cleaning (adds) | “Deeply Scrub & Disinfect Bathtub / Showerhead” |
| Dream Home Cleaning (adds) | “Attempt Removal of Rust, Lime, or Calcium” |
Read the verbs. Standard cleans the showerhead and faucets. Deep scrubs the tub and showerhead. Only Dream Home names lime, and the word is “Attempt”: we are not promising the mineral comes off. Our bathroom cleaning page says the same thing in plainer words: “Stubborn stains may need a repeat treatment, which we’ll flag honestly.”
For scale, here are the booking engine’s one-time totals for one example home, a three-bedroom rowhome with one full and one half bath in the Spacious size band: Standard is $235.00, Deep $360.00 and Dream Home $455.00. These examples use the October 29, 2026 price list, before the first-clean offer and tax. Your own total depends on your home and appears before you confirm; our price breakdown shows how a total is built.
Our pick, as a rule of thumb: if you see light film or spots and you keep fixtures dry between visits, Standard is the right size. If the showerhead face is crusted or a tub ring has built up over months, Deep is the tier that scrubs those. If the buildup is old and you want an attempt on lime itself, that is the Dream Home line, with the word “Attempt” attached. Do not buy a bigger tier for a faucet you can blot dry yourself.
Questions
Is my water hard if I live in South Philly or Center City?
PWD’s map text says those areas “receive a mix from both plants,” so we cannot give you one number. The address tool on PWD’s report page is the way to check your own block.
Will a regular visit remove the white film on my shower glass?
The Standard bathroom list on our checklist names the showerhead, faucets and handles, the sink, the toilet, shelves and the shower curtain, rod and rings. It does not name shower glass, so do not count on a Standard visit to remove film from it. The squeegee habit above is what keeps film from forming.
Pick the tier you can see the need for
When you know what you are looking at, start a booking, choose the tier and read the total before you confirm. We currently clean in Philadelphia. For what a visit costs overall, see how much home cleaning costs in Philadelphia, and for how a deeper visit differs from a regular one, our guide to deep cleaning.
Price examples updated October 29, 2026. Figures are illustrative and before tax and optional tips. Existing recurring customers may have a different agreed price; the booking form confirms your total before payment.
The tier bases, including one bedroom and one bath, are $160 for Standard, $285 for Deep, $330 for Move, and $380 for Dream Home. Figures are before tax and optional tips.