Wahl is a Halo Water certified partner in Pittsburgh.
Salt-free whole-home filtration that cleans, filters, and conditions without you hauling bags of salt.
Wahl Family Heating, Cooling & Plumbing
1 Willow Avenue, Oakdale, PA 15071
Halo is the whole-home water treatment line we lean on hardest, because it solves hardness and filtration without adding sodium to your water or making you haul salt bags to the basement. The Halo 5 runs water through five stages, one of which uses a bipolar magnetic field to condition it, and the unit backflushes itself. The Halo ION series handles conditioning at different flow rates, and the Halo RO Plus gives you alkaline reverse osmosis drinking water at the sink.
Why we run this line.
Not adding sodium to your water is the way to go, and not having to deal with bags of salt is the way to go. A traditional salt softener does work, and there are homes where it is the right answer, but for most families I would rather solve the hardness problem without putting sodium in the water.David Wahl, CEO and master plumber
People mix up three different things constantly, so here is how we separate them. A softener uses a resin bed charged with a salt brine to physically pull hardness minerals out of the water. A conditioner does not remove the minerals, it changes them so they cannot stick to your pipes or your water heater. Whole-home filtration actually filters contaminants out. The Halo 5 is unusual because it does conditioning and real filtration in the same system.
The five stages are the point. Between them, one uses bipolar magnetic fields to disengage and condition the water, so you get conditioning alongside genuine filtration. It is salt-free, and the unit backflushes itself, which means it cleans the water, filters the water, and conditions the water without you babysitting it.
We install traditional salt softeners too, and there are homes where a true softener is the correct call. We will tell you when that is your situation. But if we can solve your problem without sodium and without a monthly chore, that is the direction we push.
The equipment we actually install.
The Halo systems we install.
Halo 5 whole-home filtration
Five stages of filtration including a bipolar magnetic conditioning stage. Salt-free, self-backflushing, and the system we recommend most often for whole-home treatment.
Halo ION 6
The entry point in the ION conditioning line, sized for smaller homes and lower flow demand.
Halo ION 9
The mid-size conditioner for a typical Pittsburgh family home.
Halo ION 12
The high-flow conditioner for larger homes, higher fixture counts, or homes with significant simultaneous demand.
Halo RO Plus alkaline drinking water
Point-of-use reverse osmosis with alkaline remineralization for drinking and cooking water at the kitchen sink, including a larger tank option when a family goes through more than a standard unit holds.
Service, cartridges and sanitizing
We service what we install, including filter and membrane changes on schedule so the system keeps performing.
How we decide what your house needs.
We test before we recommend
Hardness, chlorine, iron, pH, and what your fixtures and water heater actually look like. A recommendation without a test is a guess, and a guess in water treatment is expensive.
Symptom-to-solution, not a product pitch
Spotting on glassware, scale on the fixtures, dry skin and hair, chlorine taste and smell, orange staining, low pressure, and short water heater life each point somewhere different. We work from the symptom back to the cause.
Layered correctly
Whole-home treatment protects the plumbing and the water heater. Point-of-use reverse osmosis handles drinking and cooking. Those are two different jobs and doing one does not eliminate the need for the other. We will tell you which one to do first if you are doing them in stages.
We install the whole range, so we have no reason to force one
We carry Halo, Nuvo, Flow-Tech, Sterling, traditional salt softeners, carbon filtration, UV, and reverse osmosis. Because we can install any of them, we can recommend whichever actually fits.
Why this matters in a Pittsburgh house.
Western Pennsylvania water is hard enough to scale a water heater and shorten its life, and municipal water carries chlorine for disinfection that you can often taste and smell. Add older homes with aging service lines and interior piping, and water treatment stops being a luxury and starts being maintenance on the most expensive plumbing in the house. Scale is what quietly kills tankless water heaters here.
Questions, answered.
What is the difference between a water softener, a conditioner, and filtration?
A softener uses resin and a salt brine to physically remove hardness minerals. A conditioner leaves the minerals in the water but changes them so they cannot stick to pipes and appliances. Filtration removes contaminants such as chlorine, sediment, and taste and odor compounds. The Halo 5 is unusual because it does conditioning and filtration in one system without salt.
Does the Halo 5 use salt?
No. It is salt-free, which means no sodium added to your drinking water and no bags of salt to buy and carry. It also backflushes itself, so there is no regeneration routine for you to manage.
Do I need whole-home treatment if I have a reverse osmosis unit at the sink?
They do different jobs. Reverse osmosis at the sink gives you excellent drinking and cooking water at one faucet. Whole-home treatment protects your water heater, your pipes, your fixtures, and your appliances, and it affects every shower and every load of laundry. Most homes benefit from both.
Will water treatment help my tankless water heater?
Yes, and this is one of the most practical reasons to do it in this area. Scale is the primary thing that shortens a tankless water heater’s life here. Conditioning or filtering the water ahead of it protects a significant investment.
How do I know which Halo system I need?
It comes down to your water test and your flow demand. Hardness level, chlorine, iron and other contaminants determine what treatment you need, and the number of fixtures and simultaneous demand determine the size. We test rather than guess.
Do you install traditional salt softeners?
Yes. There are homes where a true softener is genuinely the right answer, usually very high hardness, and we install and service them. We simply do not lead with them, because for most families we would rather not add sodium to the water or hand you a recurring chore.
Talk to someone who knows the equipment.
Upfront pricing before any work starts, both standard and member pricing on every option, and no pressure. Backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee.