$7,000
The midpoint of HALO's $6,000 to $8,000 installed price to the homeowner. That is what the customer pays, not your dealer cost. Every figure in this post uses it so the arithmetic stays checkable.
For owners and managers
One Water Treatment System a Week: The Math Behind $300,000 a Year
You have heard the number at a trade show or read it on a flyer. One system a week, three hundred thousand dollars a year. It sounds like something a marketing department made up. It is one multiplication, and the multiplication is correct. What the flyer leaves out is what has to be true in your shop for it to happen, and that it is revenue, not profit.
Forty-three systems at $7,000 installed is $301,000. That is the whole calculation. The hard part is the forty-three.
Short answer
Where the $300,000 Comes From
Every version of the claim is built from three inputs: an installed price, a number of systems, and a year. HALO's installed price to the homeowner runs $6,000 to $8,000. The midpoint is $7,000. One system a week with nine weeks off for holidays and slow stretches is forty-three systems. Forty-three times $7,000 is $301,000.
43 systems
One a week, fifty-two weeks, minus nine for holidays, vacations and the slow stretch after the first of the year. Round numbers, on purpose.
$301,000
Forty-three multiplied by $7,000. That is the headline. It is not a forecast and it is not a promise. It is one multiplication.
The full worked version, with a calculator you can set to your own truck count and close rate, is on the $300,000 a year page.
The other way to get there
One Truck, Three Calls a Day, Nineteen Out of Twenty Say No
Here is the same number built from the bottom instead of the top. Start with a single service truck and the defaults on the revenue per truck calculator.
| Input | Default | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Service calls a day | 3 | One technician, one truck, a normal day. |
| Working days a year | 260 | Five days a week, fifty-two weeks. |
| Houses entered a year | 780 | 3 calls times 260 days. You are already in these houses. |
| Close rate | 5 percent | Nineteen out of twenty homeowners say no. |
| Systems a year | 39 | 5 percent of 780. |
| Revenue | $273,000 | 39 systems at $7,000 installed. |
| Gross profit at 35 percent | $95,550 | Before overhead, payroll and truck costs. |
One truck at a five percent close rate lands at $273,000, just under the $300,000 headline. So the flyer number is roughly what one technician does in his first year if he brings water up on every call. It is not a fleet number and it is not a stretch goal. It is the starting line.
Three trucks on the same defaults is $819,000. Five is $1,365,000. Ten is $2,730,000. Trucks multiply the number. They do not unlock it. A one-truck shop and a twenty-truck shop run the same process.
What has to be true
Four Conditions Between the Multiplication and the Deposit
None of these are secret. Most companies miss on the second one.
1. You are already in enough houses
Most plumbing companies meet this condition and do not know it. If your technicians run service calls every day, the houses are not the problem. You are standing in the opportunity and driving away from it.
2. Somebody brings it up, every time
This is where the number dies. A technician who mentions water on one call in five has cut the claim by eighty percent before close rate ever enters the picture. Consistency of the offer matters more than skill at the offer.
3. You close at a believable rate
Not fifty percent. Not ninety. A technician working the process daily starts low and moves. Five percent out of the class, ten percent inside a year, twenty percent a couple of years in. Those are Roger Wakefield's expectations for a technician who works the process every day, not a projection of your results or anyone else's.
4. You can install what you sell
Forty-three installs a year is roughly one a week of truck and technician time. Sell more than you can schedule and the revenue number turns into a backlog and a pile of unhappy customers. Capacity is part of the math.
The ramp
What Happens When the Close Rate Moves
Most training math picks one close rate and holds it forever, as if a technician in year three is no better than the week he got back from class. Nobody learns anything that way. Here is the same one truck at the three stages.
| Stage | Close rate | Systems a year | Revenue, one truck | Gross profit at 35 percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Out of the class | 5 percent | 39 | $273,000 | $95,550 |
| Inside a year | 10 percent | 78 | $546,000 | $191,100 |
| A couple of years in | 20 percent | 156 | $1,092,000 | $382,200 |
Source: the ramp table on halowatertour.com/300k-a-year. The year one row is the floor. It is only honest because the floor is set low.
Where it goes wrong
What This Number Is Not
Not profit
Revenue is the top line. The gross profit column is revenue times thirty-five percent, before overhead, payroll, truck costs or anything else that comes out before you get paid. What you keep is worked out on the profit margin page.
Not your net
Working from equipment cost instead of gross margin needs a published dealer price and install labor hours. Those are not public, so that calculation is not here. When it can be shown honestly, it will be.
Not a projection
Nothing here predicts what your company will do. It shows what the arithmetic does at rates a technician can reach, and every input is on the page so you can substitute your own.
Not a guarantee
There is no scenario in which buying a seat causes revenue. The class teaches a process. The process only pays if somebody runs it daily.
Watch it
Roger on Why Most Plumbers Never Bring It Up
Condition two is the one that kills the number, and this is why it happens. A technician who does not understand the water does not bring it up. That is the gap the three days close.
Questions
Questions Owners Ask About the $300,000
Is the $300,000 a year revenue or profit?
Revenue. It is forty-three systems multiplied by a $7,000 installed price. At a thirty-five percent gross margin, $273,000 of revenue is $95,550 of gross profit, and overhead and payroll still come out of that.
Where does the $7,000 per system come from?
It is the midpoint of HALO's $6,000 to $8,000 installed price to the homeowner. It is the number the customer pays, not the dealer cost. Every figure here uses $7,000 so the arithmetic stays checkable.
Is a five percent close rate realistic in the first year?
It is deliberately set low. Five percent means nineteen out of twenty homeowners say no and one truck still lands thirty-nine systems, because a service company is in front of 780 houses a year. A rate that low is easy to beat and hard to argue with.
How many trucks does a plumbing company need for water treatment to be worth it?
One. The first row of the table is a single truck at $273,000. Trucks multiply the number, they do not unlock it. Three trucks on the same defaults is $819,000 and five is $1,365,000.
Does one system a week assume my company installs the systems?
Yes. It assumes your company installs them, whoever does the wrenching. Install capacity is one of the four conditions for that reason. Selling more systems than you can schedule turns a revenue number into a backlog.
Sources
Where These Numbers Come From
Every figure in this post is on a page of this site where the inputs are shown and can be changed. Checked in October 2026.
- Can one water treatment sale a week really add $300,000 a year? (the three inputs, the four conditions, the ramp table and the calculator)
- Water treatment revenue per truck calculator (3 calls a day, 260 days, 5 percent close, $7,000 installed; the one, three, five and ten truck figures)
- Water treatment profit margin for plumbing companies (what you keep, at 25, 35 and 45 percent)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Plumbers, Pipefitters and Steamfitters (504,500 employed in 2024, the context for how many trucks are already in houses)
Written by Roger Wakefield, Texas Master Plumber
45 years in the trade and LEED AP. Published . More about Roger or visit rogerwakefield.com.
Keep going
Related Guides
The $300,000 a year page
The calculator. Set your trucks and close rate and see where you land.
Water treatment profit margin
What you keep rather than what you sell.
How to add water treatment to a plumbing company
The add-on you can offer on a call you are already running.
The sixty-second water test
The thing the technician does in the house that starts the conversation.
The arithmetic is the easy part
The process that turns a service call into a water conversation is what takes three days to learn. Carlsbad October 27-29 and Dallas November 3-5, 2026. Twenty seats a city. A certification exam closes every day, and the HALO Certified Water Quality Expert credential is awarded on day three.