$6,000 to $8,000
HALO's installed price to the homeowner. That is what the customer pays, not your dealer cost. Every figure on this page uses the $7,000 midpoint so the arithmetic stays checkable.
For owners and general managers
What a Plumbing Company Keeps From a $7,000 Water Treatment Install
Search this question and you get a dozen confident percentages from companies selling softeners. None of them know what you pay for equipment, what you pay a licensed plumber in your market, or whether the install is two hours or six. Here is the arithmetic instead: the one number HALO publishes, three margins to find yours between, and the one line most margin pages leave out.
Ask what you keep, not what it sells for.
Short answer
Three Numbers You Already Know, and One You Do Not
HALO Water Systems reports a typical installed residential system at $6,000 to $8,000 to the homeowner. What you keep out of that depends on three numbers your company already knows and no website does: what you pay for the equipment, how many labor hours the install takes, and your burdened labor rate. At a $7,000 installed price, a 25 percent gross margin is $1,750 per install, 35 percent is $2,450, and 45 percent is $3,150. Those three are brackets, not claims. Your number sits somewhere between them.
Gross, not net
Gross margin is what is left of the installed price after the equipment and the labor to hang it, before overhead. Most owners can say theirs out loud. If you cannot, start with what you make on a water heater changeout.
Nothing published
This site publishes no margin figure for your company, because it would be inventing one. The calculator on the profit margin page ships with the margin field empty on purpose.
The line everyone leaves out
The Customer Acquisition Cost Is Close to Zero
A water treatment sale is not priced like a lead-generated job, and that is the whole argument. You did not buy the lead. You did not drive there for it. Your technician is already standing in the utility room on a call you were paid to run. The cost of acquiring that customer is a fact about your dispatch board, not a claim about margin, and it is the reason the gross profit on a system sold during a service call is worth more to a plumbing company than the same gross profit is to a dealer who paid for the door.
A dealer builds lead cost, a salesman's commission and a second truck roll into every install. You are counting a test strip and sixty seconds.
Source: the profit margin page and plumbers vs water treatment dealers.
The arithmetic
One Truck, 39 Installs, at Three Margins
One truck at three calls a day enters about 780 homes a year. At a deliberately low 5 percent close rate that is 39 systems. Below is the same multiplication run at three gross margins on a $7,000 install. These are not claims about what your company earns; they are multiplication shown at three points so you can find where yours lands.
| Gross margin | Gross profit per install | 39 installs, one truck, one year |
|---|---|---|
| 25 percent | $1,750 | $68,250 |
| 35 percent | $2,450 | $95,550 |
| 45 percent | $3,150 | $122,850 |
The 25, 35 and 45 points were picked because they bracket the range most equipment work falls in, not because anything was measured. This is gross profit, not net: your overhead still comes out of it. Put your own margin in on the profit margin calculator and the page fills out.
The ramp
Five Percent Is the Floor, Not the Return
Most training math picks one close rate and holds it forever, as though a technician in year three is no better than the week he got back. That is not how any skill in the trade works. Five percent, one system out of every twenty homes entered, is what a technician should be able to do walking out of the class while he is still finding his footing. Ten percent inside a year is reasonable. A technician who knows the work should reach twenty percent in a couple of years.
| Stage | Close rate | Systems a year, one truck | Added revenue | 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 |
These are Roger Wakefield's expectations for a technician who works the process daily, not a projection of your results. One truck, three calls a day, 260 working days, a $7,000 installed system, and a sample 35 percent margin that is arithmetic, not a claim about your company. The class sets the floor. Working it every day is what moves the number, and that is the part nobody can sell you.
Straight
What This Arithmetic Is, and What It Is Not
What it is
- HALO's published installed range, at its midpoint
- Four multiplications you can check on a phone: calls, close rate, installs, margin
- Gross profit, stated as gross on purpose, because an owner who knows the difference trusts you more for saying it
- A floor set at a close rate a first-year technician can beat
What it is not
- Not your net. Overhead, payroll and truck costs still come out.
- Not a margin claim. No dealer price and no labor hours are published here, so no net figure is either.
- Not a projection of your results, and not a guarantee. Buying a seat never causes revenue; running the process daily does.
Watch it
Roger on What Plumbers Really Make
Questions
Questions Owners Ask About Margin
What does a plumbing company make on a water treatment install?
It depends on three numbers your company already knows: what you pay for the equipment, how many labor hours the install takes, and your burdened labor rate. HALO reports a typical installed system at $6,000 to $8,000 to the homeowner. At $7,000, a 25 percent gross margin is $1,750 per install, 35 percent is $2,450 and 45 percent is $3,150. Those are brackets, not claims.
Is the $273,000 per truck figure profit?
No. It is revenue: 39 systems at $7,000 installed. At a sample 35 percent gross margin it is $95,550 of gross profit, and overhead and payroll still come out of that.
Why does the profit margin calculator not have a default margin?
Because publishing a margin for your company would be inventing one. Five of the six fields have defaults. Your gross margin ships empty on purpose, and the page fills out the moment you type yours.
Why is a water treatment sale worth more to a plumber than to a dealer?
Because the customer acquisition cost is close to zero. Your technician sells it during a service call he was already dispatched to, in a house that already opened the door. A dealer pays for the lead, the salesman and the truck roll before the same gross profit is counted.
What close rate should a trained technician reach?
Five percent walking out of the class, ten percent inside a year, and twenty percent in a couple of years for a technician who works the process daily. Those are Roger Wakefield's expectations, not a projection of your results, and the calculators on this site default to the first one on purpose.
Sources
Where These Facts Come From
Checked in November 2026. Every figure is from this site's own calculators and HALO's published installed range.
- Water treatment profit margin for plumbing companies (the three-margin table, the ramp, the empty margin field, the customer acquisition line)
- Revenue per truck calculator (780 calls, 5 percent, 39 systems, $7,000, $273,000, with every default labeled)
- Can one sale a week really add $300,000 a year? (revenue, not profit; what has to be true)
- HALO Water Systems, typical installed residential system $6,000 to $8,000 to the homeowner, as reported on the owners page
Written by Roger Wakefield, Texas Master Plumber
45 years in the trade and LEED AP. Published . More about Roger or read how much plumbers make on rogerwakefield.com.
Keep going
Related Guides
Profit margin calculator
Your margin, your trucks, your close rate. Nothing hidden.
The $300,000 claim, broken down
Forty-three systems at $7,000, and what has to be true.
Plumbers vs water treatment dealers
The four things a dealer has to buy that you already have.
Four reasons owners never send anyone
All four are reasonable. None of them is free.
Your margin is yours. The houses are already yours too.
The first class ran in Dallas, November 3-5. The next HALO Water Tour dates are coming soon. Apply now and you'll hear first. Carlsbad returns in early 2027 with the dates announced on the Carlsbad page first.