What does your water actually have in it?

It's a question most of us don't think to ask - until someone sits across from you, pulls up a report, and shows you the answer.

For Jordan and Stephen Evangelista, the husband-and-wife team behind HQ Water Solutions, that moment of honest education isn't just a sales tactic. It's the whole philosophy.

"We're really education first in terms of our approach," Jordan told me during a recent conversation. "We're not in people's homes trying to oversell them equipment or sell them packages that they're not even quite sure what they're getting."

Six years in, 350 five-star Google reviews, and a client list that spans from Lancaster County neighborhoods to downtown breweries - it's clearly working.

A January 2020 Launch (Yes, That January)

Jordan and Stephen started HQ Water Solutions in January 2020. If you're doing the math, yes - that's about eight weeks before the world shut down.

Stephen had spent nearly a decade working in industrial water treatment and always knew entrepreneurship was calling. With a one-year-old daughter at home and Jordan still working in fundraising at Lebanon Valley College, they made the leap anyway.

Then COVID hit - and, oddly, it helped.

"Everyone was home, sort of looking for stuff to check off their to-do lists," Jordan recalls. Stephen started doing water tests and softener installs on nights and weekends. As remote work made Jordan's schedule more flexible, she was able to cover their daughter's nap times while Stephen slipped out for daytime appointments. Health awareness was surging nationally. Home improvement was on everyone's mind.

The business grew. Jordan eventually went part-time at Lebanon Valley, then left entirely. Today, both Jordan and Stephen work full-time in the company, with two kids now in the mix and a client base that keeps expanding.

What They Actually Do

Based out of 307 S. Lime Street in Lancaster City, HQ Water Solutions handles both residential and commercial water treatment across Lancaster, Lebanon, Dauphin, York, Berks, and Chester counties.

On the residential side, that means everything from water softeners and whole-house filtration systems to reverse osmosis, iron and lead removal, PFAS filtration, and water heater services.

On the commercial side, their clients include coffee shops, breweries, restaurants, motels, and apartment buildings - businesses where water quality directly affects their product and their customers.

But what actually sets HQ Water Solutions apart isn't the service menu. It's the process.

When a customer reaches out, Stephen - who still personally handles every sales call six years in - walks them through exactly what's in their water, what treatment options make sense, and what each one costs. No commissioned sales reps. No mystery bundles. No pressure.

"It's really on you to decide what you're comfortable with in terms of budget and goals," Jordan explained. "Some of our competitors have sales folks making commission based on huge packages and very expensive solutions. We're really proud of the fact that our integrity and honesty and transparency has been there since day one."

Those 350 five-star reviews tend to back that up.

A Word on Well Water (This One's for Lancaster County)

Here's something that might surprise you if you're one of the many Lancaster County residents on a private well: your water isn't monitored the way municipal water is, and it can change - significantly - from year to year.

Agricultural runoff, seasonal rainfall, pesticide use on nearby farms - all of it can affect what's flowing through your pipes. Nitrates. Chemicals. Things that weren't there the last time you checked.

The EPA actually recommends having well water tested annually, and HQ Water Solutions retests whenever they go back to service equipment - because the water profile at installation time may look nothing like what's in the system today.

"We see all sorts of things in Lancaster County and across central Pennsylvania," Jordan said.

And for those on city water who feel immune to the concern: municipalities are legally required to publish reports on what their water contains. Jordan encourages people to look them up. The results, she noted, are "oftentimes surprising."

Finding Them Is Easy

Most new clients find HQ Water Solutions through referrals - the kind that happen naturally when a dinner guest takes a sip of water and asks where it's coming from. Facebook neighborhood groups help, too, and the company has built a strong presence through Google and some print marketing over the years.

But word of mouth has consistently been their top driver. There's something fitting about that for a business built entirely on trust.

HQ Water Solutions offers free water tests and consultations. You can schedule online at hqwatersolutions.com, call or text them at 717-926-0435, or email [email protected].