How hard is the water in Adams County, IA?

15.8 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Adams County, IA is 270 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.8 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 16 samples at 3 sites between 1991 and 2006, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 14.9 and 16.5 gpg. The whole middle of that range gives the same answer, so a test of your own tap is unlikely to change it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 15.8 gpg a softener pays its way here. Before you buy, check the quoted unit's grain capacity against the sizing table below, and ask whether it regenerates on demand, which uses less salt than a timer. Call your utility for its own report if you are on city water.

More on sizing a softener for your household.

From 14.0 to 17.2 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Adams County was 240 mg/L and the hardest 295 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.9 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 344 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $62), and roughly 2,346 gallons of regeneration water. Installed, most units run $1,000 to $4,500; spread over 15 years with salt, that is about $162 a year.

Sizing at 15.8 gpg

Adams County against the rest of Iowa

Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Adams County is number 76 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 72% of counties.

Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Adams County: Delaware County (15.8), Linn County (15.8), Van Buren County (15.5).