How hard is the water in Amador County, CA?
6.3 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Amador County, CA is 108 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 6.3 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 24 samples at 21 sites between 2008 and 2022, drawn from groundwater wells, which is what most taps and private wells in the county draw on.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 4.8 and 12 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 6.3 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one. Because Amador County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 0.3 to 15.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Amador County was 4.5 mg/L and the hardest 270 mg/L, a 60-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.8 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 138 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $25), 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 $125 a year.
Sizing at 6.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 378 | 24,000 | 46 lb |
| 2 | 756 | 24,000 | 92 lb |
| 4 | 1,512 | 24,000 | 184 lb |
| 6 | 2,268 | 24,000 | 276 lb |
Amador County against the rest of California
Among the 58 California counties with data, Amador County is number 39 of 58 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 36% of counties.
Softest in California: Sierra County at 1.7 gpg. Hardest: Calaveras County at 98.3 gpg. Closest to Amador County: Butte County (6.5), Tehama County (6.6), Kings County (5.9).