How hard is the water in Anchorage Municipality, AK?
7.6 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Anchorage Municipality, AK is 130 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.6 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 22 samples at 22 sites between 1990 and 2015, 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 5.6 and 9.6 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 7.6 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Anchorage Municipality straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 4.1 to 11.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Anchorage Municipality was 70.6 mg/L and the hardest 202 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 9.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.6 gpg.
Wells 7.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 3.3 gpg
22 groundwater samples from 22 wells put the median at 130 mg/L. 191 surface samples from 16 sites put it at 57.3 mg/L. In Anchorage Municipality the wells come out 4.3 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 166 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $30), 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 $130 a year.
Sizing at 7.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 456 | 24,000 | 55 lb |
| 2 | 912 | 24,000 | 111 lb |
| 4 | 1,824 | 24,000 | 222 lb |
| 6 | 2,736 | 24,000 | 333 lb |
Anchorage Municipality against the rest of Alaska
Among the 22 Alaska counties with data, Anchorage Municipality is number 5 of 22 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 41% of counties.
Softest in Alaska: Petersburg Borough at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Southeast Fairbanks Census Area at 16.3 gpg. Closest to Anchorage Municipality: Yakutat City and Borough (7.4), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (7.2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (6.3).