How hard is the water in Armstrong County, TX?
38.8 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Armstrong County, TX is 665 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 38.8 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 31 samples at 2 sites between 1990 and 1999, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 25.1 and 52.6 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 38.8 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 11.3 to 66.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Armstrong County was 194 mg/L and the hardest 1,135 mg/L, a 6-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 52.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 25.1 gpg.
Wells 11.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 66.3 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 194 mg/L. 30 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 1135 mg/L. In Armstrong County the rivers and lakes come out 55.0 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 64,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 848 lb of salt a year (22 bags of 40 lb, about $153), 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 $253 a year.
Sizing at 38.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,328 | 24,000 | 283 lb |
| 2 | 4,656 | 40,000 | 566 lb |
| 4 | 9,312 | 80,000 | 1,133 lb |
| 6 | 13,968 | twin tank | 1,699 lb |
Armstrong County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Armstrong County is number 24 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 97% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Armstrong County: Concho County (39), Montague County (37.5), Throckmorton County (37.2).