How hard is the water in Barbour County, WV?
10.4 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Barbour County, WV is 178 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.4 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 5 samples at 5 sites between 1997 and 2012, 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 8.2 and 10.9 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 10.4 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 Barbour County 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 1.6 to 12.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Barbour County was 27 mg/L and the hardest 207 mg/L, an 8-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 10.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 8.2 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 10.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.3 gpg
5 groundwater samples from 5 wells put the median at 178 mg/L. 1 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 39.7 mg/L. In Barbour County the wells come out 8.1 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 227 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $41), 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 $141 a year.
Sizing at 10.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 624 | 24,000 | 76 lb |
| 2 | 1,248 | 24,000 | 152 lb |
| 4 | 2,496 | 24,000 | 304 lb |
| 6 | 3,744 | 32,000 | 456 lb |
Barbour County against the rest of West Virginia
Among the 54 West Virginia counties with data, Barbour County is number 7 of 54 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 52% of counties.
Softest in West Virginia: Calhoun County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 20.4 gpg. Closest to Barbour County: Tyler County (10.7), Braxton County (9.9), McDowell County (9.7).