How hard is the water in Bartholomew County, IN?
20.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Bartholomew County, IN is 352 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 20.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 15 samples at 9 sites between 1991 and 2023, 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 19.4 and 21.8 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 20.6 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 15.2 to 25.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Bartholomew County was 261 mg/L and the hardest 444 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 21.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 19.4 gpg.
Wells 20.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 15.3 gpg
15 groundwater samples from 9 wells put the median at 352 mg/L. 265 surface samples from 31 sites put it at 261.5 mg/L. In Bartholomew County the wells come out 5.3 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 449 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $81), 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 $181 a year.
Sizing at 20.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,236 | 24,000 | 150 lb |
| 2 | 2,472 | 24,000 | 301 lb |
| 4 | 4,944 | 40,000 | 602 lb |
| 6 | 7,416 | 64,000 | 902 lb |
Bartholomew County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Bartholomew County is number 11 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 85% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Bartholomew County: Clinton County (20.4), Henry County (20.4), Tippecanoe County (20.4).