How hard is the water in Bath County, KY?
8.7 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Bath County, KY is 149 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.7 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 74 samples at 2 sites between 1999 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 8.5 and 8.8 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 8.7 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 8.4 to 8.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Bath County was 144 mg/L and the hardest 153 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 8.5 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 189 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $34), 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 $134 a year.
Sizing at 8.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 522 | 24,000 | 64 lb |
| 2 | 1,044 | 24,000 | 127 lb |
| 4 | 2,088 | 24,000 | 254 lb |
| 6 | 3,132 | 24,000 | 381 lb |
Bath County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Bath County is number 49 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 46% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Bath County: Marion County (8.7), Campbell County (8.6), Garrard County (8.9).