How hard is the water in Bay County, MI?

13.4 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Bay County, MI is 230 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 167 samples at 1 sites between 1998 and 2013, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 13.4 and 13.4 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 13.4 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 13.4 to 13.4 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Bay County was 230 mg/L and the hardest 230 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 13.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.4 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 293 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $53), 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 $153 a year.

Sizing at 13.4 gpg

Bay County against the rest of Michigan

Among the 82 Michigan counties with data, Bay County is number 25 of 82 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 64% of counties.

Softest in Michigan: Luce County at 1.9 gpg. Hardest: Wayne County at 47.4 gpg. Closest to Bay County: Clinton County (12.9), Ottawa County (12.9), Genesee County (14).