How hard is the water in Bergen County, NJ?
16.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Bergen County, NJ is 290 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 45 samples at 24 sites between 1990 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 13.1 and 18.3 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 16.9 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 2.4 to 74.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Bergen County was 41.2 mg/L and the hardest 1,280 mg/L, a 31-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 18.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.1 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 16.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 10.1 gpg
45 groundwater samples from 24 wells put the median at 289.8 mg/L. 932 surface samples from 47 sites put it at 172.5 mg/L. In Bergen County the wells come out 6.8 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 370 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $67), 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 $167 a year.
Sizing at 16.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,014 | 24,000 | 123 lb |
| 2 | 2,028 | 24,000 | 247 lb |
| 4 | 4,056 | 32,000 | 493 lb |
| 6 | 6,084 | 48,000 | 740 lb |
Bergen County against the rest of New Jersey
Among the 21 New Jersey counties with data, Bergen County is number 3 of 21 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 76% of counties.
Softest in New Jersey: Ocean County at 0.8 gpg. Hardest: Hudson County at 17.2 gpg. Closest to Bergen County: Essex County (17.2), Hudson County (17.2), Union County (13.7).