How hard is the water in Brevard County, FL?
19.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Brevard County, FL is 336 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 6 samples at 6 sites between 1997 and 2019, 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 17.6 and 23.2 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 19.6 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 13.0 to 26.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Brevard County was 222 mg/L and the hardest 453 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 23.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.6 gpg.
Wells 19.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 16 gpg
6 groundwater samples from 6 wells put the median at 336 mg/L. 7,189 surface samples from 206 sites put it at 273.7 mg/L. In Brevard County the wells come out 3.6 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 429 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $77), 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 $177 a year.
Sizing at 19.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,176 | 24,000 | 143 lb |
| 2 | 2,352 | 24,000 | 286 lb |
| 4 | 4,704 | 40,000 | 572 lb |
| 6 | 7,056 | 64,000 | 858 lb |
Brevard County against the rest of Florida
Among the 67 Florida counties with data, Brevard County is number 6 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 83% of counties.
Softest in Florida: Washington County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Sarasota County at 32.2 gpg. Closest to Brevard County: DeSoto County (19.8), Monroe County (19.4), Indian River County (18.9).