How hard is the water in Bronx County, NY?
13 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Bronx County, NY is 222 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 21 samples at 3 sites between 2004 and 2017, 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 13.2 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 13 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. Because Bronx County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 4.0 to 13.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Bronx County was 68.1 mg/L and the hardest 231 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 13.2 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 283 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $51), 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 $151 a year.
Sizing at 13 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 780 | 24,000 | 95 lb |
| 2 | 1,560 | 24,000 | 190 lb |
| 4 | 3,120 | 24,000 | 380 lb |
| 6 | 4,680 | 40,000 | 569 lb |
Bronx County against the rest of New York
Among the 61 New York counties with data, Bronx County is number 22 of 61 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 62% of counties.
Softest in New York: Suffolk County at 1.6 gpg. Hardest: New York County at 161.1 gpg. Closest to Bronx County: Wyoming County (13.1), Jefferson County (13.3), Orange County (13.3).