How hard is the water in Brooks County, TX?
10.4 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Brooks County, TX is 178 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.4 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 1 samples at 1 sites between 2013 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 10.4 and 10.4 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 10.4 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.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 227 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $41), 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 $141 a year.
Sizing at 10.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 624 | 24,000 | 76 lb |
| 2 | 1,248 | 24,000 | 152 lb |
| 4 | 2,496 | 24,000 | 304 lb |
| 6 | 3,744 | 32,000 | 456 lb |
Brooks County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Brooks County is number 134 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 52% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Brooks County: Hill County (10.3), Bastrop County (10.5), Oldham County (10.2).