How hard is the water in Brown County, KS?
13.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Brown County, KS is 229 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 8 samples at 6 sites between 1990 and 2017, 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 12.9 and 17.7 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 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 12.5 to 19.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Brown County was 213.5 mg/L and the hardest 327 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.9 gpg.
Wells 13.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 12.3 gpg
8 groundwater samples from 6 wells put the median at 229 mg/L. 622 surface samples from 17 sites put it at 210 mg/L. In Brown County the wells come out 1.1 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 292 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
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 804 | 24,000 | 98 lb |
| 2 | 1,608 | 24,000 | 196 lb |
| 4 | 3,216 | 24,000 | 391 lb |
| 6 | 4,824 | 40,000 | 587 lb |
Brown County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Brown County is number 67 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 64% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Brown County: Kiowa County (13.4), Stafford County (13.5), Wichita County (13.5).