How hard is the water in Bullitt County, KY?
11.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Bullitt County, KY is 194 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 239 samples at 7 sites between 1990 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 11.2 and 13.6 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 11.3 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 10.9 to 14.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Bullitt County was 187 mg/L and the hardest 246 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 13.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.2 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 247 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $44), 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 $144 a year.
Sizing at 11.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 678 | 24,000 | 82 lb |
| 2 | 1,356 | 24,000 | 165 lb |
| 4 | 2,712 | 24,000 | 330 lb |
| 6 | 4,068 | 32,000 | 495 lb |
Bullitt County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Bullitt County is number 24 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 56% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Bullitt County: Shelby County (11.4), Barren County (11.2), Logan County (11.2).