How hard is the water in Caldwell County, TX?
16.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Caldwell County, TX is 278 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 14 samples at 8 sites between 1990 and 2016, 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 5.1 and 64.9 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 16.3 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. Because Caldwell 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 0.4 to 220.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Caldwell County was 7.6 mg/L and the hardest 3,780 mg/L, a 497-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 64.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.1 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 16.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.6 gpg
14 groundwater samples from 8 wells put the median at 278.3 mg/L. 73 surface samples from 7 sites put it at 250.5 mg/L. In Caldwell County the wells come out 1.7 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 355 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $64), 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 $164 a year.
Sizing at 16.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 978 | 24,000 | 119 lb |
| 2 | 1,956 | 24,000 | 238 lb |
| 4 | 3,912 | 32,000 | 476 lb |
| 6 | 5,868 | 48,000 | 714 lb |
Caldwell County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Caldwell County is number 84 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 73% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Caldwell County: Hidalgo County (16.1), Mills County (16.3), Briscoe County (16.1).