How hard is the water in Champaign County, OH?
22.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Champaign County, OH is 384 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 22.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 73 samples at 22 sites between 1990 and 2020, 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 20.6 and 24 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 22.4 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 12.6 to 24.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Champaign County was 215.7 mg/L and the hardest 426 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 24 gpg and the bottom quarter below 20.6 gpg.
Wells 22.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 21.3 gpg
73 groundwater samples from 22 wells put the median at 384 mg/L. 527 surface samples from 76 sites put it at 364.8 mg/L. In Champaign 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 490 lb of salt a year (13 bags of 40 lb, about $88), 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 $188 a year.
Sizing at 22.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,344 | 24,000 | 164 lb |
| 2 | 2,688 | 24,000 | 327 lb |
| 4 | 5,376 | 40,000 | 654 lb |
| 6 | 8,064 | 64,000 | 981 lb |
Champaign County against the rest of Ohio
Among the 88 Ohio counties with data, Champaign County is number 17 of 88 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 89% of counties.
Softest in Ohio: Scioto County at 5.7 gpg. Hardest: Perry County at 113.3 gpg. Closest to Champaign County: Wyandot County (22.5), Greene County (22.6), Belmont County (22.1).