How hard is the water in Chase County, KS?
16.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Chase County, KS is 275 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 855 samples at 18 sites between 1990 and 2018, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 15.2 and 17.4 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 16.1 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 8.2 to 31.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Chase County was 140 mg/L and the hardest 545 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 15.2 gpg.
Wells 30.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.1 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 515 mg/L. 854 surface samples from 17 sites put it at 275 mg/L. In Chase County the wells come out 14.0 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 351 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $63), 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 $163 a year.
Sizing at 16.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 966 | 24,000 | 118 lb |
| 2 | 1,932 | 24,000 | 235 lb |
| 4 | 3,864 | 32,000 | 470 lb |
| 6 | 5,796 | 48,000 | 705 lb |
Chase County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Chase County is number 53 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 73% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Chase County: Crawford County (16.1), Cowley County (16.3), Pottawatomie County (16.4).