How hard is the water in Clay County, KS?

17.1 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Clay County, KS is 293 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 17.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 321 samples at 10 sites between 1990 and 2016, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 11.5 and 18.7 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: high (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 17.1 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 9.3 to 41.5 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Clay County was 160 mg/L and the hardest 710 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 18.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.5 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 373 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $67), 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 $167 a year.

Sizing at 17.1 gpg

Clay County against the rest of Kansas

Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Clay County is number 46 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 76% of counties.

Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Clay County: Comanche County (16.9), Gray County (16.9), Sedgwick County (16.9).