How hard is the water in Cochran County, TX?
35 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Cochran County, TX is 599 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 35 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 5 samples at 5 sites between 2001 and 2003, 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 28.7 and 49.3 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 35 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 27.2 to 51.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Cochran County was 465 mg/L and the hardest 882 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 49.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 28.7 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 48,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 764 lb of salt a year (20 bags of 40 lb, about $138), 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 $238 a year.
Sizing at 35 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,100 | 24,000 | 256 lb |
| 2 | 4,200 | 32,000 | 511 lb |
| 4 | 8,400 | 64,000 | 1,022 lb |
| 6 | 12,600 | twin tank | 1,533 lb |
Cochran County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Cochran County is number 28 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 96% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Cochran County: Runnels County (34), Terry County (36.3), Throckmorton County (37.2).