How hard is the water in Cottle County, TX?
168.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Cottle County, TX is 2880 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 168.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 176 samples at 2 sites between 1994 and 2011, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 164.4 and 172 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 168.2 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 160.6 to 175.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Cottle County was 2750 mg/L and the hardest 3,010 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 172 gpg and the bottom quarter below 164.4 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, the water is harder than a standard single tank handles in a week, so plan on a larger or twin-tank unit. Expect about 3,674 lb of salt a year (92 bags of 40 lb, about $661), 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 $761 a year.
Sizing at 168.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10,092 | 80,000 | 1,228 lb |
| 2 | 20,184 | twin tank | 2,456 lb |
| 4 | 40,368 | twin tank | 4,911 lb |
| 6 | 60,552 | twin tank | 7,367 lb |
Cottle County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Cottle County is number 5 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 100% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Cottle County: Kent County (160.5), Childress County (195.1), Stonewall County (130.7).