How hard is the water in Crawford County, WI?
16.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Crawford County, WI is 290 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 45 samples at 7 sites between 1991 and 2010, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 16.1 and 17.2 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 16.9 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 11.8 to 17.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Crawford County was 202 mg/L and the hardest 300 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 16.1 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 370 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 16.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,014 | 24,000 | 123 lb |
| 2 | 2,028 | 24,000 | 247 lb |
| 4 | 4,056 | 32,000 | 493 lb |
| 6 | 6,084 | 48,000 | 740 lb |
Crawford County against the rest of Wisconsin
Among the 72 Wisconsin counties with data, Crawford County is number 19 of 72 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 76% of counties.
Softest in Wisconsin: Vilas County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Calumet County at 28.4 gpg. Closest to Crawford County: Dodge County (17.1), Pierce County (16.6), Waupaca County (16.6).