How hard is the water in Dade County, MO?
11.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Dade County, MO is 201 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 21 samples at 11 sites between 1993 and 2020, 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 9.4 and 14.4 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 11.7 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. Because Dade County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 9.0 to 21.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Dade County was 154 mg/L and the hardest 369.5 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.4 gpg.
Wells 11.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.5 gpg
21 groundwater samples from 11 wells put the median at 201 mg/L. 63 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 163.3 mg/L. In Dade County the wells come out 2.2 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 256 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $46), 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 $146 a year.
Sizing at 11.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 702 | 24,000 | 85 lb |
| 2 | 1,404 | 24,000 | 171 lb |
| 4 | 2,808 | 24,000 | 342 lb |
| 6 | 4,212 | 32,000 | 512 lb |
Dade County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Dade County is number 60 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 57% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Dade County: Johnson County (11.7), Lewis County (11.7), Adair County (11.8).