How hard is the water in Dare County, NC?
63.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Dare County, NC is 1090 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 63.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 10 samples at 9 sites between 1994 and 2012, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 9.6 and 135.5 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 63.7 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 Dare 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 4.8 to 223.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Dare County was 81.7 mg/L and the hardest 3,830 mg/L, a 47-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 135.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.6 gpg.
Wells 8.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 135.5 gpg
4 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 144.5 mg/L. 6 surface samples from 5 sites put it at 2320 mg/L. In Dare County the rivers and lakes come out 127.1 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
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 1,391 lb of salt a year (35 bags of 40 lb, about $250), 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 $350 a year.
Sizing at 63.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3,822 | 32,000 | 465 lb |
| 2 | 7,644 | 64,000 | 930 lb |
| 4 | 15,288 | twin tank | 1,860 lb |
| 6 | 22,932 | twin tank | 2,790 lb |
Dare County against the rest of North Carolina
Among the 99 North Carolina counties with data, Dare County is the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 99% of counties.
Softest in North Carolina: Bertie County at 0.3 gpg. Closest to Dare County: Currituck County (31.4), Pamlico County (15.9), New Hanover County (14.5).