How hard is the water in Daviess County, IN?
17.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Daviess County, IN is 297 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 17.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 12 samples at 11 sites between 1991 and 2004, 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 14.8 and 25.6 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 17.3 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 6.7 to 39.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Daviess County was 114 mg/L and the hardest 679 mg/L, a 6-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 25.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.8 gpg.
Wells 17.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.3 gpg
12 groundwater samples from 11 wells put the median at 297 mg/L. 265 surface samples from 24 sites put it at 244.5 mg/L. In Daviess County the wells come out 3.0 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 379 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $68), 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 $168 a year.
Sizing at 17.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,038 | 24,000 | 126 lb |
| 2 | 2,076 | 24,000 | 253 lb |
| 4 | 4,152 | 32,000 | 505 lb |
| 6 | 6,228 | 48,000 | 758 lb |
Daviess County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Daviess County is number 42 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 77% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Daviess County: Pulaski County (17.3), Allen County (17.4), DeKalb County (17.5).