How hard is the water in Delaware County, OH?
17.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Delaware County, OH is 296 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 17.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 1,461 samples at 97 sites between 1995 and 2024, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 14.3 and 20.2 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: high (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 7.6 to 38.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Delaware County was 129.5 mg/L and the hardest 655 mg/L, a 5-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.3 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 378 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 |
Delaware County against the rest of Ohio
Among the 88 Ohio counties with data, Delaware County is number 51 of 88 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 77% of counties.
Softest in Ohio: Scioto County at 5.7 gpg. Hardest: Perry County at 113.3 gpg. Closest to Delaware County: Sandusky County (17.2), Coshocton County (17.4), Fulton County (17.5).