How hard is the water in Dickinson County, MI?
18 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Dickinson County, MI is 308 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 18 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 17 samples at 17 sites between 1990 and 2010, 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 15.9 and 20.7 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 18 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 9.0 to 51.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Dickinson County was 154 mg/L and the hardest 886 mg/L, a 6-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 15.9 gpg.
Wells 18 gpg, rivers and lakes 7.6 gpg
17 groundwater samples from 17 wells put the median at 308 mg/L. 16 surface samples from 11 sites put it at 130 mg/L. In Dickinson County the wells come out 10.4 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 393 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $71), 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 $171 a year.
Sizing at 18 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,080 | 24,000 | 131 lb |
| 2 | 2,160 | 24,000 | 263 lb |
| 4 | 4,320 | 32,000 | 526 lb |
| 6 | 6,480 | 48,000 | 788 lb |
Dickinson County against the rest of Michigan
Among the 82 Michigan counties with data, Dickinson County is number 14 of 82 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 79% of counties.
Softest in Michigan: Luce County at 1.9 gpg. Hardest: Wayne County at 47.4 gpg. Closest to Dickinson County: Shiawassee County (18.3), Macomb County (18.4), Tuscola County (17.3).