How hard is the water in Dimmit County, TX?
9.3 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Dimmit County, TX is 160 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 9.3 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 13 samples at 9 sites between 2008 and 2016, 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 9.2 and 10.2 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 9.3 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 7.8 to 39.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Dimmit County was 133 mg/L and the hardest 681 mg/L, a 5-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 10.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.2 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 204 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $37), 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 $137 a year.
Sizing at 9.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 558 | 24,000 | 68 lb |
| 2 | 1,116 | 24,000 | 136 lb |
| 4 | 2,232 | 24,000 | 272 lb |
| 6 | 3,348 | 24,000 | 407 lb |
Dimmit County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Dimmit County is number 139 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 48% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Dimmit County: Jim Wells County (9.3), Matagorda County (9), McLennan County (8.8).