How hard is the water in Dixon County, NE?
14.8 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Dixon County, NE is 253 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14.8 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 62 samples at 3 sites between 2003 and 2020, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 14.5 and 19.3 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 14.8 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 14.3 to 23.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Dixon County was 245 mg/L and the hardest 407.5 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 19.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.5 gpg.
Wells 23.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.5 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 407.5 mg/L. 60 surface samples from 2 sites put it at 248.7 mg/L. In Dixon County the wells come out 9.3 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 322 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $58), 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 $158 a year.
Sizing at 14.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 888 | 24,000 | 108 lb |
| 2 | 1,776 | 24,000 | 216 lb |
| 4 | 3,552 | 32,000 | 432 lb |
| 6 | 5,328 | 40,000 | 648 lb |
Dixon County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Dixon County is number 45 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 68% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Dixon County: Boone County (14.7), Webster County (14.7), Sioux County (14.3).