How hard is the water in Ellis County, KS?
31.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Ellis County, KS is 535 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 31.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 588 samples at 11 sites between 1990 and 2018, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 21.3 and 38.3 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 31.3 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 10.2 to 42.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Ellis County was 175 mg/L and the hardest 720 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 38.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 21.3 gpg.
Wells 41.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 28.8 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 712 mg/L. 586 surface samples from 10 sites put it at 492.5 mg/L. In Ellis County the wells come out 12.8 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 40,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 683 lb of salt a year (18 bags of 40 lb, about $123), 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 $223 a year.
Sizing at 31.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,878 | 24,000 | 228 lb |
| 2 | 3,756 | 32,000 | 457 lb |
| 4 | 7,512 | 64,000 | 914 lb |
| 6 | 11,268 | 80,000 | 1,371 lb |
Ellis County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Ellis County is number 9 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 95% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Ellis County: Osborne County (31.4), Edwards County (30.8), Dickinson County (30.4).