How hard is the water in Florence County, WI?
5.8 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Florence County, WI is 100 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 5.8 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 635 samples at 13 sites between 1990 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 5.3 and 6.4 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 5.8 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 0.3 to 8.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Florence County was 5.5 mg/L and the hardest 150 mg/L, a 27-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 6.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.3 gpg.
Wells 8.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 5.8 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 150 mg/L. 634 surface samples from 12 sites put it at 99.3 mg/L. In Florence County the wells come out 3.0 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 128 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $23), 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 $123 a year.
Sizing at 5.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 348 | 24,000 | 42 lb |
| 2 | 696 | 24,000 | 85 lb |
| 4 | 1,392 | 24,000 | 169 lb |
| 6 | 2,088 | 24,000 | 254 lb |
Florence County against the rest of Wisconsin
Among the 72 Wisconsin counties with data, Florence County is number 49 of 72 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 34% of counties.
Softest in Wisconsin: Vilas County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Calumet County at 28.4 gpg. Closest to Florence County: Forest County (5.4), Dunn County (6.4), Polk County (5.1).