How hard is the water in Franklin County, IA?
19 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Franklin County, IA is 326 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 28 samples at 7 sites between 1991 and 2017, 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 18.2 and 20.6 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 19 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 16.7 to 22.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Franklin County was 286 mg/L and the hardest 380 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.2 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 415 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $75), 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 $175 a year.
Sizing at 19 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,140 | 24,000 | 139 lb |
| 2 | 2,280 | 24,000 | 277 lb |
| 4 | 4,560 | 32,000 | 555 lb |
| 6 | 6,840 | 48,000 | 832 lb |
Franklin County against the rest of Iowa
Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Franklin County is number 53 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 82% of counties.
Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Franklin County: Allamakee County (19), Keokuk County (19), Cerro Gordo County (19.3).