How hard is the water in Franklin County, IN?
16.8 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Franklin County, IN is 288 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.8 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 228 samples at 20 sites between 1991 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 13.2 and 17.8 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 16.8 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 11.7 to 19.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Franklin County was 201 mg/L and the hardest 326 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.2 gpg.
Wells 19 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.4 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 325 mg/L. 226 surface samples from 19 sites put it at 280 mg/L. In Franklin County the wells come out 2.6 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 367 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $66), 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 $166 a year.
Sizing at 16.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,008 | 24,000 | 123 lb |
| 2 | 2,016 | 24,000 | 245 lb |
| 4 | 4,032 | 32,000 | 491 lb |
| 6 | 6,048 | 48,000 | 736 lb |
Franklin County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Franklin County is number 47 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 75% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Franklin County: Fountain County (16.8), Union County (16.7), Huntington County (16.9).