How hard is the water in Franklin County, NE?
11.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Franklin County, NE is 198 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 3 samples at 2 sites between 2003 and 2015, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 10.3 and 12.8 gpg. That spread crosses a decision line, so some homes here land on a different answer. A $10 test strip on your own tap settles it. Confidence in the county figure: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 11.5 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. Because Franklin County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 252 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $45), 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 $145 a year.
Sizing at 11.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 690 | 24,000 | 84 lb |
| 2 | 1,380 | 24,000 | 168 lb |
| 4 | 2,760 | 24,000 | 336 lb |
| 6 | 4,140 | 32,000 | 504 lb |
Franklin County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Franklin County is number 62 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 57% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Franklin County: Frontier County (12.1), Custer County (10.9), Antelope County (12.2).