How hard is the water in Franklin County, PA?
13 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Franklin County, PA is 222 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 74 samples at 17 sites between 1993 and 2025, 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 7.6 and 19.9 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 13 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.
From 4.5 to 22.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Franklin County was 77 mg/L and the hardest 376 mg/L, a 5-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 19.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.6 gpg.
Wells 13 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.5 gpg
74 groundwater samples from 17 wells put the median at 222 mg/L. 346 surface samples from 57 sites put it at 43.3 mg/L. In Franklin County the wells come out 10.5 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 283 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $51), 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 $151 a year.
Sizing at 13 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 780 | 24,000 | 95 lb |
| 2 | 1,560 | 24,000 | 190 lb |
| 4 | 3,120 | 24,000 | 380 lb |
| 6 | 4,680 | 40,000 | 569 lb |
Franklin County against the rest of Pennsylvania
Among the 67 Pennsylvania counties with data, Franklin County is number 18 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 62% of counties.
Softest in Pennsylvania: Cameron County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarion County at 68.2 gpg. Closest to Franklin County: Montgomery County (12.3), Schuylkill County (11.8), Fayette County (11.4).