How hard is the water in Franklin County, VT?
4.9 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Franklin County, VT is 84 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 4.9 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 973 samples at 175 sites between 1996 and 2025, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 2.9 and 8.8 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 4.9 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. Because Franklin County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 0.2 to 23.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Franklin County was 3.1 mg/L and the hardest 393 mg/L, a 127-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 2.9 gpg.
Wells 10.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 4.9 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 183.5 mg/L. 964 surface samples from 168 sites put it at 84.5 mg/L. In Franklin County the wells come out 5.8 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 108 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $19), 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 $119 a year.
Sizing at 4.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 294 | 24,000 | 36 lb |
| 2 | 588 | 24,000 | 72 lb |
| 4 | 1,176 | 24,000 | 143 lb |
| 6 | 1,764 | 24,000 | 215 lb |
Franklin County against the rest of Vermont
Among the 14 Vermont counties with data, Franklin County is number 6 of 14 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 30% of counties.
Softest in Vermont: Essex County at 1 gpg. Hardest: Orange County at 7.7 gpg. Closest to Franklin County: Rutland County (5.1), Windham County (5.2), Windsor County (5.3).