How hard is the water in Frio County, TX?
13.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Frio County, TX is 229 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 2 samples at 2 sites between 2015 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 10.7 and 16.1 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 13.4 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.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 292 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $53), 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 $153 a year.
Sizing at 13.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 804 | 24,000 | 98 lb |
| 2 | 1,608 | 24,000 | 196 lb |
| 4 | 3,216 | 24,000 | 391 lb |
| 6 | 4,824 | 40,000 | 587 lb |
Frio County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Frio County is number 105 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 64% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Frio County: Bosque County (13.3), Sherman County (13.3), Falls County (13.5).