How hard is the water in Fulton County, IN?
23.8 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Fulton County, IN is 408 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 23.8 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 152 samples at 4 sites between 1991 and 2004, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 21.1 and 25.7 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 23.8 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 17.3 to 26.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Fulton County was 296 mg/L and the hardest 461 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 25.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 21.1 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 520 lb of salt a year (14 bags of 40 lb, about $94), 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 $194 a year.
Sizing at 23.8 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,428 | 24,000 | 174 lb |
| 2 | 2,856 | 24,000 | 347 lb |
| 4 | 5,712 | 40,000 | 695 lb |
| 6 | 8,568 | 64,000 | 1,042 lb |
Fulton County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Fulton County is number 4 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 91% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Fulton County: Delaware County (23.9), Jay County (24), Randolph County (23.3).