How hard is the water in Garfield County, WA?
6.7 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Garfield County, WA is 115 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 6.7 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 2 samples at 2 sites between 2016 and 2016, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 5.2 and 8.2 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 6.7 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 Garfield 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.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 146 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $26), 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 $126 a year.
Sizing at 6.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 402 | 24,000 | 49 lb |
| 2 | 804 | 24,000 | 98 lb |
| 4 | 1,608 | 24,000 | 196 lb |
| 6 | 2,412 | 24,000 | 293 lb |
Garfield County against the rest of Washington
Among the 38 Washington counties with data, Garfield County is number 12 of 38 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 38% of counties.
Softest in Washington: Chelan County at 0.6 gpg. Hardest: Island County at 20.7 gpg. Closest to Garfield County: Whatcom County (6.7), Whitman County (6.5), Asotin County (7.3).