How hard is the water in Geary County, KS?
24.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Geary County, KS is 420 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 24.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 11 samples at 10 sites between 1990 and 2018, 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 24.5 and 27.8 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 24.5 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 16.3 to 32.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Geary County was 279 mg/L and the hardest 548 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 27.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 24.5 gpg.
Wells 24.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.4 gpg
11 groundwater samples from 10 wells put the median at 420 mg/L. 611 surface samples from 13 sites put it at 280 mg/L. In Geary County the wells come out 8.1 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 536 lb of salt a year (14 bags of 40 lb, about $96), 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 $196 a year.
Sizing at 24.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,470 | 24,000 | 179 lb |
| 2 | 2,940 | 24,000 | 358 lb |
| 4 | 5,880 | 48,000 | 715 lb |
| 6 | 8,820 | 64,000 | 1,073 lb |
Geary County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Geary County is number 23 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 91% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Geary County: Mitchell County (24), Meade County (25.1), Lyon County (25.1).