How hard is the water in Grimes County, TX?
5.3 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Grimes County, TX is 91 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 5.3 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 1 samples at 1 sites between 2013 and 2013, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 5.3 and 5.3 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 5.3 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.
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 115 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $21), 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 $121 a year.
Sizing at 5.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 318 | 24,000 | 39 lb |
| 2 | 636 | 24,000 | 77 lb |
| 4 | 1,272 | 24,000 | 155 lb |
| 6 | 1,908 | 24,000 | 232 lb |
Grimes County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Grimes County is number 177 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 32% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Grimes County: Hopkins County (5.4), Jeff Davis County (5.4), Titus County (5.2).