How hard is the water in Grundy County, MO?
10.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Grundy County, MO is 180 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.5 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 107 samples at 2 sites between 1998 and 2023, 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 and 11 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 10.5 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. Because Grundy County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 9.6 to 11.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Grundy County was 163.5 mg/L and the hardest 196 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 11 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 229 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $41), 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 $141 a year.
Sizing at 10.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 630 | 24,000 | 77 lb |
| 2 | 1,260 | 24,000 | 153 lb |
| 4 | 2,520 | 24,000 | 307 lb |
| 6 | 3,780 | 32,000 | 460 lb |
Grundy County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Grundy County is number 79 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 53% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Grundy County: Taney County (10.5), Dunklin County (10.5), Lawrence County (10.4).