How hard is the water in Hamilton County, NE?
19.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Hamilton County, NE is 337 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 12 samples at 10 sites between 1996 and 2015, 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 15.9 and 21.8 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 19.7 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 12.4 to 29.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Hamilton County was 213 mg/L and the hardest 500.5 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 21.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 15.9 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 430 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $77), 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 $177 a year.
Sizing at 19.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,182 | 24,000 | 144 lb |
| 2 | 2,364 | 24,000 | 288 lb |
| 4 | 4,728 | 40,000 | 575 lb |
| 6 | 7,092 | 64,000 | 863 lb |
Hamilton County against the rest of Nebraska
Among the 89 Nebraska counties with data, Hamilton County is number 12 of 89 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 83% of counties.
Softest in Nebraska: Blaine County at 2.1 gpg. Hardest: Cedar County at 36.5 gpg. Closest to Hamilton County: Cuming County (19.5), Stanton County (19.5), Colfax County (19.1).