How hard is the water in Hancock County, IA?
21 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Hancock County, IA is 360 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 21 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 44 samples at 12 sites between 1990 and 2017, 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 19.7 and 22.1 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 21 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 15.1 to 25.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Hancock County was 258 mg/L and the hardest 440 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 22.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 19.7 gpg.
Wells 21 gpg, rivers and lakes 22.7 gpg
44 groundwater samples from 12 wells put the median at 360 mg/L. 1 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 389 mg/L. In Hancock County the rivers and lakes come out 1.7 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 459 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $83), 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 $183 a year.
Sizing at 21 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,260 | 24,000 | 153 lb |
| 2 | 2,520 | 24,000 | 307 lb |
| 4 | 5,040 | 40,000 | 613 lb |
| 6 | 7,560 | 64,000 | 920 lb |
Hancock County against the rest of Iowa
Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Hancock County is number 37 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 86% of counties.
Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Hancock County: Grundy County (20.9), Osceola County (20.9), Hardin County (20.8).