How hard is the water in Hardeman County, TN?

1.2 grains per gallon

You do not need a softener here.

The median hardness measured in Hardeman County, TN is 20 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 1.2 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 9 samples at 6 sites between 1990 and 2022, 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 0.6 and 1.7 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

You can skip the softener. At 1.2 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Hardeman County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one.

More on when a softener is not worth it.

From 0.3 to 7.8 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Hardeman County was 5.6 mg/L and the hardest 133 mg/L, a 24-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 1.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 0.6 gpg.

Wells 1.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 1.2 gpg

9 groundwater samples from 6 wells put the median at 19.8 mg/L. 215 surface samples from 26 sites put it at 20.1 mg/L. In Hardeman County the rivers and lakes come out 0.0 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.

Hardeman County against the rest of Tennessee

Among the 95 Tennessee counties with data, Hardeman County is number 89 of 95 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 8% of counties.

Softest in Tennessee: Fayette County at 0.5 gpg. Hardest: Fentress County at 42.9 gpg. Closest to Hardeman County: Carroll County (1.1), Gibson County (1.1), Morgan County (1.2).