How hard is the water in Hardin County, TX?
4 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Hardin County, TX is 68 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 4 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 5 samples at 5 sites between 2005 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 3.5 and 5.7 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
At 4 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.
From 2.4 to 6.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Hardin County was 40.8 mg/L and the hardest 118 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 5.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.5 gpg.
Wells 4 gpg, rivers and lakes 1.2 gpg
5 groundwater samples from 5 wells put the median at 67.7 mg/L. 196 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 21 mg/L. In Hardin County the wells come out 2.8 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 86 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $16), 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 $116 a year.
Sizing at 4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 240 | 24,000 | 29 lb |
| 2 | 480 | 24,000 | 58 lb |
| 4 | 960 | 24,000 | 117 lb |
| 6 | 1,440 | 24,000 | 175 lb |
Hardin County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Hardin County is number 185 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 26% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Hardin County: Robertson County (4), Jasper County (3.8), Van Zandt County (3.8).