How hard is the water in Harris County, TX?
8.4 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Harris County, TX is 144 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.4 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 291 samples at 162 sites between 1990 and 2023, 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 6.7 and 10.4 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 8.4 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Harris 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 1.8 to 30.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Harris County was 30.6 mg/L and the hardest 513 mg/L, a 17-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 10.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 6.7 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 8.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 3.5 gpg
291 groundwater samples from 162 wells put the median at 143.5 mg/L. 1,159 surface samples from 26 sites put it at 60.1 mg/L. In Harris County the wells come out 4.9 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 183 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $33), 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 $133 a year.
Sizing at 8.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 504 | 24,000 | 61 lb |
| 2 | 1,008 | 24,000 | 123 lb |
| 4 | 2,016 | 24,000 | 245 lb |
| 6 | 3,024 | 24,000 | 368 lb |
Harris County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Harris County is number 147 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 44% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Harris County: Borden County (8.4), Fort Bend County (8.5), Dallas County (8.3).