How hard is the water in Henderson County, KY?
9.9 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Henderson County, KY is 169 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 9.9 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 65 samples at 3 sites between 2001 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 9.8 and 10.5 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 9.9 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 9.6 to 11.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Henderson County was 165 mg/L and the hardest 190 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 10.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.8 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 216 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $39), 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 $139 a year.
Sizing at 9.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 594 | 24,000 | 72 lb |
| 2 | 1,188 | 24,000 | 145 lb |
| 4 | 2,376 | 24,000 | 289 lb |
| 6 | 3,564 | 32,000 | 434 lb |
Henderson County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Henderson County is number 36 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 50% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Henderson County: Breckinridge County (9.8), Lewis County (9.9), Warren County (9.7).