How hard is the water in Henry County, IA?
16.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Henry County, IA is 280 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 10 samples at 8 sites between 1997 and 2014, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 14.3 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 16.3 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 13.1 to 26.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Henry County was 224 mg/L and the hardest 461 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 22.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.3 gpg.
Wells 23.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.7 gpg
6 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 396 mg/L. 4 surface samples from 4 sites put it at 251.5 mg/L. In Henry County the wells come out 8.4 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 357 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $64), 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 $164 a year.
Sizing at 16.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 978 | 24,000 | 119 lb |
| 2 | 1,956 | 24,000 | 238 lb |
| 4 | 3,912 | 32,000 | 476 lb |
| 6 | 5,868 | 48,000 | 714 lb |
Henry County against the rest of Iowa
Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Henry County is number 72 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 74% of counties.
Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Henry County: Bremer County (16.5), Lucas County (16.6), Mitchell County (16.6).