How hard is the water in Hickman County, KY?

1.8 grains per gallon

You do not need a softener here.

The median hardness measured in Hickman County, KY is 31 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 1.8 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 84 samples at 3 sites between 1999 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 1.8 and 2.3 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 1.8 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Hickman 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 1.8 to 2.9 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Hickman County was 30.4 mg/L and the hardest 49.3 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 2.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 1.8 gpg.

Hickman County against the rest of Kentucky

Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Hickman County is number 101 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 15% of counties.

Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Hickman County: Carlisle County (2), Casey County (2), Bell County (2.1).