How hard is the water in Hillsdale County, MI?
20.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Hillsdale County, MI is 351 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 20.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 22 samples at 12 sites between 1998 and 2016, 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 18.1 and 23.7 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 20.5 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 14.8 to 61.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Hillsdale County was 253 mg/L and the hardest 1,060 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 23.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.1 gpg.
Wells 20.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 11.1 gpg
22 groundwater samples from 12 wells put the median at 351 mg/L. 10 surface samples from 10 sites put it at 190 mg/L. In Hillsdale County the wells come out 9.4 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 448 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $81), 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 $181 a year.
Sizing at 20.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,230 | 24,000 | 150 lb |
| 2 | 2,460 | 24,000 | 299 lb |
| 4 | 4,920 | 40,000 | 599 lb |
| 6 | 7,380 | 64,000 | 898 lb |
Hillsdale County against the rest of Michigan
Among the 82 Michigan counties with data, Hillsdale County is number 9 of 82 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 85% of counties.
Softest in Michigan: Luce County at 1.9 gpg. Hardest: Wayne County at 47.4 gpg. Closest to Hillsdale County: Branch County (20.8), Livingston County (21.3), Washtenaw County (19.7).