How hard is the water in Hot Springs County, WY?
22.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Hot Springs County, WY is 386 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 22.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 43 samples at 43 sites between 1990 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 3.9 and 44.7 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 22.5 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. Because Hot Springs 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 0.1 to 122.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Hot Springs County was 2.3 mg/L and the hardest 2,100 mg/L, a 913-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 44.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 22.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 15.7 gpg
43 groundwater samples from 43 wells put the median at 386 mg/L. 40 surface samples from 32 sites put it at 268 mg/L. In Hot Springs County the wells come out 6.8 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 492 lb of salt a year (13 bags of 40 lb, about $89), 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 $189 a year.
Sizing at 22.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,350 | 24,000 | 164 lb |
| 2 | 2,700 | 24,000 | 329 lb |
| 4 | 5,400 | 40,000 | 657 lb |
| 6 | 8,100 | 64,000 | 986 lb |
Hot Springs County against the rest of Wyoming
Among the 23 Wyoming counties with data, Hot Springs County is number 5 of 23 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 89% of counties.
Softest in Wyoming: Park County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Natrona County at 124.4 gpg. Closest to Hot Springs County: Weston County (21.4), Sheridan County (24.3), Big Horn County (26.4).