How hard is the water in Howard County, IN?

18.1 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Howard County, IN is 310 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 18.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 323 samples at 75 sites between 1991 and 2004, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 16.7 and 19.9 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: high (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 18.1 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 8.8 to 28.6 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Howard County was 150 mg/L and the hardest 490 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 19.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 16.7 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 396 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $71), 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 $171 a year.

Sizing at 18.1 gpg

Howard County against the rest of Indiana

Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Howard County is number 35 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 79% of counties.

Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Howard County: Kosciusko County (18.1), Warren County (18), Johnson County (18.2).