How hard is the water in Kane County, UT?
13.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Kane County, UT is 238 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 116 samples at 37 sites between 1990 and 2021, 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 10.6 and 31.6 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 13.9 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 3.9 to 121.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Kane County was 67 mg/L and the hardest 2,075.7 mg/L, a 31-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 31.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.6 gpg.
Wells 13.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 16.6 gpg
116 groundwater samples from 37 wells put the median at 238 mg/L. 3,208 surface samples from 74 sites put it at 283.9 mg/L. In Kane County the rivers and lakes come out 2.7 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 304 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $55), 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 $155 a year.
Sizing at 13.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 834 | 24,000 | 101 lb |
| 2 | 1,668 | 24,000 | 203 lb |
| 4 | 3,336 | 24,000 | 406 lb |
| 6 | 5,004 | 40,000 | 609 lb |
Kane County against the rest of Utah
Among the 29 Utah counties with data, Kane County is number 24 of 29 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 66% of counties.
Softest in Utah: Davis County at 9 gpg. Hardest: Emery County at 151.3 gpg. Closest to Kane County: Daggett County (14), Summit County (13.7), Weber County (14.1).