How hard is the water in Laramie County, WY?
8.7 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Laramie County, WY is 150 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.7 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 52 samples at 52 sites between 1990 and 2015, 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 7.3 and 10.1 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 8.7 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 0.4 to 26.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Laramie County was 7.3 mg/L and the hardest 445 mg/L, a 61-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 10.1 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 8.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 2.8 gpg
52 groundwater samples from 52 wells put the median at 149.5 mg/L. 48 surface samples from 8 sites put it at 47.3 mg/L. In Laramie County the wells come out 5.9 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 191 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $34), 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 $134 a year.
Sizing at 8.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 522 | 24,000 | 64 lb |
| 2 | 1,044 | 24,000 | 127 lb |
| 4 | 2,088 | 24,000 | 254 lb |
| 6 | 3,132 | 24,000 | 381 lb |
Laramie County against the rest of Wyoming
Among the 23 Wyoming counties with data, Laramie County is number 19 of 23 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 46% of counties.
Softest in Wyoming: Park County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Natrona County at 124.4 gpg. Closest to Laramie County: Campbell County (8.9), Teton County (8.5), Washakie County (7.9).