How hard is the water in Lincoln County, MN?
26.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Lincoln County, MN is 452 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 26.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 38 samples at 13 sites between 2010 and 2025, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 21 and 35.5 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 26.4 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 14.6 to 46.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lincoln County was 250 mg/L and the hardest 793.5 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 35.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 21 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 40,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 577 lb of salt a year (15 bags of 40 lb, about $104), 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 $204 a year.
Sizing at 26.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,584 | 24,000 | 193 lb |
| 2 | 3,168 | 24,000 | 385 lb |
| 4 | 6,336 | 48,000 | 771 lb |
| 6 | 9,504 | 80,000 | 1,156 lb |
Lincoln County against the rest of Minnesota
Among the 87 Minnesota counties with data, Lincoln County is number 7 of 87 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 93% of counties.
Softest in Minnesota: Lake County at 1.3 gpg. Hardest: Traverse County at 42.6 gpg. Closest to Lincoln County: Chippewa County (26.3), Wilkin County (25.6), Brown County (25.1).