How hard is the water in Los Alamos County, NM?
4.6 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Los Alamos County, NM is 79 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 4.6 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 9 samples at 2 sites between 2000 and 2005, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 3.3 and 6 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 4.6 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one. Because Los Alamos County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 1.9 to 7.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Los Alamos County was 32.6 mg/L and the hardest 125 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.3 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 101 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $18), 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 $118 a year.
Sizing at 4.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 276 | 24,000 | 34 lb |
| 2 | 552 | 24,000 | 67 lb |
| 4 | 1,104 | 24,000 | 134 lb |
| 6 | 1,656 | 24,000 | 201 lb |
Los Alamos County against the rest of New Mexico
Among the 33 New Mexico counties with data, Los Alamos County is number 31 of 33 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 29% of counties.
Softest in New Mexico: Rio Arriba County at 2.3 gpg. Hardest: Chaves County at 116.2 gpg. Closest to Los Alamos County: Taos County (4.9), Luna County (4.1), Catron County (5.1).