How hard is the water in Lyon County, KS?
25.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Lyon County, KS is 431 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 25.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 37 samples at 15 sites between 1990 and 2016, 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 23.2 and 27.6 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 25.1 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 17.8 to 36.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Lyon County was 304 mg/L and the hardest 615.5 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 27.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 23.2 gpg.
Wells 25.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 12.9 gpg
37 groundwater samples from 15 wells put the median at 430.5 mg/L. 879 surface samples from 26 sites put it at 220 mg/L. In Lyon County the wells come out 12.2 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 549 lb of salt a year (14 bags of 40 lb, about $99), 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 $199 a year.
Sizing at 25.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,506 | 24,000 | 183 lb |
| 2 | 3,012 | 24,000 | 366 lb |
| 4 | 6,024 | 48,000 | 733 lb |
| 6 | 9,036 | 64,000 | 1,099 lb |
Lyon County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Lyon County is number 21 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 92% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Lyon County: Meade County (25.1), Geary County (24.5), Johnson County (25.9).