How hard is the water in Macon County, TN?
6.3 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Macon County, TN is 108 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 6.3 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 66 samples at 11 sites between 1990 and 2015, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 5.1 and 7.3 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 6.3 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 Macon 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 4.4 to 22.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Macon County was 75 mg/L and the hardest 382.5 mg/L, a 5-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 7.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.1 gpg.
Wells 10.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 6.3 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 175 mg/L. 65 surface samples from 10 sites put it at 107.5 mg/L. In Macon County the wells come out 3.9 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 138 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $25), 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 $125 a year.
Sizing at 6.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 378 | 24,000 | 46 lb |
| 2 | 756 | 24,000 | 92 lb |
| 4 | 1,512 | 24,000 | 184 lb |
| 6 | 2,268 | 24,000 | 276 lb |
Macon County against the rest of Tennessee
Among the 95 Tennessee counties with data, Macon County is number 49 of 95 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 36% of counties.
Softest in Tennessee: Fayette County at 0.5 gpg. Hardest: Fentress County at 42.9 gpg. Closest to Macon County: Jackson County (6.3), Humphreys County (6.2), Sequatchie County (6.4).