How hard is the water in Madison County, KY?
10.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Madison County, KY is 186 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 72 samples at 3 sites between 1990 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 8.8 and 12.4 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 10.9 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. Because Madison County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 6.7 to 13.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Madison County was 115 mg/L and the hardest 238 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 8.8 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 237 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $43), 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 $143 a year.
Sizing at 10.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 654 | 24,000 | 80 lb |
| 2 | 1,308 | 24,000 | 159 lb |
| 4 | 2,616 | 24,000 | 318 lb |
| 6 | 3,924 | 32,000 | 477 lb |
Madison County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Madison County is number 29 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 54% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Madison County: Henry County (10.7), Wayne County (11), Trigg County (11.1).