How hard is the water in Marshall County, IN?
19.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Marshall County, IN is 340 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 22 samples at 10 sites between 1999 and 2004, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 17.1 and 20.9 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 19.9 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 14.9 to 25.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Marshall County was 255 mg/L and the hardest 432 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 17.1 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 434 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $78), 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 $178 a year.
Sizing at 19.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,194 | 24,000 | 145 lb |
| 2 | 2,388 | 24,000 | 291 lb |
| 4 | 4,776 | 40,000 | 581 lb |
| 6 | 7,164 | 64,000 | 872 lb |
Marshall County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Marshall County is number 16 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 84% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Marshall County: Carroll County (19.8), Adams County (19.7), Benton County (19.6).