How hard is the water in Montgomery County, NY?
17.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Montgomery County, NY is 298 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 17.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 91 samples at 55 sites between 1990 and 2023, 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 14.7 and 20.6 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 17.4 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 1.2 to 45.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Montgomery County was 20.8 mg/L and the hardest 772 mg/L, a 37-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.6 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.7 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 17.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 11.2 gpg
91 groundwater samples from 55 wells put the median at 298 mg/L. 586 surface samples from 36 sites put it at 192.3 mg/L. In Montgomery County the wells come out 6.2 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 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 380 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $68), 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 $168 a year.
Sizing at 17.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,044 | 24,000 | 127 lb |
| 2 | 2,088 | 24,000 | 254 lb |
| 4 | 4,176 | 32,000 | 508 lb |
| 6 | 6,264 | 48,000 | 762 lb |
Montgomery County against the rest of New York
Among the 61 New York counties with data, Montgomery County is number 13 of 61 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 77% of counties.
Softest in New York: Suffolk County at 1.6 gpg. Hardest: New York County at 161.1 gpg. Closest to Montgomery County: Oneida County (17.6), Erie County (17.6), Seneca County (18.6).