How hard is the water in Montgomery County, TX?
7.1 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Montgomery County, TX is 122 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.1 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 58 samples at 44 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 1.9 and 10.3 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 7.1 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Montgomery 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 0.2 to 222.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Montgomery County was 2.9 mg/L and the hardest 3,810 mg/L, a 1,314-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 10.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 1.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 7.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 4 gpg
58 groundwater samples from 44 wells put the median at 121.5 mg/L. 742 surface samples from 7 sites put it at 68.2 mg/L. In Montgomery County the wells come out 3.1 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 155 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $28), 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 $128 a year.
Sizing at 7.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 426 | 24,000 | 52 lb |
| 2 | 852 | 24,000 | 104 lb |
| 4 | 1,704 | 24,000 | 207 lb |
| 6 | 2,556 | 24,000 | 311 lb |
Montgomery County against the rest of Texas
Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Montgomery County is number 161 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 39% of counties.
Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Montgomery County: Ellis County (7.1), Bowie County (7.2), Duval County (7.2).