How hard is the water in Montrose County, CO?
115.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Montrose County, CO is 1975 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 115.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 104 samples at 43 sites between 1990 and 2026, 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 38.4 and 139.5 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 115.4 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 3.7 to 206.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Montrose County was 63.4 mg/L and the hardest 3,530 mg/L, a 56-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 139.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 38.4 gpg.
Wells 115.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 24.9 gpg
104 groundwater samples from 43 wells put the median at 1975 mg/L. 4,948 surface samples from 242 sites put it at 425.5 mg/L. In Montrose County the wells come out 90.5 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, the water is harder than a standard single tank handles in a week, so plan on a larger or twin-tank unit. Expect about 2,520 lb of salt a year (63 bags of 40 lb, about $454), 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 $554 a year.
Sizing at 115.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6,924 | 64,000 | 842 lb |
| 2 | 13,848 | twin tank | 1,685 lb |
| 4 | 27,696 | twin tank | 3,370 lb |
| 6 | 41,544 | twin tank | 5,055 lb |
Montrose County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Montrose County is number 3 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 99% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Montrose County: Delta County (116.8), Mesa County (143.7), Kiowa County (43.5).