How hard is the water in Morris County, KS?
12.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Morris County, KS is 220 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 270 samples at 14 sites between 1990 and 2017, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 9.6 and 14.8 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 12.9 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 Morris 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 7.6 to 19.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Morris County was 130 mg/L and the hardest 340 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.6 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 281 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $51), 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 $151 a year.
Sizing at 12.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 774 | 24,000 | 94 lb |
| 2 | 1,548 | 24,000 | 188 lb |
| 4 | 3,096 | 24,000 | 377 lb |
| 6 | 4,644 | 40,000 | 565 lb |
Morris County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Morris County is number 72 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 61% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Morris County: Shawnee County (12.9), Atchison County (12.9), Scott County (12.9).