How hard is the water in Moultrie County, IL?
20 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Moultrie County, IL is 343 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 20 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 359 samples at 10 sites between 1990 and 2003, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 18.8 and 20.4 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 20 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 13.9 to 21.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Moultrie County was 238 mg/L and the hardest 370 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.8 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 437 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $79), 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 $179 a year.
Sizing at 20 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,200 | 24,000 | 146 lb |
| 2 | 2,400 | 24,000 | 292 lb |
| 4 | 4,800 | 40,000 | 584 lb |
| 6 | 7,200 | 64,000 | 876 lb |
Moultrie County against the rest of Illinois
Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Moultrie County is number 29 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 84% of counties.
Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Moultrie County: Whiteside County (20), Macon County (19.8), Tazewell County (19.9).