How hard is the water in Ohio County, KY?
7.5 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Ohio County, KY is 129 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.5 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 8 samples at 8 sites between 1992 and 2007, 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 3.1 and 20.9 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 7.5 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 Ohio 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 0.9 to 36.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Ohio County was 15.6 mg/L and the hardest 627 mg/L, a 40-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.1 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 7.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 5.9 gpg
8 groundwater samples from 8 wells put the median at 129 mg/L. 215 surface samples from 5 sites put it at 100.5 mg/L. In Ohio County the wells come out 1.6 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 165 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $30), 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 $130 a year.
Sizing at 7.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 450 | 24,000 | 55 lb |
| 2 | 900 | 24,000 | 110 lb |
| 4 | 1,800 | 24,000 | 219 lb |
| 6 | 2,700 | 24,000 | 329 lb |
Ohio County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Ohio County is number 56 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 41% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Ohio County: Hart County (7.5), Harrison County (7.7), Caldwell County (7.3).