How hard is the water in Orange County, TX?

1.1 grains per gallon

You do not need a softener here.

The median hardness measured in Orange County, TX is 18 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 1.1 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 6 samples at 6 sites between 2005 and 2013, 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 0.9 and 1.5 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: medium (how it is measured).

What to do next

You can skip the softener. At 1.1 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Orange County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one.

More on when a softener is not worth it.

From 0.4 to 5.9 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Orange County was 6.6 mg/L and the hardest 101 mg/L, a 15-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 1.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 0.9 gpg.

Orange County against the rest of Texas

Among the 217 Texas counties with data, Orange County is number 212 of 217 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 7% of counties.

Softest in Texas: Nacogdoches County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Ward County at 218.5 gpg. Closest to Orange County: Webb County (0.8), Jim Hogg County (0.8), Gonzales County (1.4).