How hard is the water in Orleans County, NY?
20.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Orleans County, NY is 359 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 20.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 13 samples at 10 sites between 1990 and 2021, 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 19.1 and 27.7 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
At 20.9 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 11.2 to 48.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Orleans County was 191 mg/L and the hardest 826 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 27.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 19.1 gpg.
Wells 20.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.5 gpg
13 groundwater samples from 10 wells put the median at 358.5 mg/L. 84 surface samples from 9 sites put it at 249 mg/L. In Orleans County the wells come out 6.4 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, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 457 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $82), 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 $182 a year.
Sizing at 20.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,254 | 24,000 | 153 lb |
| 2 | 2,508 | 24,000 | 305 lb |
| 4 | 5,016 | 40,000 | 610 lb |
| 6 | 7,524 | 64,000 | 915 lb |
Orleans County against the rest of New York
Among the 61 New York counties with data, Orleans County is number 7 of 61 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 86% of counties.
Softest in New York: Suffolk County at 1.6 gpg. Hardest: New York County at 161.1 gpg. Closest to Orleans County: Wayne County (21), Yates County (21.5), Genesee County (20.2).