How hard is the water in Ottawa County, KS?
11.2 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Ottawa County, KS is 193 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.2 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 378 samples at 12 sites between 1990 and 2016, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 7 and 21.5 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 11.2 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 Ottawa 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 4.4 to 29.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Ottawa County was 74.5 mg/L and the hardest 510 mg/L, a 7-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 21.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7 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 246 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $44), 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 $144 a year.
Sizing at 11.2 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 672 | 24,000 | 82 lb |
| 2 | 1,344 | 24,000 | 164 lb |
| 4 | 2,688 | 24,000 | 327 lb |
| 6 | 4,032 | 32,000 | 491 lb |
Ottawa County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Ottawa County is number 84 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 56% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Ottawa County: Rawlins County (11.2), Allen County (11.1), Jefferson County (11.1).