How hard is the water in Owen County, KY?
10.4 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Owen County, KY is 179 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.4 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 72 samples at 2 sites between 1999 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 9.6 and 11.2 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 10.4 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 Owen 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 8.8 to 12.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Owen County was 151 mg/L and the hardest 206 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 11.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.6 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 228 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $41), 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 $141 a year.
Sizing at 10.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 624 | 24,000 | 76 lb |
| 2 | 1,248 | 24,000 | 152 lb |
| 4 | 2,496 | 24,000 | 304 lb |
| 6 | 3,744 | 32,000 | 456 lb |
Owen County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Owen County is number 32 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 53% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Owen County: Christian County (10.5), Anderson County (10.3), Franklin County (10.2).