How hard is the water in Payette County, ID?
11.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Payette County, ID is 193 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 151 samples at 39 sites between 1990 and 2011, 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 7.1 and 12.9 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 11.3 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 Payette 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 1.0 to 18.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Payette County was 17.5 mg/L and the hardest 317 mg/L, an 18-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.1 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 11.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 3 gpg
151 groundwater samples from 39 wells put the median at 193 mg/L. 17 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 51.5 mg/L. In Payette County the wells come out 8.3 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 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 11.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 678 | 24,000 | 82 lb |
| 2 | 1,356 | 24,000 | 165 lb |
| 4 | 2,712 | 24,000 | 330 lb |
| 6 | 4,068 | 32,000 | 495 lb |
Payette County against the rest of Idaho
Among the 44 Idaho counties with data, Payette County is number 14 of 44 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 56% of counties.
Softest in Idaho: Valley County at 1.3 gpg. Hardest: Caribou County at 23 gpg. Closest to Payette County: Jefferson County (11.1), Teton County (10.9), Canyon County (10.7).