How hard is the water in Philadelphia County, PA?
7.6 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Philadelphia County, PA is 130 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7.6 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 1,440 samples at 11 sites between 1990 and 2026, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 3.8 and 11 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 7.6 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 Philadelphia 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 3.7 to 11.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Philadelphia County was 63 mg/L and the hardest 203 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 11 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.8 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 166 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $30), 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 $130 a year.
Sizing at 7.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 456 | 24,000 | 55 lb |
| 2 | 912 | 24,000 | 111 lb |
| 4 | 1,824 | 24,000 | 222 lb |
| 6 | 2,736 | 24,000 | 333 lb |
Philadelphia County against the rest of Pennsylvania
Among the 67 Pennsylvania counties with data, Philadelphia County is number 37 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 41% of counties.
Softest in Pennsylvania: Cameron County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarion County at 68.2 gpg. Closest to Philadelphia County: Union County (7.8), Lehigh County (7.8), Fulton County (7).