How hard is the water in Pike County, IL?
15.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Pike County, IL is 272 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 270 samples at 9 sites between 1990 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 12.4 and 16.9 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 15.9 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 8.2 to 19.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Pike County was 141 mg/L and the hardest 340 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 16.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.4 gpg.
Wells 19.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 15.8 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 340 mg/L. 269 surface samples from 8 sites put it at 270.5 mg/L. In Pike County the wells come out 4.1 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 347 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $62), 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 $162 a year.
Sizing at 15.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 954 | 24,000 | 116 lb |
| 2 | 1,908 | 24,000 | 232 lb |
| 4 | 3,816 | 32,000 | 464 lb |
| 6 | 5,724 | 48,000 | 696 lb |
Pike County against the rest of Illinois
Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Pike County is number 60 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 72% of counties.
Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Pike County: Crawford County (15.9), Grundy County (15.6), Edgar County (16.2).