How hard is the water in Pike County, IN?
19.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Pike County, IN is 332 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 375 samples at 28 sites between 1991 and 2008, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 11.9 and 69 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 19.4 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 4.6 to 157.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Pike County was 79 mg/L and the hardest 2,700 mg/L, a 34-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 69 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.9 gpg.
Wells 21 gpg, rivers and lakes 17.8 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 359 mg/L. 374 surface samples from 27 sites put it at 304 mg/L. In Pike County the wells come out 3.2 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 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 423 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $76), 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 $176 a year.
Sizing at 19.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,164 | 24,000 | 142 lb |
| 2 | 2,328 | 24,000 | 283 lb |
| 4 | 4,656 | 40,000 | 566 lb |
| 6 | 6,984 | 64,000 | 850 lb |
Pike County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Pike County is number 21 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 82% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Pike County: Fayette County (19.4), Miami County (19.5), Madison County (19.3).