How hard is the water in Portage County, OH?
19 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Portage County, OH is 326 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 45 samples at 14 sites between 1991 and 2024, 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 14.5 and 24.3 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 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 4.0 to 50.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Portage County was 68.4 mg/L and the hardest 869 mg/L, a 13-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 24.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 14.5 gpg.
Wells 19 gpg, rivers and lakes 11.5 gpg
45 groundwater samples from 14 wells put the median at 325.5 mg/L. 690 surface samples from 94 sites put it at 196.8 mg/L. In Portage County the wells come out 7.5 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 415 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $75), 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 $175 a year.
Sizing at 19 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,140 | 24,000 | 139 lb |
| 2 | 2,280 | 24,000 | 277 lb |
| 4 | 4,560 | 32,000 | 555 lb |
| 6 | 6,840 | 48,000 | 832 lb |
Portage County against the rest of Ohio
Among the 88 Ohio counties with data, Portage County is number 38 of 88 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 82% of counties.
Softest in Ohio: Scioto County at 5.7 gpg. Hardest: Perry County at 113.3 gpg. Closest to Portage County: Williams County (19), Seneca County (19.1), Washington County (19.1).