How hard is the water in Putnam County, IN?
16.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Putnam County, IN is 279 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 16.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 224 samples at 25 sites between 1992 and 2014, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 13.4 and 18.8 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 16.3 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 7.4 to 22.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Putnam County was 126 mg/L and the hardest 377 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 18.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.4 gpg.
Wells 20.8 gpg, rivers and lakes 15.2 gpg
8 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 356.5 mg/L. 216 surface samples from 21 sites put it at 260 mg/L. In Putnam County the wells come out 5.6 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 356 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $64), 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 $164 a year.
Sizing at 16.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 978 | 24,000 | 119 lb |
| 2 | 1,956 | 24,000 | 238 lb |
| 4 | 3,912 | 32,000 | 476 lb |
| 6 | 5,868 | 48,000 | 714 lb |
Putnam County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Putnam County is number 52 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 73% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Putnam County: St. Joseph County (16.2), Parke County (16.4), Posey County (16.1).