How hard is the water in Queens County, NY?
24 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Queens County, NY is 411 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 24 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 8 samples at 5 sites between 2006 and 2023, 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 0.8 and 26.5 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 24 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. Because Queens 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 0.5 to 246.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Queens County was 9.2 mg/L and the hardest 4,220 mg/L, a 459-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 26.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 0.8 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 524 lb of salt a year (14 bags of 40 lb, about $94), 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 $194 a year.
Sizing at 24 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,440 | 24,000 | 175 lb |
| 2 | 2,880 | 24,000 | 350 lb |
| 4 | 5,760 | 48,000 | 701 lb |
| 6 | 8,640 | 64,000 | 1,051 lb |
Queens County against the rest of New York
Among the 61 New York counties with data, Queens County is number 4 of 61 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 91% of counties.
Softest in New York: Suffolk County at 1.6 gpg. Hardest: New York County at 161.1 gpg. Closest to Queens County: Monroe County (25.7), Yates County (21.5), Wayne County (21).