How hard is the water in Radford city, VA?

14.5 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Radford city, VA is 249 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 104 samples at 4 sites between 2001 and 2026, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 11.7 and 14.8 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: medium (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 14.5 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 3.7 to 15.1 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Radford city was 63 mg/L and the hardest 259 mg/L, a 4-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.7 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 317 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $57), 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 $157 a year.

Sizing at 14.5 gpg

Radford city against the rest of Virginia

Among the 126 Virginia counties with data, Radford city is number 8 of 126 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 68% of counties.

Softest in Virginia: Isle of Wight County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarke County at 20.1 gpg. Closest to Radford city: Frederick County (15.3), Montgomery County (13.6), Rockingham County (13.6).