How hard is the water in Ray County, MO?

14 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Ray County, MO is 241 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 22 samples at 2 sites between 2004 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 13.7 and 14.4 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: low (how it is measured).

What to do next

At 14 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 13.3 to 14.8 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Ray County was 227 mg/L and the hardest 254 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 13.7 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 307 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $55), 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 $155 a year.

Sizing at 14 gpg

Ray County against the rest of Missouri

Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Ray County is number 24 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 67% of counties.

Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Ray County: Cass County (13.8), Howell County (14.5), Pulaski County (14.5).