How hard is the water in Riley County, KS?
17.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Riley County, KS is 302 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 17.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 756 samples at 30 sites between 1990 and 2016, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 15.9 and 20.9 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 17.6 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 10.5 to 25.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Riley County was 180 mg/L and the hardest 430 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 20.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 15.9 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 385 lb of salt a year (10 bags of 40 lb, about $69), 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 $169 a year.
Sizing at 17.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,056 | 24,000 | 128 lb |
| 2 | 2,112 | 24,000 | 257 lb |
| 4 | 4,224 | 32,000 | 514 lb |
| 6 | 6,336 | 48,000 | 771 lb |
Riley County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Riley County is number 43 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 78% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Riley County: Wabaunsee County (17.7), McPherson County (17.5), Hodgeman County (17.8).