How hard is the water in Ripley County, IN?
10.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Ripley County, IN is 182 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 80 samples at 11 sites between 1991 and 2004, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 8.7 and 14.7 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 10.6 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. Because Ripley 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 7.3 to 16.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Ripley County was 125 mg/L and the hardest 278 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 8.7 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 232 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $42), 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 $142 a year.
Sizing at 10.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 636 | 24,000 | 77 lb |
| 2 | 1,272 | 24,000 | 155 lb |
| 4 | 2,544 | 24,000 | 310 lb |
| 6 | 3,816 | 32,000 | 464 lb |
Ripley County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Ripley County is number 77 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 53% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Ripley County: Martin County (10.4), Spencer County (10.4), Ohio County (10.9).