How hard is the water in Roanoke city, VA?
10.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Roanoke city, VA is 186 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 80 samples at 8 sites between 2001 and 2018, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 8.9 and 12.8 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 10.9 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 Roanoke city 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 8.2 to 14.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Roanoke city was 140 mg/L and the hardest 241 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 8.9 gpg.
Wells 8.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 11.5 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 140 mg/L. 79 surface samples from 7 sites put it at 196.5 mg/L. In Roanoke city the rivers and lakes come out 3.3 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 237 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $43), 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 $143 a year.
Sizing at 10.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 654 | 24,000 | 80 lb |
| 2 | 1,308 | 24,000 | 159 lb |
| 4 | 2,616 | 24,000 | 318 lb |
| 6 | 3,924 | 32,000 | 477 lb |
Roanoke city against the rest of Virginia
Among the 126 Virginia counties with data, Roanoke city is number 15 of 126 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 54% of counties.
Softest in Virginia: Isle of Wight County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarke County at 20.1 gpg. Closest to Roanoke city: Roanoke County (11.1), Giles County (11.2), Virginia Beach city (10.3).