How hard is the water in Rockcastle County, KY?
6.6 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Rockcastle County, KY is 112 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 6.6 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 87 samples at 2 sites between 1999 and 2007, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 5.7 and 7.4 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 6.6 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one. Because Rockcastle County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 4.9 to 8.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Rockcastle County was 84.3 mg/L and the hardest 140 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 7.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.7 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 143 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $26), 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 $126 a year.
Sizing at 6.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 396 | 24,000 | 48 lb |
| 2 | 792 | 24,000 | 96 lb |
| 4 | 1,584 | 24,000 | 193 lb |
| 6 | 2,376 | 24,000 | 289 lb |
Rockcastle County against the rest of Kentucky
Among the 104 Kentucky counties with data, Rockcastle County is number 64 of 104 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 37% of counties.
Softest in Kentucky: Letcher County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 32.9 gpg. Closest to Rockcastle County: Greenup County (6.5), Pulaski County (6.7), Edmonson County (6.3).