How hard is the water in Russell County, KS?
35.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Russell County, KS is 605 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 35.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 652 samples at 20 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 31.7 and 41.3 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 35.3 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 22.2 to 53.2 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Russell County was 380 mg/L and the hardest 910 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 41.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 31.7 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 48,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 772 lb of salt a year (20 bags of 40 lb, about $139), 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 $239 a year.
Sizing at 35.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,118 | 24,000 | 258 lb |
| 2 | 4,236 | 32,000 | 515 lb |
| 4 | 8,472 | 64,000 | 1,031 lb |
| 6 | 12,708 | twin tank | 1,546 lb |
Russell County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Russell County is number 5 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 96% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Russell County: Lincoln County (34.5), Logan County (34), Osborne County (31.4).