How hard is the water in Sauk County, WI?
7 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Sauk County, WI is 119 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 78 samples at 13 sites between 1990 and 2019, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 4.4 and 8.7 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 7 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 Sauk 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 2.3 to 17.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Sauk County was 40 mg/L and the hardest 299 mg/L, a 7-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8.7 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.4 gpg.
Wells 12.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 6.9 gpg
30 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 213 mg/L. 48 surface samples from 9 sites put it at 118 mg/L. In Sauk County the wells come out 5.5 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river 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 152 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $27), 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 $127 a year.
Sizing at 7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 420 | 24,000 | 51 lb |
| 2 | 840 | 24,000 | 102 lb |
| 4 | 1,680 | 24,000 | 204 lb |
| 6 | 2,520 | 24,000 | 307 lb |
Sauk County against the rest of Wisconsin
Among the 72 Wisconsin counties with data, Sauk County is number 46 of 72 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 38% of counties.
Softest in Wisconsin: Vilas County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Calumet County at 28.4 gpg. Closest to Sauk County: Trempealeau County (6.6), Dunn County (6.4), Menominee County (7.9).