How hard is the water in Scioto County, OH?
5.7 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Scioto County, OH is 98 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 5.7 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 400 samples at 82 sites between 1990 and 2022, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 3.3 and 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 5.7 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 Scioto 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 1.6 to 26.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Scioto County was 28 mg/L and the hardest 456 mg/L, a 16-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 3.3 gpg.
Wells 26.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 4.7 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 456 mg/L. 384 surface samples from 73 sites put it at 80 mg/L. In Scioto County the wells come out 21.9 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 125 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $23), 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 $123 a year.
Sizing at 5.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 342 | 24,000 | 42 lb |
| 2 | 684 | 24,000 | 83 lb |
| 4 | 1,368 | 24,000 | 166 lb |
| 6 | 2,052 | 24,000 | 250 lb |
Scioto County against the rest of Ohio
Among the 88 Ohio counties with data, Scioto County is the softest. Across the whole country it is harder than 33% of counties.
Hardest: Perry County at 113.3 gpg. Closest to Scioto County: Lawrence County (8), Carroll County (8.1), Meigs County (8.4).