How hard is the water in Sedgwick County, CO?
42.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Sedgwick County, CO is 729 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 42.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 122 samples at 16 sites between 1990 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 38.5 and 44.3 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 42.6 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 25.4 to 53.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Sedgwick County was 435 mg/L and the hardest 919.5 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 44.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 38.5 gpg.
Wells 48.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 42.4 gpg
8 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 823.8 mg/L. 114 surface samples from 14 sites put it at 726.5 mg/L. In Sedgwick County the wells come out 5.7 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 64,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 930 lb of salt a year (24 bags of 40 lb, about $167), 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 $267 a year.
Sizing at 42.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,556 | 24,000 | 311 lb |
| 2 | 5,112 | 40,000 | 622 lb |
| 4 | 10,224 | 80,000 | 1,244 lb |
| 6 | 15,336 | twin tank | 1,866 lb |
Sedgwick County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Sedgwick County is number 5 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 97% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Sedgwick County: Kiowa County (43.5), Otero County (39.4), Morgan County (38.7).