How hard is the water in Shelby County, MO?
12.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Shelby County, MO is 212 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 4 samples at 1 sites between 2020 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 12.4 and 12.4 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 12.4 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.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 270 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $49), 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 $149 a year.
Sizing at 12.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 744 | 24,000 | 91 lb |
| 2 | 1,488 | 24,000 | 181 lb |
| 4 | 2,976 | 24,000 | 362 lb |
| 6 | 4,464 | 32,000 | 543 lb |
Shelby County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Shelby County is number 42 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 60% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Shelby County: Putnam County (12.3), Worth County (12.3), Holt County (12.3).