How hard is the water in Sherburne County, MN?
15.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Sherburne County, MN is 272 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 126 samples at 54 sites between 1990 and 2024, drawn from groundwater wells, which is what most taps and private wells in the county draw on.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 10.7 and 19.3 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 15.9 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 3.1 to 27.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Sherburne County was 53.5 mg/L and the hardest 463 mg/L, a 9-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 19.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 10.7 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 15.9 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.3 gpg
126 groundwater samples from 54 wells put the median at 271.5 mg/L. 184 surface samples from 23 sites put it at 160 mg/L. In Sherburne County the wells come out 6.6 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 346 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $62), 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 $162 a year.
Sizing at 15.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 954 | 24,000 | 116 lb |
| 2 | 1,908 | 24,000 | 232 lb |
| 4 | 3,816 | 32,000 | 464 lb |
| 6 | 5,724 | 48,000 | 696 lb |
Sherburne County against the rest of Minnesota
Among the 87 Minnesota counties with data, Sherburne County is number 52 of 87 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 72% of counties.
Softest in Minnesota: Lake County at 1.3 gpg. Hardest: Traverse County at 42.6 gpg. Closest to Sherburne County: Marshall County (15.9), Mower County (15.9), Red Lake County (15.9).