How hard is the water in Sheridan County, KS?
10.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Sheridan County, KS is 180 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.5 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 27 samples at 3 sites between 1991 and 2014, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 9.8 and 11 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 10.5 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. Because Sheridan County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 9.1 to 11.4 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Sheridan County was 155 mg/L and the hardest 196 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 11 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.8 gpg.
Wells 11.4 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.8 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 196 mg/L. 26 surface samples from 2 sites put it at 167.5 mg/L. In Sheridan County the wells come out 1.6 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 230 lb of salt a year (6 bags of 40 lb, about $41), 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 $141 a year.
Sizing at 10.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 630 | 24,000 | 77 lb |
| 2 | 1,260 | 24,000 | 153 lb |
| 4 | 2,520 | 24,000 | 307 lb |
| 6 | 3,780 | 32,000 | 460 lb |
Sheridan County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Sheridan County is number 88 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 53% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Sheridan County: Greeley County (10.5), Chautauqua County (10.4), Douglas County (10.2).