How hard is the water in Sherman County, KS?
11.5 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Sherman County, KS is 197 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 3 samples at 2 sites between 1999 and 2005, 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 13.2 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: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 11.5 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 Sherman 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.
Wells 8.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 14.9 gpg
1 groundwater samples from 1 wells put the median at 138 mg/L. 2 surface samples from 1 sites put it at 255 mg/L. In Sherman County the rivers and lakes come out 6.8 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. A utility here that draws from the aquifer 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 251 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $45), 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 $145 a year.
Sizing at 11.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 690 | 24,000 | 84 lb |
| 2 | 1,380 | 24,000 | 168 lb |
| 4 | 2,760 | 24,000 | 336 lb |
| 6 | 4,140 | 32,000 | 504 lb |
Sherman County against the rest of Kansas
Among the 105 Kansas counties with data, Sherman County is number 81 of 105 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 57% of counties.
Softest in Kansas: Woodson County at 6.3 gpg. Hardest: Linn County at 114.5 gpg. Closest to Sherman County: Pawnee County (11.4), Washington County (11.4), Ottawa County (11.2).