How hard is the water in Spencer County, IN?
10.4 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Spencer County, IN is 178 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.4 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 34 samples at 19 sites between 2000 and 2019, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 4.5 and 17.3 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 10.4 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Spencer 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 2.5 to 38.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Spencer County was 43.1 mg/L and the hardest 650.5 mg/L, a 15-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.5 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 17.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.9 gpg
3 groundwater samples from 3 wells put the median at 292 mg/L. 29 surface samples from 15 sites put it at 169 mg/L. In Spencer County the wells come out 7.2 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 227 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 10.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 624 | 24,000 | 76 lb |
| 2 | 1,248 | 24,000 | 152 lb |
| 4 | 2,496 | 24,000 | 304 lb |
| 6 | 3,744 | 32,000 | 456 lb |
Spencer County against the rest of Indiana
Among the 91 Indiana counties with data, Spencer County is number 78 of 91 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 52% of counties.
Softest in Indiana: Brown County at 3.8 gpg. Hardest: Warrick County at 40.3 gpg. Closest to Spencer County: Martin County (10.4), Porter County (10.2), Ripley County (10.6).