How hard is the water in St. Joseph County, MI?
11.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in St. Joseph County, MI is 200 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 90 samples at 20 sites between 2000 and 2013, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 9.2 and 14.2 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 11.7 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 St. Joseph 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 5.2 to 18.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in St. Joseph County was 89 mg/L and the hardest 310 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.2 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 255 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $46), 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 $146 a year.
Sizing at 11.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 702 | 24,000 | 85 lb |
| 2 | 1,404 | 24,000 | 171 lb |
| 4 | 2,808 | 24,000 | 342 lb |
| 6 | 4,212 | 32,000 | 512 lb |
St. Joseph County against the rest of Michigan
Among the 82 Michigan counties with data, St. Joseph County is number 29 of 82 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 57% of counties.
Softest in Michigan: Luce County at 1.9 gpg. Hardest: Wayne County at 47.4 gpg. Closest to St. Joseph County: Cass County (11.7), Kalamazoo County (11.7), Calhoun County (11.6).