How hard is the water in Stephens County, OK?
28.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Stephens County, OK is 492 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 28.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 94 samples at 12 sites between 2000 and 2021, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 21.6 and 35 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 28.7 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 19.6 to 35.3 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Stephens County was 335 mg/L and the hardest 605 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 35 gpg and the bottom quarter below 21.6 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 40,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 628 lb of salt a year (16 bags of 40 lb, about $113), 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 $213 a year.
Sizing at 28.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,722 | 24,000 | 210 lb |
| 2 | 3,444 | 32,000 | 419 lb |
| 4 | 6,888 | 64,000 | 838 lb |
| 6 | 10,332 | 80,000 | 1,257 lb |
Stephens County against the rest of Oklahoma
Among the 77 Oklahoma counties with data, Stephens County is number 18 of 77 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 94% of counties.
Softest in Oklahoma: McCurtain County at 0.8 gpg. Hardest: Greer County at 125 gpg. Closest to Stephens County: Harper County (28.9), Roger Mills County (29.5), Blaine County (26.3).