How hard is the water in Stevens County, MN?
20.4 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Stevens County, MN is 350 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 20.4 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 16 samples at 9 sites between 2010 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 19.9 and 28 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 20.4 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 14.0 to 40.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Stevens County was 240 mg/L and the hardest 700 mg/L, a 3-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 28 gpg and the bottom quarter below 19.9 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 447 lb of salt a year (12 bags of 40 lb, about $80), 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 $180 a year.
Sizing at 20.4 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,224 | 24,000 | 149 lb |
| 2 | 2,448 | 24,000 | 298 lb |
| 4 | 4,896 | 40,000 | 596 lb |
| 6 | 7,344 | 64,000 | 894 lb |
Stevens County against the rest of Minnesota
Among the 87 Minnesota counties with data, Stevens County is number 25 of 87 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 85% of counties.
Softest in Minnesota: Lake County at 1.3 gpg. Hardest: Traverse County at 42.6 gpg. Closest to Stevens County: Rock County (20.5), Rice County (20.9), Faribault County (19.9).