How hard is the water in Strafford County, NH?

0.8 grains per gallon

You do not need a softener here.

The median hardness measured in Strafford County, NH is 14 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 0.8 gpg. That is soft on the USGS scale. It comes from 281 samples at 56 sites between 1990 and 2022, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 0.7 and 1.5 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

You can skip the softener. At 0.8 gpg the most a softener would fix is the odd water spot. If a salesperson in Strafford County says otherwise, ask to see their reading in grains per gallon and compare it with this one.

More on when a softener is not worth it.

From 0.3 to 9.9 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Strafford County was 5 mg/L and the hardest 170 mg/L, a 34-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 1.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 0.7 gpg.

Wells 6.7 gpg, rivers and lakes 0.8 gpg

11 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 115 mg/L. 270 surface samples from 52 sites put it at 13.9 mg/L. In Strafford County the wells come out 5.9 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.

Strafford County against the rest of New Hampshire

Among the 10 New Hampshire counties with data, Strafford County is the softest. Across the whole country it is harder than 5% of counties.

Hardest: Rockingham County at 6 gpg. Closest to Strafford County: Carroll County (1.7), Merrimack County (3.1), Coos County (3.4).