How hard is the water in Summers County, WV?
5.5 grains per gallon
Optional: a softener helps, but plenty of homes skip it.
The median hardness measured in Summers County, WV is 94 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 5.5 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 8 samples at 8 sites between 1997 and 2011, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 4.1 and 14.8 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: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 5.5 gpg this is your call. Look for white film on glasses and crust on the shower head: if you see little of either, you can live without one. If you do want one, a 24,000-grain unit is enough, so ask for that size rather than a bigger one. Because Summers County straddles a decision line, check your own tap with a $10 test strip before you spend anything.
More on when a softener is not worth it.
From 2.4 to 32.6 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Summers County was 41.5 mg/L and the hardest 558 mg/L, a 13-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 14.8 gpg and the bottom quarter below 4.1 gpg.
Wells 11.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 4.5 gpg
4 groundwater samples from 4 wells put the median at 199 mg/L. 4 surface samples from 4 sites put it at 77.4 mg/L. In Summers County the wells come out 7.1 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 119 lb of salt a year (3 bags of 40 lb, about $21), 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 $121 a year.
Sizing at 5.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 330 | 24,000 | 40 lb |
| 2 | 660 | 24,000 | 80 lb |
| 4 | 1,320 | 24,000 | 161 lb |
| 6 | 1,980 | 24,000 | 241 lb |
Summers County against the rest of West Virginia
Among the 54 West Virginia counties with data, Summers County is number 35 of 54 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 33% of counties.
Softest in West Virginia: Calhoun County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Jefferson County at 20.4 gpg. Closest to Summers County: Hardy County (5.5), Mercer County (5.5), Logan County (5.4).