How hard is the water in Sussex County, NJ?
12.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Sussex County, NJ is 210 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 12.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 158 samples at 104 sites between 1990 and 2023, drawn from groundwater wells, which is what most taps and private wells in the county draw on.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 8 and 17.2 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 12.3 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 Sussex 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 0.7 to 31.7 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Sussex County was 11.6 mg/L and the hardest 543 mg/L, a 47-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 17.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 8 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 12.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 5.5 gpg
158 groundwater samples from 104 wells put the median at 210 mg/L. 1,477 surface samples from 110 sites put it at 93.9 mg/L. In Sussex County the wells come out 6.8 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 268 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $48), 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 $148 a year.
Sizing at 12.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 738 | 24,000 | 90 lb |
| 2 | 1,476 | 24,000 | 180 lb |
| 4 | 2,952 | 24,000 | 359 lb |
| 6 | 4,428 | 32,000 | 539 lb |
Sussex County against the rest of New Jersey
Among the 21 New Jersey counties with data, Sussex County is number 6 of 21 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 59% of counties.
Softest in New Jersey: Ocean County at 0.8 gpg. Hardest: Hudson County at 17.2 gpg. Closest to Sussex County: Warren County (12.6), Union County (13.7), Somerset County (8.9).