How hard is the water in Suwannee County, FL?
11.3 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Suwannee County, FL is 193 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.3 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 306 samples at 85 sites between 1990 and 2017, 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 9.5 and 12.9 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 11.3 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 Suwannee 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 1.4 to 20.1 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Suwannee County was 23.5 mg/L and the hardest 343.3 mg/L, a 15-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.9 gpg and the bottom quarter below 9.5 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 11.3 gpg, rivers and lakes 5.6 gpg
306 groundwater samples from 85 wells put the median at 193 mg/L. 207 surface samples from 33 sites put it at 95.5 mg/L. In Suwannee County the wells come out 5.7 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 246 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $44), 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 $144 a year.
Sizing at 11.3 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 678 | 24,000 | 82 lb |
| 2 | 1,356 | 24,000 | 165 lb |
| 4 | 2,712 | 24,000 | 330 lb |
| 6 | 4,068 | 32,000 | 495 lb |
Suwannee County against the rest of Florida
Among the 67 Florida counties with data, Suwannee County is number 28 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 56% of counties.
Softest in Florida: Washington County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Sarasota County at 32.2 gpg. Closest to Suwannee County: Taylor County (11.1), Alachua County (10.8), Citrus County (10.5).