How hard is the water in Taylor County, FL?
11.1 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Taylor County, FL is 189 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.1 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 29 samples at 17 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 7.9 and 15.4 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 11.1 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 Taylor 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 0.9 to 66.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Taylor County was 16 mg/L and the hardest 1,130 mg/L, a 71-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 7.9 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 11.1 gpg, rivers and lakes 7.9 gpg
29 groundwater samples from 17 wells put the median at 189.4 mg/L. 313 surface samples from 31 sites put it at 136 mg/L. In Taylor County the wells come out 3.2 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 242 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $43), 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 $143 a year.
Sizing at 11.1 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 666 | 24,000 | 81 lb |
| 2 | 1,332 | 24,000 | 162 lb |
| 4 | 2,664 | 24,000 | 324 lb |
| 6 | 3,996 | 32,000 | 486 lb |
Taylor County against the rest of Florida
Among the 67 Florida counties with data, Taylor County is number 29 of 67 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 55% of counties.
Softest in Florida: Washington County at 0.3 gpg. Hardest: Sarasota County at 32.2 gpg. Closest to Taylor County: Suwannee County (11.3), Alachua County (10.8), Citrus County (10.5).