How hard is the water in Teller County, CO?
7 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Teller County, CO is 120 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 7 gpg. That is moderately hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 743 samples at 71 sites between 1991 and 2026, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 2.7 and 12.4 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: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 7 gpg a softener is worth getting, mainly to protect the water heater and cut soap use. Get at least two quotes, ask each installer what grain capacity they are fitting, and check it against the sizing table below. Because Teller 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 0.6 to 78.9 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Teller County was 10 mg/L and the hardest 1,350 mg/L, a 135-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 2.7 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 16.2 gpg, rivers and lakes 6.9 gpg
2 groundwater samples from 2 wells put the median at 276.5 mg/L. 740 surface samples from 68 sites put it at 118 mg/L. In Teller County the wells come out 9.3 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 153 lb of salt a year (4 bags of 40 lb, about $28), 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 $128 a year.
Sizing at 7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 420 | 24,000 | 51 lb |
| 2 | 840 | 24,000 | 102 lb |
| 4 | 1,680 | 24,000 | 204 lb |
| 6 | 2,520 | 24,000 | 307 lb |
Teller County against the rest of Colorado
Among the 63 Colorado counties with data, Teller County is number 46 of 63 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 39% of counties.
Softest in Colorado: Larimer County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Mesa County at 143.7 gpg. Closest to Teller County: Elbert County (7), Dolores County (6.7), Douglas County (6.5).