How hard is the water in Teton County, ID?
10.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Teton County, ID is 186 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 10.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 77 samples at 18 sites between 1990 and 2011, 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 8.8 and 13 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 10.9 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 Teton 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 2.3 to 18.5 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Teton County was 38.6 mg/L and the hardest 317 mg/L, an 8-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 13 gpg and the bottom quarter below 8.8 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 238 lb of salt a year (6 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 10.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 654 | 24,000 | 80 lb |
| 2 | 1,308 | 24,000 | 159 lb |
| 4 | 2,616 | 24,000 | 318 lb |
| 6 | 3,924 | 32,000 | 477 lb |
Teton County against the rest of Idaho
Among the 44 Idaho counties with data, Teton County is number 16 of 44 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 54% of counties.
Softest in Idaho: Valley County at 1.3 gpg. Hardest: Caribou County at 23 gpg. Closest to Teton County: Canyon County (10.7), Jefferson County (11.1), Payette County (11.3).