How hard is the water in Teton County, WY?
8.5 grains per gallon
A softener is worth it here.
The median hardness measured in Teton County, WY is 146 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 8.5 gpg. That is hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 421 samples at 121 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 5.4 and 12.3 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 8.5 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 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 0.2 to 52.8 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Teton County was 2.8 mg/L and the hardest 904 mg/L, a 323-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 12.3 gpg and the bottom quarter below 5.4 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 8.5 gpg, rivers and lakes 4.2 gpg
421 groundwater samples from 121 wells put the median at 146 mg/L. 334 surface samples from 48 sites put it at 72.1 mg/L. In Teton County the wells come out 4.3 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 186 lb of salt a year (5 bags of 40 lb, about $34), 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 $134 a year.
Sizing at 8.5 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 510 | 24,000 | 62 lb |
| 2 | 1,020 | 24,000 | 124 lb |
| 4 | 2,040 | 24,000 | 248 lb |
| 6 | 3,060 | 24,000 | 372 lb |
Teton County against the rest of Wyoming
Among the 23 Wyoming counties with data, Teton County is number 20 of 23 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 45% of counties.
Softest in Wyoming: Park County at 1.4 gpg. Hardest: Natrona County at 124.4 gpg. Closest to Teton County: Laramie County (8.7), Campbell County (8.9), Washakie County (7.9).