How hard is the water in Trousdale County, TN?
11.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Trousdale County, TN is 199 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 11.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 3 samples at 3 sites between 2004 and 2004, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 10.8 and 12 gpg. The whole middle of that range gives the same answer, so a test of your own tap is unlikely to change it. Confidence in the county figure: low (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 11.6 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 254 lb of salt a year (7 bags of 40 lb, about $46), 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 $146 a year.
Sizing at 11.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 696 | 24,000 | 85 lb |
| 2 | 1,392 | 24,000 | 169 lb |
| 4 | 2,784 | 24,000 | 339 lb |
| 6 | 4,176 | 32,000 | 508 lb |
Trousdale County against the rest of Tennessee
Among the 95 Tennessee counties with data, Trousdale County is number 18 of 95 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 57% of counties.
Softest in Tennessee: Fayette County at 0.5 gpg. Hardest: Fentress County at 42.9 gpg. Closest to Trousdale County: Union County (11.7), Rutherford County (11.8), Robertson County (11.4).