How hard is the water in Van Buren County, IA?

15.5 grains per gallon

A softener will pay its way here.

The median hardness measured in Van Buren County, IA is 266 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 15.5 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 218 samples at 1 sites between 2009 and 2023, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.

How much it varies here

Half the sites came in between 15.5 and 15.5 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 15.5 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.

From 15.5 to 15.5 gpg

The softest single sample on record in Van Buren County was 265.5 mg/L and the hardest 265.5 mg/L, a 1-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 15.5 gpg.

What a softener would cost to run

For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 339 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $61), 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 $161 a year.

Sizing at 15.5 gpg

Van Buren County against the rest of Iowa

Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Van Buren County is number 77 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 71% of counties.

Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Van Buren County: Adams County (15.8), Delaware County (15.8), Linn County (15.8).