How hard is the water in Wabash County, IL?
19.9 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Wabash County, IL is 340 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19.9 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 1 samples at 1 sites between 1991 and 1991, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 19.9 and 19.9 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 19.9 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.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 32,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 434 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $78), 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 $178 a year.
Sizing at 19.9 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,194 | 24,000 | 145 lb |
| 2 | 2,388 | 24,000 | 291 lb |
| 4 | 4,776 | 40,000 | 581 lb |
| 6 | 7,164 | 64,000 | 872 lb |
Wabash County against the rest of Illinois
Among the 102 Illinois counties with data, Wabash County is number 30 of 102 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 84% of counties.
Softest in Illinois: Pope County at 4.3 gpg. Hardest: Cook County at 34.8 gpg. Closest to Wabash County: Macon County (19.8), Tazewell County (19.9), Peoria County (19.8).